Preview of CAS SciFinder Release
December 22, 2025 (Build 25-11)
Personalized CAS SciFinder
Option to customize focus area
A new workflow improvement allows users to choose a focus area (research or IP) and customize their CAS SciFinder experience to support that focus.
Users will be greeted with an option to set a focus:
Research Focus prioritizes Advanced Search, Search CAS Lexicon, and Retrosynthetic Analysis features on the home page. Reference result facets are prioritized with document type, substance roles, publication year, and language appearing at the top of the facet panel.
Reaction result set facets are prioritized with substance role, reagent, yield, and number of steps appearing at the top of the facet panel.
IP Focus prioritizes Prior Art Discovery, Markush Search, Advanced Search, and Retrosynthetic Analysis features on the home page.
Patent office, legal status, and Classification codes filters are prioritized in the facet panel.
Users can change their focus area at any time by updating their settings.
IP Connections Enhancements
Filter and sort patent family tables
Reviewing patent families is easier than ever in CAS SciFinder with new options to filter and sort patent family tables. Tables can be filtered by several parameters: Patent Office; Language; Application Number; Patent Status
Patent family tables can be sorted by several parameters: Patent office; Language; Publication date; Application number; Application date; Patent status; Patent status date
When a filter is applied, the filter icon is filled in. When a sort is applied, a yellow indicator is presented to show the primary sort, secondary sort, etc. When a sort is applied to the table, this sort is saved as a preference and applied to patent family tables going forward for ease of use.
Elevate Patent Assignee Information
Patent information in CAS SciFinder is being enhanced to bring visibility to the assignee. On reference detail pages, assignee information is now displayed at the top of the page.
Combine Kind Code and Patent Number
An improvement has been made to patent information displays, bringing the patent number and kind code together. This update is present on reference detail pages and on exports.
Alerts Enhancements
IP Connections in CAS SciFinder has been enhanced to include the full patent number and the assignees in alert notifications, ensuring users get necessary information upfront.
Improved Download Options for Substances and Markush
Download options have been updated for Substances and Markush to align with new options introduced to References.
The Substance result download dialog has been enhanced to provide an XLSX option for exporting result summary data, along with controls for which data to include in the file.
Additionally, GHS Hazard Pictograms can now be included with PDG and RTF exports and SMILES data is included in SDF exports.
The Markush result download dialog has been enhanced to provide greater transparency to the data included in the downloaded file, and the option to include task history data has been introduced.
Interactive Retrosynthesis Enhancements
Improved Heteroaromatic Ring Handling
Special heteroaromatic rules are loaded and applied exclusively when a molecule is identified as containing a heteroaromatic ring. This conditional application—triggered only for heteroaromatic targets or intermediates—maintains plan generation efficiency and improved quality for these molecules.
Improved Plan Generation for Inexpensive Targets
When the commercial price of the target is identified as less than the starting material cost limit, the user is given the option to continue to generate a retrosynthetic plan, overriding the cost limit set by the user.
Concept Definitions
Users can now explore CAS Concepts to learn their definitions and synonyms, providing greater visibility into terms used in queries. On reference detail pages, icons are presented when a definition and/or synonym is available.
The definition and/or synonym(s) are presented along with an option to view more in the CAS Lexicon.
