Book excerpt: Comprehensive Organic Functional Group Transformations II (COFGT-II) will provide the first point of entry to the literature for all scientists interested in chemical transformations. Presenting the vast subject of organic synthesis in terms of the introduction and interconversion of all known functional groups, COFGT-II provides a unique information source documenting all methods of efficiently performing a particular transformation. Organised by the functional group formed, COFGT-II consists of 144 specialist reviews, written by leading scientists who evaluate and summarise the methods available for each functional group transformation. Also available online via ScienceDirect – featuring extensive browsing, searching, and internal cross-referencing between articles in the work, plus dynamic linking to journal articles and abstract databases, making navigation flexible and easy. For more information, pricing options and availability visit www.info.sciencedirect.com. By systematically treating each functional group in turn the work also identifies what is not known, thus pointing the way to new research areas Follows the systematic layout of the successful 1995 COFGT reference work, based on the arrangement and bonding of hetero-atoms around a central carbon atom The work will save researchers valuable time in their research as each chapter is written by experts who have critically read and reviewed the literature and presented the best methods of forming every known functional group