ABSTRACT:This work provides a short survey of the studies carried out on benzonitrile and its derivatives, with special attention on a spectroscopic point of view. The importance and main applications of these molecules are also briefly indicated. For an accurate assignment of their vibrational spectra, the scaling procedures for the wave numbers are described. For this purpose, the performance of semiempirical, ab initio, and density functional methods, with different basis sets, is determined. A "resume" of the main scaling factors to be used in the calculated wave numbers is shown. The results obtained for several benzene derivatives, and in particular for four benzonitriles, are analyzed.