Mendeley is a reference manager, academic collaboration network and crowd sourced database with a unique layer of social information research. Mendeley Desktop is available on Mac, Windows and Linux. Mendeley Web functions on all major browsers. Mobile versions of Mendeley are available for Ipad, Iphone and Android devices.

1. Join the Mendeley Academic Collaboration Network

Create an account and start interacting with over 4 million like-minded researchers.  

2. Import Your Reference Libraries from other Reference Managers such as Endnote and RefWorks

Download the Mendeley Migration Guide from this page to get started.

3. Join one of thousands of Public Groups or start your own Public Group.

Visit Mendeley’s group directory to browse existing groups or create your own using our dedicated guide to public groups.

4. Create a Private Group and collaborate with colleagues by reading and annotating together.

Find out more in our dedicated guide to private groups.

5. Discover Readership Statistics about the paper you are reading.

Browse Mendeley’s crowd-sourced research catalog of millions of papers

6. Showcase your publication history.

Add your personal publications to your Mendeley profile using Mendeley Desktop, or by visiting your profile page.

7. Choose from one of 8000+ citation styles or create your own!

Use the CSL Editor to explore and modify existing styles. Automatically download journal styles from Elsevier’s Author Guides.

8. Drag and drop PDFs automatically extract metadata about research papers.

Add new entries to your library in just a few seconds. Verify the extracted metadata manually, or automatically using a document identifier lookup.

9. Enable the File Organizer to bring order to your stored file.

Mendeley saves your references in the cloud, but you can also opt to download local copies and automatically rename the PDFs using a naming scheme you specify.

10. Mendeley Desktop is available on Mac, Windows and Linux. Mendeley Web functions on all major browsers.

Add Files

You can add files to Mendeley by:

  • Dragging and dropping a pdf into Mendeley
  • You can also add files by selecting file and then clicking add files or folder. 
  • Another way to add files is by selecting file and then clicking “watch folder” to choose a folder to put on watch. Mendeley Desktop will now automatically add files that are added to that folder.
     

Export references directly from other Elsevier products such as Science Direct or Scopus to Mendeley by:

  • When reading an article click the export button then choose “Save to Mendeley”

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Web Importer

Install the Mendeley Web Importer — Install the Web Importer into your favorite web browser to import references and documents academic databases.


Save articles to your Mendeley Library as you browse.

Import references from other systems

Import your Endnote, Refworks or Zotero library to Mendeley

          

Read & Annotate PDFs

You can edit PDFs that have been added to your Mendeley Library. You can do this by double clicking to open the file in a seperate tab within Mendeley Desktop. You now have the option to:

  • Highlight text in multiple colors
  • Add sticky notes to specific locations
  • Make document-widevnotes
  • Search within Text

Manage Your References

Mendeley Desktop is a reference manager that allows you manage, read, share, annotate and cite your research papers. 

You can download Mendeley Desktop here.

You can also manage your references in the Mendeley Web Library, which allows you to access the items in your Mendeley library from any web browser. You can achieve many of the core Mendeley features (such as uploading new references, reading papers, highlighting and annotating) from any device with internet access, without the need to install any software.

Make changes to your Mendeley Library on the web by clicking on the “Library” tab.

Note: Remember to sync in Mendeley Desktop to make sure your changes are active everywhere you access Mendeley.

Take a Tour of Mendeley Desktop

 

Install Word plug-in

To install the MS Word plug in:

When installed, the plugin will appear as below on Microsoft Windows:

Generate Citations in Word

Note: There is a slight difference with MS Word on Mac as the Cite-O-Matic will appear as its own toolbar.

Choose Citation Style

Click View → Citation Styles → More Styles to search for citation styles on Mendeley Desktop. 

Citation Style Editor

Start editing your own citation styles with the open source Citation Style Editor. To get started we recommend this tutorial.

Groups

There are three types of groups in Mendeley. 

Public Groups

Join one of over 100,000 public groups to discuss the latest research in your field, stir debate, add content and promote your own work. Or even create your own public group.

          

To search for public groups on Mendeley: Login to Mendeley Web then click the groups tab and enter a topic of interest into the search bar to find groups related to that topic.

Private Groups

Follow Leading Researchers

Identify collaboration partners with Mendeley. Search the people directory and follow interesting people.

            

Readership Statistics

Look on the bottom left on each paper page to get know a little more about who is using the paper. 

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A Beginner’s Guide to Mendeley