Mendeley quick start guide

UCL Library Services, Gower St., London WC1E 6BT

 020 7679 7793
E-mail: [email protected]
Web www.ucl.ac.uk/library/

Mendeley allows you to collect, manage, share and use references you find
in the course of your research. It can be used with Word to add citations and
produce a reference list within a document. Mendeley has a web-based
element that can be used with any Internet browser; however you need to use the desktop element to use the Cite
While You Write function (using it with Word). Mendeley is freely available and is available on Desktop@UCL.

Mendeley also has an app for iOS and Android devices, so you can access your library on-the-go and even read PDF
documents that you have in your library offline.

Mendeley’s strengths include:

 Web-based version which is simple to use combined with a desktop version that gives you more features
 Ability to share references with other Mendeley users, either completely openly or as part of a closed group
 Ability to store full text PDFs within your library, and to annotate them
 Ability to create bibliographies and ‘cite while you write’

1. Get going with Mendeley!

This is a brief introduction to some of the functions of Mendeley. You can view full instructions and download Mendeley
from: www.mendeley.com/

Task 1: Create your own Mendeley account

Go to www.mendeley.com and click on Create a free account. If it prompts you to download the software select
cancel if using Desktop@UCL. Once you have set up an account you can simply Sign in to use Mendeley web. You
can click on the Feed tab, where you will see a Newsfeed. This will contain updates from people you have as
contacts or groups of which you are a member.

To view your references in

your library in Mendeley
web, click on the Library
tab

Your library will open in a

new browser window or
tab

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 2. Adding references to your Library

Using the Web Importer to ‘capture’ references

One of the great features of web-based bibliographic software is being able to quickly ‘grab’ the reference you’re looking
at online in a couple of clicks by adding a bookmarklet to your browser’s favourites bar. When using Mendeley within
Desktop@UCL, there is a version of Firefox with the Mendeley Web Importer preinstalled. If it isn’t displaying or you’re
on your own PC, you will need to install it. To do this, firstly ensure that your favourites bar is visible.

Then, to add the bookmarklet, simply click on the Install Web Importer link from your Mendeley homepage, or at the
bottom of any page within Mendeley, and follow the on screen instructions.

When you have found a reference online and you wish to add it to your Mendeley library, just click on the bookmarklet.

NB: You can try to import data from all sorts of sites, but some sites will not work or the metadata might vary in
completeness. Go to www.mendeley.com/import/ for a list of sites supported by Mendeley.

Task 2: Add references to your Library

If it isn’t already there, begin by adding the Web Importer to your choice of browser (instructions above).

Things to try:
 Go to some sources of journal articles or books that you regularly use for your research and use the Importer
to ‘capture’ some references into Mendeley. Examples of sources you might like to try include Google
Scholar / Google Books; Medline or Embase via OvidSP; Web of Science or Scopus; Amazon or WorldCat
(for books)
Things to think about:
 Look at the full record you have imported. Is the record complete?
 If it has imported full text links, where do these take you to?
 Are there any other types of resource you might want to include in your library? A web page for example?

Manually adding references

You can add details of references manually by clicking on the Add button (top Right of My Library).

Adding a reference from Mendeley’s research catalog

When a Mendeley user adds a reference to their library, the reference is then included in Mendeley’s online research
catalog. Any Mendeley user can then find the reference and add it to their library. You can identify references within the
catalog that are relevant to you by clicking on the magnifying glass symbol (top right), and searching or browsing for
papers or groups of interest.

Task 3: Searching Mendeley and adding references

Things to try:
 Searching for an article in Mendeley’s research catalog – To open the search box, click on the magnifying
glass symbol (top right) and try searching for a paper on a topic of your choice. Add some references to your
library.
 Searching for groups– Click on the Groups tab and try searching for groups with an interest in a particular
topic. Add some of the group’s references to your library.
Things to think about:
 In some cases you may have the option to add the PDF of a paper to your library. What issues might there
be in having this feature available and sharing PDFs?
 From a search result for an individual paper, can you link through to the library of the person who added the
article to see what else is in their library?
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 3. Sharing references and groups
Web based reference management software means researchers can easily share libraries for a joint project. This is
usually achieved by setting up a group within the program and then inviting colleagues to join. In Mendeley you can start
your own groups or join existing groups.

Create a group by
going to the ‘Groups’
tab and clicking on
‘create new group.’

You can create three levels of groups:

 Private – create a private group allowing you to share full text PDFs and
notes.
 Invite only – this group is publically available to view, but only invited
members can join and share references. You cannot share full-text PDF files
 Public – anyone can join and share

NB. With a free account you can only create one private or invite only group, with a maximum of 3 members. You
can however, have as many Public groups as you like. Note that once you’ve made a group, you cannot change the
level of group from Private to Public, and vice versa.

Mendeley Desktop
To install Mendeley Desktop on your own computer or laptop, go to: www.mendeley.com.
Click on the download button at the bottom right of the screen and follow the instructions.
You can download Mendeley to a wide range of operating systems.

Synchronising your library

When you first go into Mendeley desktop it will
automatically synchronise with the Web
version and add any new references you have
added. If you use the Web version whilst the
desktop version is open, you can tell it to
synchronise by clicking on the Sync icon.

4. Adding references to your desktop library

Manually adding references

You can add details of references manually by clicking on the File menu and then
Add entry manually.

Adding a reference from Mendeley’s research catalog

Use the ‘Literature Search’ option to search for articles in Mendeley’s research catalog. Click on a reference to view full
details in the right hand panel. From here you can link to the research catalog on the Web, or click on Save Reference
to add it to your library.
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Direct export from online databases
It is possible to export multiple references directly into Mendeley from some online bibliographic databases. This is very
useful if you are working with large numbers of search results.

Database Instructions
OvidSP databases  Select the references you wish to export and click on Export
(eg. Medline, Embase,  In the Export To drop-down menu select RIS
PsycINFO)  Select the fields you wish to include and click on Export Citations

On a personal computer/laptop:
 Choose open and select Mendeley Desktop as the application with which to open the file

On Desktop@UCL direct export isn’t possible, but you can do the following:
 Save the file (remember the file name for the next step – it should save in your downloads
folder).
 In Mendeley Desktop go to File > Import > RIS and navigate to the correct RIS file to
import the references into your library.
Scopus  Select the references you wish to export and click on Export
 Select Save to Mendeley. Your references will be imported into your online Mendeley
library. You will need to synchronise your library to see the references in Mendeley
Desktop.
Web of Science Core  Ensure you are in Web of Science Core Collection (the other Web of Science databases
Collection cannot be directly exported into Mendeley).
 Select the references you wish to export.
 From the drop down list at the top of your search results, change the default export option
from Save to Endnote online, to Save to Other File Formats.
 Select the fields you wish to include, change the File Format to BibTeX and click Send.
 Follow the Desktop@UCL instructions as per the OvidSP database instructions above
(choosing BibTeX rather than RIS)

Task 4: Exporting references

Things to try:
 Try exporting references from OvidSP databases or Scopus into Mendeley.
 What happens if you import a duplicate record into your library? (the same record twice) Hint: Look at the
total number of references in your library.

Adding references from another reference management package

The desktop version of Mendeley allows you to import files saved from EndNote, Reference Manager, Zotero or BibTeX.
To export your references from the other package in the appropriate format, from within Mendeley go to the File menu,
then Import and select the appropriate option.

Adding PDF documents

If you have PDFs saved which you want to add to the library, Mendeley Desktop can create a bibliographic record from
the PDF. There are three ways to add the PDFs to your library:

1. Drag and drop - Open up the folder where you have saved your PDFs and display it so you can see your
Mendeley Desktop library behind it (if necessary click on the Restore Down button in the top right of the screen
so that it doesn’t fill the whole screen). Click on one of the PDFs and drag it into the references pane of your
library.
2. Add files – Click on the Add Files button to the top left of the screen and navigate to the folder where the PDF
is stored. Select a PDF and click on Open.
3. Watched folder – Mendeley Desktop will automatically import all files that you save to a particular folder on
your computer. To set this up, go to the File menu and select Watch folder
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NB. Bibliographic details may not always import correctly. If Mendeley is uncertain about the details of an article it will
add the article to the Needs Review collection. When you view this article you have the choice to confirm the details are
correct (you can manually edit them first) or search for the article details in Google Scholar (you need to ensure the
correct title is entered in the title field), or other databases (enter the DOI or PubMed ID in the appropriate field under
‘Catalog IDs’ and click on the look-up tool).

Tips:
 You can highlight text in a document or add a note.
 To make the PDFs available to view in Mendeley Web you will need to Sync your library.
Mendeley is set up by default to sync attachments. You can see available options by clicking on the Edit
Settings button directly above the list of documents.

Task 5: Adding PDF documents

Things to try:
 Try downloading some PDF documents from the Web to your desktop and then try adding them to your
Mendeley library. Try out the different methods for getting a PDF into Mendeley.
 Try annotating a PDF, or highlighting some of the text.

Things to think about:

 Which method do you prefer for adding PDFs to your Mendeley library?
 Did Mendeley manage to find the correct details to create a record in your library?

5. Tagging and organising references in folders

Tagging is a popular way of adding labels to items – this helps describe the content but could also be used to identify
the source or intended purpose of particular items (e.g. ‘Web of Science’ or ‘Prof. Young’s assignment’)
You can add descriptive tags to records you’ve added to your library from within the Desktop version of Mendeley by
editing the Tags field in the record (Details tab). You can add tags in the same way in the web version of the library too.

To search your library for articles with a particular tag, simply choose to
Filter by My Tags in the left hand menu bar, and select the appropriate tag.

Another way to organise references is to put them into Folders, rather like organising your
files in My Computer or your emails.

You can ‘drag and drop’ references from ‘all documents’ into a folde r. The reference will
also remain in ‘all documents’ – if you remove a reference from a folder, the reference can
still be found under ‘all documents.’

You can build multiple levels of folders in a hierarchical structure.

Task 6: Organising references

Things to try:
 Create a folder and some sub folders, move some articles into your sub folders.
 Add a couple of descriptive tags to records you’ve added to your Mendeley library (Hint: Multiple tags can be
entered separated by a semi-colon. Select multiple references (Ctrl or Shift key) to tag more than one with
the same tag )
 Search your library for articles with a particular tag

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 Things to think about:
 When you view ‘All Documents’ can you tell from looking at a reference which folder it’s in?
 If an item is in a sub folder, does it appear within the folder above it in the hierarchy?
How can you:
 make references a ‘favourite’ and view your favourites?
 indicate you have read an article?
 view references by the date in which you added them to your library?
 put your references in any other order?

Removing duplicates
To keep your references organised, it’s important to ensure you have removed any duplicate references. If metadata
(the details of the reference) are exactly the same, Mendeley should merge the records. However, if some references
make it into your library have minor differences, Mendeley will not automatically merge them. For these cases, you can
use the Mendeley Desktop deduplication tool.

To use the tool, begin by selecting ‘All Documents’ (towards the top of the left hand panel). Click on the Tools menu
and select Check for duplicates. Sets of duplicates will then be shown. Each set shows what your duplicate
documents will look like once merged. You can double click a set to expand it and view each duplicate document
individually. Using the checkboxes next to the document details in the right-hand panel you can select the details that
you would like to keep from each of the documents. Click merge to keep one merged entry in your library containing the
complete document details.

6. Citing references and creating a bibliography

You can use Mendeley to insert references into a Word document, generate a bibliography at the end of your document
and format it in the citation style of your choice. When you install Mendeley Desktop on your computer a Mendeley
Cite-O-Matic toolbar appears within the References tab in Word (2007, 2010 or 2013). If they are not there, go to the
Tools menu in Mendeley desktop to install the MS Word plugin. On a Desktop@UCL computer you need to use a
special version of Word which is available at Programs > Mendeley.

1. Place your cursor where you want

your citation to appear in your Word
document and click on Insert Citation

2. A search box appears. Search for

a reference in your Mendeley
database, or click Go To Mendeley
to browse your Desktop Library for
references. Select the reference
you’d like to cite, and select Cite.

3. Place your cursor at

the end of your
document and click on Select a reference style of
Insert Bibliography to your choice. If it’s not in the
create a bibliography. list click on More Styles…
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Editing citations
In some situations you may want to edit a citation you’ve already added, either to correct a reference or to add more
detail - such as a specific page number. To do this, begin by clicking on an existing citation – it will be highlighted in
grey.

The ‘insert citation’

button will change to
read ‘Insert or Edit
Citation’

When this button is pressed the Citation Editor will

open. Click on the existing reference to edit the citation
and then click OK to return to your document.

Task 7: Cite references and creating a bibliography

Things to try:
 Try inserting some references from your Mendeley desktop library into a Word document.
 Try creating a bibliography at the end of your document.
 Try changing the output style from an author/date style, eg. Harvard, to a numeric style, eg. Vancouver.

Things to think about:

 What could you do if the references aren’t displaying exactly as you wish?

Finishing up
Before submitting your paper, you will need to remove the fields of code that Mendeley use to connect your cited
references to your Mendeley Library*. As well as a requirement for submission, this also allows you to make small edits
to your references in Word if required (useful if your output style meant a reference wasn’t displaying as required).

To save a copy without Mendeley fieldcodes,

click on Export from within the Mendeley Cite-
o-matic, and select Without Mendeley Fields

*NB. This process is not reversible so make sure you save the version without the field codes as a new document.
Keep a copy of your original document with the field codes in case you need to go back and make further edits.

7. Mendeley on the go
There is a Mendeley (PDF Reader) app for iPhone / iPad / iPod touch, as well as Mendeley for Android devices
(available from Google Play) which allow you to access your library from anywhere, including reading and annotating
PDFs offline.

8. Further information for Mendeley

 http://www.mendeley.com Mendeley website
 http://support.mendeley.com Guidance and FAQs on using Mendeley
 http://blog.mendeley.com Mendeley blog – useful for information and updates
 https://twitter.com/MendeleySupport Mendeley Support (Twitter) useful for service updates
AY/SP/SK Feb 16