Reference management: Mendeley

Mendeley Reference Manager 

• If you have not done so already, create a free account (NB: UU has no institutional account).
  • To avoid problems when logging in with Mendeley Desktop or Mendeley Reference Manager we advise you to create your account by using a private e-mail address and NOT your UU mail address.). If you have forgotten your password, click on 'Forgot password?' to reset.
     
• UU-students:
• Download and install Mendeley Reference Manager
• Install the Mendeley Web Importer (see above)) and, if you want to, also the Citation plugin for Word (Mendeley Cite)
• Next open Reference Manager here: mendeley.com/reference-manager
   
• UU-staff:
  See above, Mendeley is no longer available via the sofwarecenter
   
• UMCU staff:
  Via the UMCU IT helpdesk you can request permission to use EndNote. See UMCU intranet. Please note that the Mendeley Web Importer can not be downloaded within your browser on a UMCU desktop.
   
• Install, if you want to, the Mendeley Web Importer (for Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Firefox) in your browser and drag/find the button in your bookmarks/favourites. This browser extension scans your current browser screen for references to articles and picks up possible metadata and full-text PDFs to add them to your library.
• If you want to, also install the Citation plugin for Word (Mendeley Cite).

Get going:
In Mendeley Reference Manager choose under 'Collections' for 'New collection'.
Useful start page for MRM: https://www.mendeley.com/guides/mendeley-reference-manager/01.-your-mendeley-library

Tips & tricks

• If you still use Mendeley Desktop you can (for the time being) use it at the same time with Mendeley Reference Manager. If you synchronise manually in Mendeley Desktop, all changes you have made will be automatically updated in Mendeley Reference Manager. And vice versa: all changes you have made in Mendeley Reference Manager will be automatically synchronised in the cloud and will show in Mendeley Desktop after you have carried out a manual synchronisation there.
• On your telephone: download the free app for iOS or Android from your app store

Option 1: from the source itself

If you find an article online, you save the title data with the browser extension  (Mendeley Web Importer). Preferably from the web page of the article itself, then you take along most information.

Option 2. From a ris file

 Do you want all refererences found in a search engine in Mendeley or do you switch to another reference manager than Mendeley?

1. Export the references from the search engine or reference manager as a ris-file.
2. Import the references in Mendeley  (add references > import library)

Please visit the  website of Mendeley for more options.

Supplement/improve data

If you want to change the details of a reference, click on the relevant title and then on the field to be changed under 'Info'.

Add PDFs

Mendeley searches for PDFs of references in your collection. You will then see a Get PDF button on the info tab. The PDFs are not automatically added to your collection, this only happens after you have clicked on the button and can only be done per reference.

You can also add files yourself. On the same info tab, you'll find the option Added by me: files.

Create collections.

https://www.mendeley.com/guides/mendeley-reference-manager/03.-searching-and-organizing-references 

When you add a reference to a newly created folder/collection, you do not move it, but you give the reference a label. All references remain in the folder 'All References'. If you delete a folder/collection, the reference will remain available in 'All References'.

Add comments to PDFs.

Mendeley has a built-in PDF reader that allows you to annotate and highlight articles. The annotations (sticky notes) in the pdf can also be seen in Mendeley in the annotations tab.

https://www.mendeley.com/guides/mendeley-reference-manager/04.-reading-and-annotating-documents

Notebook

For each reference, you can also create a notebook in which you can make notes for a publication. You can find it in the notebook tab.

Mendeley Reference Manager
Mendeley Reference Manager automatically deduplicates references on import. MRM looks at references that are already or have been in your library (previously removed references also count). You cannot stop or influence this process.
Since Mendeley Reference Manager does not have a reliable, transparent way to deduplicate, we therefore advise against using Mendeley in research, such as for systematic reviews and meta-analyses. In that case, choose another reference manager

If you still have Mendeley Desktop you can deduplicate following the steps below:

• Select in the left column the folder you want to deduplicate, this may be the folder 'All Documents', but also a folder you created yourself
• Go to the Tools menu and select 'Check for Duplicates'
• Now you see a list of duplicates
• Click on the title you want to deduplicate to have a look at the underlying double references (select 'Details' in the right column)
• Mendeley indicates which fields of the original titles have been chosen. You may adjust this by ticking or unticking the check box next to each field
• Next click on 'Merge documents' to merge the references
• You can also select 'Not a duplicate' to keep both the references
• Repeat these steps for all your duplicates

Please note:  Also Mendeley Desktop can automatically deduplicate titles when importing them without your knowing. You cannot switch off this function. This means you might lose references without you wanting to. That is why Mendeley is NOT suitable for supporting systematic reviews.

For more information on deduplicating in Desktop see:
https://blog.mendeley.com/tag/deduplication/ 
or watch these videos:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzREf4RJ25w

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-p2XHRm-UE

Mendeley Cite

Install Mendeley Cite for Word (and Libre Office).
For more information about Mendeley Cite see the help guide, for instance about:

• how to open your Mendeley Cite
• inserting a citation in your text
• manually modifying a reference, for instance to add a page number
• creating a bibliography
• choosing or changing citation styles
• Mendeley Citation Hub

Sharing documents and collaborating with others can be done in 'private groups'.  There is no limit to the number of private group members, but as a free user you may only create a maximum of five groups with a maximum of 25 participants.

You can add the full text of your PDF to the group so that everybody works in the same document. Everyone can highlight the text or add notes.

Private groups for Mendeley Reference Manager
https://www.mendeley.com/guides/private-groups/mendeley-reference-manager/01-adding-documents-private-group

N.B.: Some manuals still give information about Public Groups and invite-only groups. However, they have been cancelled as of April 2020.

Mendeley Reference Manager. Synchronising.

Mendeley Reference Manager saves all your references in the cloud (so not locally on your computer). If you are online, synchronisation is automatic and all modifications you made are saved. Hover with your mouse cursor over the sync icon to see when the most recent synchronisation took place and click on the icon to synchronise manually.

See also: https://www.mendeley.com/guides/mendeley-reference-manager/07.-syncing

Please note! It is possible to add references manually off line in MRM. But make sure you regularly work online to synchronise with the cloud.

The offline use of Mendeley Reference Manager has some well-known problems. If you have problems, have a look here: https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/29758/supporthub/mendeley/p/16075/

Exporting

You can also export your references to a file. This file can be imported later (or in another programme).
Go to: Mendeley Desktop of: Mendeley Reference manager for instructions.

If you have questions regarding Mendeley, please contact the University Library.