Getting Started with Mendeley
Mendeley is reference management software which runs on Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. To
use Mendeley you will need to create a free Mendeley account.
Creating an account
Signing up for a Mendeley account gives you 2 GB of online storage space which you can use to sync
your references between multiple computers.
 Open the Mendeley homepage (http://www.mendeley.com). Click on the Create a free account
button.
 Follow the on screen instructions to complete the registration process.
 If Mendeley Desktop is not installed on your computer, when prompted, download
Mendeley Desktop and follow the installation instructions.
 When Mendeley loads for the first time you will need to enter the account details for
your new Mendeley account.
Looking at the Mendeley Desktop
 The screen is divided into three main sections
o Left – A list of folders used to sort and organise references.
o Centre – References which you add to Mendeley will appear in the centre panel of the
screen. You can re-order the references by author, title or year as you prefer.
o Right – Full bibliographic information about a selected reference will be shown in the right
hand panel. Each field can be clicked on and edited as needed.
 At the top of the screen are a number of icons and menus that control the main functions of
Mendeley. After you’ve activated Mendeley Desktop, use the Tools menu to –
o Install MS Word Plugin – This will add additional controls in Microsoft Word which allow
insertion of citation and bibliographies
o Install Web Importer – This will install a new bookmark in your default web browser which
allows you to use Mendeley to take reference information from databases and websites
Adding references manually
 Select All Documents from the list of folders on the left of the screen.
 From the file menu, select Add Entry Manually
 In the box that appears, select the type of item (book, article etc)
 Enter some bibliographic information into the required fields. You can make the information up for
this exercise.
 Click save when you’ve finished.
 Notice that the reference you have added now appears in the ‘All documents’ folder.
Adding references from a database
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Getting Started with Mendeley
 Begin by logging into your new Mendeley account online. Visit http://www.mendeley.com and click
the sign-in link at the top right of the screen and enter your account details.
 Open SOLO (http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk) and search for PubMed. Click View Online. PubMed is a
biomedical database, but a similar procedure is followed with different databases.
 Search for “flu treatment”.
 Click the Import to Mendeley button on the web-browser.
 A box will appear which summarises the details of the references on the results list. Click the ‘+’
symbols next to a couple of the records. These will be added to your Mendeley library.
 Click the sync button on the Mendeley desktop toolbar. The reference you just added to your
library will now be downloaded to the Desktop Mendeley application.
Other resources you can try are 
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Google Scholar
ArXiv
WorldCat
Web of Science
If Mendeley does not have an importer for the database you are using, it will simply record a
‘snapshot’ of the webpage. To take records from these databases you will need to export the
references you want as a text file and then import this into Mendeley
Importing references from text files (.ris, .bib etc)
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Visit the SOLO catalogue and search for a book of your choice.
When you have found a record, click the Details tab.
On the right of the details tab is a drop down menu called Send to.
Use this menu to save a citation manager (RIS) file.
You will be asked to choose a character format, accept the default UTF-8
coding.
Save the .ris text file to your computer.
Start the Mendeley desktop application.
Click on the add file button
In the file browser window that opens find and select the .ris file you just created.
Click the open button. The reference(s) in your file will be added to your library.
Creating a folder
 Open the Mendeley Desktop application. On the left of the application you will see a selection
of default folders such as the My publications folder. You can add additional folders.
 To add a new folder to Mendeley, click the new folder button on the Mendeley toolbar
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 A new folder will appear under the default folders. You can type in any name you wish for this
folder.
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Getting Started with Mendeley
 You can click and drag a reference from the middle column into your newly created folder.
Editing a reference
 Within the Mendeley Desktop application, click on one of the references in your library.
 You will see all the details of the reference laid out in the far right panel of the Mendeley
application.
 Click on any of the details to edit the contents.
In-text citation (in MS Word)
 Open up MS Word and create a new document.
 Type a few words into the blank document and position your cursor where you wish to insert
the citation.
 Select the references toolbar in MS Word. You will see a set of buttons labelled Mendeley CiteO-Matic.
 Click the Insert Citation button.
 A search box will appear that will allow you to find the citation you want to insert
or open Mendeley to browse for the reference.
 Click the OK button to insert the citation into your document.
Create a bibliography in Word
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Add a couple more references to your document.
Place your cursor at the bottom of your MS Word document.
Click the Insert Bibliography button in the Mendeley Cite-O-Matic.
You can change the citation style using the Style drop down menu.
Logging out of Mendeley
It is important to logout of Mendeley if you are using a shared computer.
 Logout of Mendeley by visiting http://www.mendeley.com and click the My Account menu
at the top right of the screen and select the logout option.
 Open Mendeley Desktop. Click the sync button on the toolbar to make sure that your
Mendeley library is saved.
 Next click the Help menu and choose the Reset Mendeley Desktop option. Follow the on
screen instructions that appear to clear your account from Mendeley Desktop
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Getting Started with Mendeley
Highlighted Mendeley Features
Mendeley Papers
Mendeley Papers is a special bibliographic database which has been built by Mendeley from papers
and articles added to Mendeley user’s accounts. Mendeley Papers provides an easy way to add both
references and open access PDF articles to your Mendeley library.
 Open the Mendeley Papers catalogue at http://www.mendeley.com/research-papers/
 Enter some search terms into the search box to find papers on a topic of interest to you.
 Click either the save reference to library or save pdf to library underneath each record you
want to add to your own Mendeley library.
 Clicking on a paper’s title will open a page providing details of the papers abstract and also
related papers in Mendeley which may be of interest to you.
Adding a PDF to Mendeley
If you have previously saved a PDF version of a research article but not the accompanying bibliographic
data, Mendeley can automatically find the bibliographic data and attach it to the PDF file.
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Open the Mendeley Desktop application.
Locate the PDF file you wish to add to Mendeley.
Drag and drop the PDF file into the central panel of the Mendeley Desktop App.
Mendeley will try and locate the accompanying bibliographic data for the article online and add
it automatically to your library.
 You should review the bibliographic data collected by Mendeley as it is not always correct and
may require editing.
Social Networking on Mendeley
Mendeley has various social networking functions which make it possible to find other users and
groups who share your research interests. You can find the social networking features through the
Mendeley website.
 Groups –search for and join public groups on Mendeley who share bibliographies in particular
areas of research. You can use this feature to see what papers fellow researchers are reading.
 People – search Mendeley for particular individuals and add them to your contacts. This will
allow you to share bibliographies.
 Your profile – you can add additional information to your Mendeley profile such as your CV and
research interests in order that other people using Mendeley with similar interests can connect
with you. It is up to you how much information you include on your profile and you can use
Mendeley’s privacy settings to further restrict access to personal information.
Useful Links
Mendeley getting started guide – http://www.mendeley.com/getting-started/
Mendeley FAQs – http://www.mendeley.com/faq/
Reference Management LibGuide - http://ox.libguides.com/reference-management
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