Mendeley: Citation Management

Citation managers, like Mendeley, EndNote, RefWorks, and Zotero, help you to gather all your sources and citations into your own mini-database. Mendeley does the same, but has multiple products/interfaces for you to choose from. Mendely Reference Manager, Mendeley Cite, Mendeley Desktop, and Web Importer are all options from the Mendeley website. The Mendeley Reference Manager page (https://www.mendeley.com/reference-management/reference-manager)  is shown below, but all options will be in the website header.

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If you set up an online Mendeley account, you will automatically have the online version of Mendeley Reference Manager to store your Library; however, your Library works best when connected with other products for use offline, or for use with a word processor.

You have two options for offline use.

• Mendeley Desktop is a robust system for offline use with a similar layout to EndNote. Papers are created with either Mendeley Cite or a Mendeley toolbar/menu bar that installs into your Microsoft Word References menu with a plug-in.  While Mendeley Desktop has a lot of functionality, it is more complex. Since 2020, it looks like Mendeley is marketing the new downloadable Reference Manager program as easier, more user-friendly, and an eventual replacement to Mendeley Desktop.
• Mendeley Reference Manager is more streamlined offline citation manager. The interface is similar to the online version, so it's not like learning two programs. Most items are organized or added to the library using drag-and-drop.

• Mendeley Cite loads into your Microsoft Word, and opens to the right of your document to help you insert in-text citations. You can select and add citation styles. Once you've added in-text citations, you can select "More v" to add the bibliography citations.

• Mendeley Web Importer is a browser add-on that helps import web pages and internet articles with PDFs into Reference Manager. It is not meant to be used on its own.

At right you can see how it makes a brief citation for the webpage the person is viewing. They can then check the box and click Add to put it in the library (My Library).

You must be signed into your Mendeley online account for this to work. Your account user icon and email address will appear in the bottom left.

You can switch to the library using Library on the bottom right. There are also a couple PDF settings available from the three dot section, as well as links to help pages.