Mendeley is a free and excellent resource to manage references for your research article. With Mendeley, you can do a variety of functions that will make research publication easier, especially when conducting a literature review. The first item on your Mendeley to-do list is curating your Mendeley library. Any research articles or other references you want to use in your article should be added to the library. You can drag and drop them into the open desktop application from your desktop or files folder. Sometimes, you will add duplicate documents to your library. Under ‘Tools,’ click ‘Check for Duplicates.’ You can merge duplicate documents. Select all duplicate documents and in the upper right corner, click on merge. From there, Mendeley will check the fields to verify information; click on ‘Confirm Merge’ to complete the process.
In order to use it with Microsoft Word, install the plugin by clicking on ‘Tools’ and then ‘Install MS Word Plugin’ when Mendeley is open. Click ‘OK’ and then launch Microsoft Word.
With your resources and Microsoft Word plugin installed, you can generate citations and bibliographies. In Microsoft Word, click on ‘Add-Ins’ in the menu bar; there should be a Mendeley toolbar there. To add a citation, place your cursor where you would like the citation to be added, usually at the end of sentences. Then, click on ‘Insert Citation’ from the Mendeley toolbar. The button is all the way to the left. A window will pop up where you can search your Mendeley library. Select your reference, and choose to add another citation or click ‘OK,’ which then adds the reference. You can also go to your library by clicking on ‘Go to Mendeley’ and select the reference from there. You need to click ‘Send Citation to Word Processor’ for it to be put into Microsoft Word.
To create a bibliography, place your cursor where you would like your bibliography. Then click on ‘Insert Bibliography.’ Mendeley automatically creates it for you, based on the sources you’ve cited in your article. To change citation style, highlight the bibliography and click the dropdown menu, and select the style you want to use.
Finally, you can create and use groups to your advantage. On the left under the Groups tab, click ‘Create Group,’ and fill out the fields. Private groups allows you to share references and documents, but public and open groups only allow you to share references. All groups have an activity feed, a documents tab, and a members tab. You can add documents and members as you wish. Groups are excellent for research projects and reading lists.
