What is Mendeley?
Mendeley is a free platform that combines a bibliographic reference manager with an academic social network. It allows researchers, students and professionals to organize their PDFs, automatically generate appointments and collaborate with colleagues from around the world. Since its launch in 2008, it has grown to have millions of users who trust it to manage bibliographies and discover new relevant publications.
Main characteristics
Among Mendeley's most prominent functions are:
- Import and organization of PDF documents from your computer, browser or services like Dropbox and Google Drive.
- Automatic extraction of metadata (title, authors, magazine, DOI) by text recognition.
- Creation of unlimited personal libraries with customizable folders and labels.
- Generation of bibliographies and quotes in more than 7,000 styles (APA, MLA, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.) directly from the text processor by means of add-ons for Word and LibreOffice.
- Cloud synchronization that allows access to the library from any device with Internet connection.
- Academic social network where you can follow other researchers, create private or public working groups and share documents and notes.
- Recommendations for literature based on the interests and activity of the user, facilitating the discovery of new relevant articles.
How to start with Mendeley
To start using Mendeley you only need to create a free account on your website or download the desktop application available for Windows, macOS and Linux. After registration, you can:
- Install the plugin for the preferred text processor.
- Drag and drop PDFs on the Mendeley interface to automatically extract the bibliographic data.
- Organize documents in collections and assign labels that facilitate future search.
- Use the button «Shake while you write» to insert references directly into the document and generate the bibliography at the end.
- Explore the discovery section to find related articles and follow interested authors.
Advantages to other reference managers
Although there are other tools such as Zotero, EndNote and RefWorks, Mendeley offers a unique combination of features:
- Modern and easy to use interface, with a design that prioritizes PDFs visualization and comfortable reading.
- Strong integration with academic social networks, which promotes collaboration and networking.
- Free storage of up to 2 GB in the cloud, extendable by payment plans if more space is needed.
- Frequent updates and an active community that contributes plugins and improvements.
- Multiplatform compatibility, which allows you to work smoothly on desktop, web and mobile devices.
Tips to make the most of it
To optimize the use of Mendeley, consider the following good practices:
- Review and correct automatically extracted metadata, especially in less common articles or with non-standard formats.
- Use the full screen mode to read PDFs and take advantage of integrated highlighted and notation tools.
- Create private groups for equipment projects and share only the necessary documents, maintaining version control.
- Programming a regular synchronization if working on multiple teams, avoiding version conflicts.
- Take advantage of the literature recommendations by configuring the interests in the profile to receive alerts from new relevant articles.
Conclusion
Mendeley has become an essential tool for anyone working with academic literature. Its combination of reference manager, PDFs reader and academic social network provides a comprehensive solution that simplifies the organization, citation and discovery of knowledge. Whether you are starting your first research project or managing an extensive library of publications, Mendeley offers the flexibility and power to optimize your workflow and keep up to date in your field of study.
