Information Services at Stirling does NOT support Mendeley. However, this does not mean that you cannot use the software. This guide will help you get started and there is lots of help from Mendeley:
http://www.mendeley.com/getting-started
https://www.mendeley.com/guides
Information Services supports the RefWorks software - see our RefWorks help.
1. Create an account at www.mendeley.com: from here you can import citations, access your libraries and sync with the desktop program.
2. Download the desktop program to your computer (the program that allows you to organise references & PDFs and sync to your web account). [To download Mendeley onto your campus PC, select Mendeley in Run Advertise Programs]
3. From the Tools menu of the desktop program, download the Web Importer and install the MS Word Plugin. [To download software onto your campus PC you will first need to logon with a Local Admin Account]
Cite references and create bibliographies in MS Word and Open Office using the Mendeley word processor plug-in.
To install: download Mendeley Desktop and select Install MS Word Plugin from the Tools menu.
See the Generating citations video below or the Citation Plugin guide for more information.
See a list of available citation styles.
If your style isn't listed see this Mendely blog entry: Make your citations look exactly how they should with Mendeley’s visual citation style editor
In RefWorks select the references you wish to export, click the References menu and choose Export. Select Bibliographic Software as the export format and export your references. Save the file.
In the Mendeley Desktop, Go to File > Add Files ... and select the file you exported from RefWorks. Mendeley should do the rest automatically.
Further information is available from Mendeley
Mendeley is a free reference manager and academic social network with web-based, desktop and mobile versions. You can sync your library between these different versions and across different computers. It is compatible with Word, OpenOffice, and BibTex.
Mendeley is social: you can create a profile, follow other researchers, create a network of people doing similar research. Discover the articles and journals that are being read in your field. Create collections of papers, make them public and share them with an RSS feed.
You can highlight and annotate your PDFs and share them with others. Colleagues can then also annotate the same document, with each author displaying as a different color.
With a free account you get 2GB of web space and can create up to 5 private groups with up to 10 users per private group. You can pay to upgrade to a premium plan if you need more space or groups.
See also ways to add documents to Mendeley on the Mendeley blog.
There are number of different ways to add reference details to Mendeley:
1. Drag & Drop a PDF: Just drag a PDF from your desktop or folders into your library. Mendeley then extracts the metadata (author, title, journal name, etc.) to create a library record. If the program senses there may be errors, the record is placed in a 'Needs Review' folder.
2. Add directly from the Mendeley Research Catalogue: You can search and import references with one click - see a short video at Youtube.
3. Related Research: Articles similar to the ones in your library are pulled from Mendeley's research database of articles and can be a good way to find more literature on a topic.
3. Web Importer: lets you import references and documents from a wide range of library databases. In addition to this it lets you save a snapshot of any webpage you are viewing.
4. Import many references at once and from library databases: To import many references without checking each reference (as when using the Web Importer), there is another way. From the database you are using (such as Web of Science or Scopus) export your references and choose the BibTex or RIS format option. Save the file to your desktop, then import the file in Mendeley.
5. Import using document ID lookup: ID numbers (DOI, PubMed [PMID] or ArXiv ID) are another way to import articles and to complete the metadata for your references. Within Mendeley simple enter the ID number, click the magnifying glass, and the data are automatically pulled in.
6. Import existing libraries from other reference management software (RefWorks, EndNote / BibTeX / RIS databases). For example - see box below on importing records from RefWorks.
7. Add references manually.
Where does Mendeley Store PDFs
When you install Mendeley it creates a downloads folder for your PDFs and files at: PCs - C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Mendeley Ltd\Mendeley Desktop\Downloaded; Macs - Cmd+Shift+D; click Open Data Directory to access the folder.
Note: If you work between different machines you must synchronise to your EndNote Web account each time you add a file. If you do not regularly sync on each of your machines you will not have access to all your PDFs.
Changing the Storage Location
Create a new folder in the new location (for example, in OneDrive or your desktop).
You can create a researcher profile, upload your papers and publicise your research. You can then find readership statistics for your papers. See the video about Creating your Researcher Profile.
To create your profile
In Mendeley Desktop:
1. Enter your own articles
2. Select the articles
3. Drag and Drop them into the My Publications Folder
4. Confirm that you authored the publications and are able to make them available on Mendeley Web
5. If you are unsure about whether you can include the full-text of your papers, please check at www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo
In Mendeley Web:
1. On the right hand side go to My Account and Edit My Profile
2. Add a Picture, then your Publications, Grants and Awards, Biographical Information and your CV