Mendeley Overview
Mendeley is a comprehensive reference management tool designed to assist researchers, academics, and students in organizing, annotating, and citing their research materials efficiently. Here is an overview of what Mendeley does and its key features:
What Mendeley Does
Mendeley is a free online and desktop reference management application that helps users collect, organize, and annotate research papers, as well as generate citations and bibliographies. It serves as a central hub for managing references, collaborating with peers, and discovering new research.
Key Features
Reference Management
- Mendeley allows users to import references from various sources, including PDFs, web pages, and other reference management tools like EndNote. It can automatically extract metadata from PDF files, and users can manually add a variety of materials.
- The platform supports multiple ways to import and create references, including an online import bookmark that works with virtually any browser, drag-and-drop files or folders, and auto-add files through watched folders.
Organization and Annotation
- Mendeley offers unique options for organizing and annotating PDFs. Users can rename PDFs by author, journal title, year, and more, and organize them into multiple folders. The application allows for setting preferences to automatically rename and save PDFs from a watched folder into an organized PDF library.
- Users can open PDFs within Mendeley to save and search highlights and sticky note-like annotations. Additional features include adding tags, keywords, or searching the full text of most PDFs.
Collaboration
- Mendeley facilitates collaboration through its group feature, where users can create or join groups to share items through a separate communal library. This allows researchers to connect with others who have similar interests and share research papers.
Integration and Citation
- Mendeley integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, and BibTeX, enabling users to insert citations into new documents, including in-text citations, endnotes, and footnotes. It supports over 1,000 citation styles, including many journal-specific styles.
Sync and Accessibility
- The application allows users to sync their libraries across multiple devices through their Mendeley web-based account. This ensures that the web library is identical to the Mendeley Reference Manager desktop application, providing a consistent reading, annotation, and note-taking platform.
- Users can access their papers from anywhere online and read papers on the go using iPhone or iPad apps, as well as an Android app.
Academic Networking
- Mendeley functions as an academic social network, enabling users to connect with other scholars, discover research through Mendeley’s extensive citation library, and build a professional presence with their Mendeley profile. Users can collect statistics on downloads, citations, and more.
Storage and Additional Features
- Mendeley provides free online library storage for up to 1 GB, with options to upgrade for additional storage. It also includes features like tracking reader counts and predicting citation impact, as well as integrating with services like Mendeley Feed and Mendeley Profile for additional functionalities.
Conclusion
In summary, Mendeley is a robust tool that combines reference management, collaboration, and academic networking, making it an essential resource for researchers and scholars to manage and share their research efficiently.