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Mendeley

An introduction to Mendeley, the bibliographic citation program with a social media component.

Subject Guide

Getting Started

Getting started with Mendeley requires two main steps: signing up for a free account, then installing Mendeley on your computer. Mendeley can be downloaded for Apple Macintosh and iOS products, Microsoft (MS) Windows desktops, and Linux. Signing up for Mendeley also gives you access to the online Mendeley interface. Downloading Mendeley allows you to import and organize citations, and create bibliographies and reference lists. Accessing your Mendeley account online lets you connect with other Mendeley users and user groups.

To create your free Mendeley account, click on the "Create a Free Account" button on the homepage. Enter an email address and password. You do not have to use your American University email. Please note that the service is a freemium product that grants you a set amount of storage space (2 Gb as of November 2022). Please note that the account you created is specific to Elsevier and Mendeley.

 

Mendeley Products

Mendeley Reference Manager is available as a web-based product and as a desktop application. After creating your account, you will have instant  access to the web version. You can download the desktop application (see below). In addition to the Reference Manager, Elsevier offers two products that may be of interest and use to you in your research, Web Importer and Cite.

When installing any product, please follow the vendor instructions.

Mendeley Reference Manager - Web Version

After you create a Mendeley account, you have instant access to the web version of Reference Manager. After you log in to Mendeley, you can view the web version of your library by clicking on the “Library” link at the top of the page. You can also access the web version by clicking on the Reference Manager Web Library link.

Mendeley Reference Manager - Desktop version

The desktop version of Reference Manager is similar to the web version. If you work offline or prefer working on your computer desktop instead of in a web browser, this is the version for you. It is also required if you wish to ever transfer your references from one product to another, from EndNote or Zotero to Mendeley and vice versa. Click on the Reference Manager desktop application link to download the desktop version.

Mendeley Web Importer Browser Extension

The Web Importer extension will allow you to resources you find while you using your preferred web browser directly into your Mendeley library. It is available in Google Chrome, Microsoft (MS) Edge, and Mozilla Firefox. Click on the Web Importer link to download the extension. It will detect which browser you are using so you may download the correct one. Alternately, you can visit the appropriate app store for your preferred browser.

Mendeley Cite

Mendeley Cite is a plug-in for MS Word located in the Reference section of the ribbon. Cite allows you to generate in-text citations and reference lists from the resources saved in your Mendeley library. Click on the Cite link to download the plug-in for MS Word. Alternately, you can install the plug-in from the Microsoft app store. Please note that there is no support for Google Docs and if you use Libre as your word processing product, you will need to download Mendeley Citation.

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