I have used Refworks while I have worked on my PhD and loved it, so, when I was asked to attend the Mendeley training session, I did not think it could be possible to persuade me to use Mendeley instead of Refworks. But, I have to admit, after the short introductory course presented by Unisa library staff, I am going to use this reference manager and academic social network in future. Mendeley is webbased, but it also has a desktop application, available at http://mendeley.com.
Mendeley is a free reference manager, academic social network and fully-searchable library that supports academics in doing their research in one place.
Mendeley can be used to:
- generate citations and bibliography in style of choice
- cite as you write
- read and annotate PDF’s on the go
- securely store references
- access references on any device
- sort references, documents and notes in one place
- sort references by using either keywords (tags) or folders for easy access
- publicly or privately share reading lists, references or full-text articles
The group functionality allows groups of academics to:
- publicly or privately share reading lists, references or full texts
- create groups to tackle research assignments, share feedback and write papers with collaborators
The connectivity affordance allows researchers to:
- connect with colleagues, peers or classmates to follow their research outputs
- showcase published research to millions around the world
I have created a few tutorials that can be shared with all interested in upping their referencing skills.
Topics covered:
- Mendeley 01: Get started
- Mendeley 02: How to use Google scholar to import references
- Mendeley 03: How to check and complete reference fields
- Mendeley 04: How to add references manually
- Mendeley 05: How to check in reference was imported
- Mendeley 06a: How to use Mendeley for referencing (iOS)
- Mendeley 06b: How to use Mendeley for referencinng (Word users)
- Mendeley 07: Summary of affordances
- Mendeley 08: Annotate documents easily
- Mendeley 09: How to create a group in Mendeley
- Mendeley 10: How to get access to a group in Mendeley desktop
- Mendeley 11: How to get access to a group in Mendeley online
- Mendeley 12: How to use different colours for annotations
- Mendeley 13: Using Feedback to suggest changes
- Mendeley 14: Changing from EndNote to Mendeley
If you need more tutorials, or you find some of the tutorials not sufficient, please feel free to leave a message. You may also request more tutorials if needed.