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Citation Management Software: Mendeley

Mendeley Desktop

Mendeley Desktop is no longer available to download but users that downloaded the program prior to Sept. 1, 2022 can still use the program. 

Mendeley Word Plug-in

  • Compatible with Word and LibreOffice
  • Compatible with:
    • MacOS: Microsoft Word 2016.
    • Windows: Microsoft 2010, 2013 and 2016
  • Download the plug-in from the Tools menu in Mendeley Desktop

Journal Abbreviations: Mendeley Word Plug-in supports journal abbreviations in citation styles.  If your citation style requires a journal abbreviation Mendeley should automatically add the abbreviation if the journal abbreviation is listed in the journal abbreviation list located under the View menu.  Go to View, Citation Style, Journal Abbreviation to display or edit the journal abbreviation list.  

 

Mendeley Update:

Alterating appearance of title words

To alter the appearance of a word in the title field, use HTML tags.

italics: <i> </i>

subscript: <sub> </sub>

superscript: <sup> </sup>

boldface : <b> </b>

Example:  <i>Escherichia coli</i> will show up as Escherichia coli in the formatted citation. 

 Note:  Add the tags after you have finished editing all of the other details.  There seems to be a bug in Mendeley that erases the HTML tags if you  make changes to the details page after adding HTML tags. 

 

Mendeley Reference Manager

Mendeley Reference Manager is a free reference manager, pdf organizer and academic social network.  Using Mendeley, you can extract metadata from your PDFs which will allow you to index and organize your collection for easy searching and citing. Mendeley is a desktop application but also has an online component. To use the desktop application you will need to download the software onto your computer in order to get started. Mendeley discontinued their mobile apps in March 2021. 

Mendeley Reference Manager is the new version of Mendeley. Mendeley Desktop is the original version but is no longer available for download. Mendeley Reference Manager does not have all of the features that were available in the desktop version at this time. Mendeley Reference Manager desktop and web versions are identical in look and functionality.

Download Mendeley Reference Manager

Mendeley Reference Manager Help 

Cite and Write

You can use Mendeley Cite to add in-text citations and references in your papers within Word and Libre Office. 

Mendeley Cite

  • Compatible with Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Word 2016 and above, Microsoft Word app for iPad
  • Can be added into Microsoft Office 365 by going to Insert, Add-ins

Removing Mendeley Field Codes

After you have inserted your citations into your paper you may want to remove the Mendeley field codes from your document before submitting a paper to be published or before your share your paper with someone else who might be using a different citation manager. This feature is only available if you are using the Mendeley Word plug-in (not Mendeley Cite).

To remove the Mendeley field codes: 

  • Click on Export, then choose Without Mendeley fields using the Mendeley Word plug-in. 
  • Save your document with a new name.

Important : Once you have removed the field codes, you cannot edit your citations and bibliography. Always keep a copy or your document with the field codes so that you can update references if required. 

Screenshot of Mendeley Export option in Word

 

Using Mendeley with LaTeX and BibTeX

1.  Enable BibTeX synching

Go to Mendeley Desktop, Tools, Options and then click on the BibTeX tab.  Select "Enable BibTeX syncing".  Select one of the three options available.  If you select "Create one BibTeX file per collection" this will generate a BibTeX file for each folder in your Mendeley library. 

If you selected "Create one BibTeX file per collection", go to Mendeley Desktop and create a folder where you will store all the references pertaining to your paper.  Any articles added to a folder are automatically synchronized and changes are reflected in the .bib file with the same name as the folders you created. 

2. To create your bibliography in your LaTeX file, enter two commands:

\bibliography{yourfilename} where yourfilename refers to the name of the .bib file you exported from Mendeley. This command generates the bibliography.

4.  To insert an in-text citation, enter this command:

\cite{__} where __ is the citation key assigned (in the .bib file) to the source you want to cite.  Citation keys are automatically generated by Mendeley in the format [AuthorYear].

Another way to add in-text citations is to select the item you wish to cite in the centre pane of your Mendeley desktop library, right-click and select "copy as", then "LaTex citation command" (which corresponds to ctrl+K), and paste the information into your LaTex document.

Subject Guide

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Marie Speare
Contact:
Sciences and Technology Library
(204) 290-4266 (mobile)