Mendeley is a free reference management and academic social networking program. It allows users to organize PDF documents and citations, share references with other Mendeley users, and insert citations and bibliographies into Microsoft Word documents. Mendeley Desktop can be installed on multiple computers and synchronized with the user's Mendeley Web account to access references from any computer. While less full-featured than Endnote or Reference Manager, Mendeley provides basic reference management and social networking capabilities for academic users.

1. Friends of the Children of Great Ormond Street Library
E-mail: library@ich.ucl.ac.uk
Last updated Nov 2011 www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/library
Mendeley
Mendeley is freely available and combines Mendeley Desktop, a program you can download and
install on your computer for free, with Mendeley Web, a web-based version of your library that can
be synchronised with your Desktop library and used as a social citation sharing tool. You can easily
insert references from your Mendeley library into a Microsoft Word document as citations and
bibliography. You can install Mendeley Desktop on as many different computers as you like.
Mendeley does not have the full functionality of either Endnote or Reference Manager, which makes
it less appropriate for advanced users.
Access Mendeley
• Go to the Mendeley website www.mendeley.com
• Enter your name and e-mail address, then click on Sign up & Download
• Follow the on-screen instructions to complete your registration and install Mendeley
desktop. A Mendeley Web account will automatically be created at the same time.
Add References to Your Library
Enter a Manual Reference
• In Mendeley Desktop, click on the Add Documents drop-
down menu
• Select Add Entry Manually
• Select the type of publication you are referencing from the
Type drop-down menu
• Complete the relevant fields (note: make sure to use the
recommended format for author names. You can link to the
full article from your Mendeley library either by typing a
web address into the URL field, or by attaching a file by
clicking in the Files field)
Download References from Online Sources
• In Mendeley Desktop, click on the Tools menu
• Select Install Web Importer
• Follow the on-screen instructions to install the importer on your web browser
• If you search a database that is compatible with Mendeley, you will be able to select records
from the results screen to import into Mendeley Web. You can then open Mendeley Desktop
and click on Sync Library on the toolbar to transfer the references to Mendeley Desktop
Databases that are compatible with Mendeley include the following:
Amazon BioMedCentral Copac Ebsco
Google BookSearch Google Scholar Informaworld IngentaConnect
ISI Web of Knowledge JSTOR Lancet Journals MyOpenArchive
Nature OvidSP PLoS PubMed
SAGE ScienceDirect Scirus SpringerLink
Wikipedia Wiley Online Library WorldCat Zetoc

2. Friends of the Children of Great Ormond Street Library
E-mail: library@ich.ucl.ac.uk
Last updated Nov 2011 www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/library
Mendeley
Add References from Your Existing PDF Files
• Open Mendeley Desktop
• Drag and drop the PDF into the main screen in Mendeley Desktop
• Mendeley will locate bibliographic information for the file and add a record to your library
(Alternatively use the Add Documents drop-down menu on the Mendeley toolbar and select Add
Files to browse for PDF documents stored on your computer.)
You can store PDF documents in any folder on your computer and get them automatically imported
into Mendeley:
• Click on the Add Documents drop-down menu
• Select Watch Folder
• Select the folder containing your PDF documents
Any PDF documents added to this folder will be indexed in Mendeley automatically.
Organise the References in Your Mendeley Library
Create Folders to Group Your References
• Click on the Create Folder icon on the Mendeley Desktop toolbar
• Give the folder a name
• Add references to the folder by dragging and dropping them from the central pane on to
the new folder
• Click on the folder name to view the records in that folder
(To create a sub-folder, click on the new folder then click on the Create Folder icon.)
Annotate PDFs
Click on any reference in Mendeley Desktop that has a PDF attached. The PDF will display in the
central pane.
You can add highlights and annotations to the document. Click on Highlight Text or Add Note on the
toolbar to get started.

3. Friends of the Children of Great Ormond Street Library
E-mail: library@ich.ucl.ac.uk
Last updated Nov 2011 www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/library
Mendeley
Share Collections
Make a Collection of References Publically Available on the Web
You can create a group of references and make them public. The public collection behaves like a
feed, so you can share a list of documents with subscribed users and over the web. If you have any
full-text documents attached to your references, these will not be made public.
• Click on Create Group
• Leave Public Group selected and select from the two options
below
• Give the group a name and a description
• Click on Create Group
• Add references to your group
• Click on Sync Library to make your group visible on the web
• Go to Mendeley Web and click on the name of your group
• Click on View group details, above the list of references, to go
to the group web page. The web address of this page can be
shared with others
To search for and join public groups created by other people, go to Mendeley Web and click on the
Groups tab.
Add In-text Citations and References to Your Word Document
To add an in-text citation:
• Go to Mendeley Desktop
• From the Tools menu, select install MS Word Plugin
• Follow the on-screen instructions to install the plugin
• Open Word and click on the References tab
• Place your cursor in the Word document in the place where you wish to insert a citation
• Click on
• Type one or more keywords into the search box to find the reference that you wish to cite
(e.g. type an author’s surname, or a word from the title)
• Click on the relevant reference and then click on OK
A citation will appear in your document.
To add a bibliography to the end of your document:
• Place your cursor at the end of your Word document, in the place where you wish the
bibliography to go
• Click on

4. Friends of the Children of Great Ormond Street Library
E-mail: library@ich.ucl.ac.uk
Last updated Nov 2011 www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/library
Mendeley
To change the style of your citations and references:
• Click on the Style drop-down menu
• Select the style you wish to use (or click on More Styles)
• Click on Use this Style (or, if you selected More Styles, click on the Get More Styles tab,
select a style, then click on Install and Use)
Syncing your Mendeley Library
To see the same records in both Mendeley Desktop and your Mendeley Web account:
• Click on
Access your Mendeley Web account
Your Mendeley Web account can be accessed via www.mendeley.com
• Sign in with the e-mail and password you selected when you registered.