It’s Day #17 of the Arden Library Appvent Calendar and today we have some helpful hints to share about using Mendeley as a referencing organiser.
Mendeley is bibliographic tool used by researchers – there are x3 main elements of Mendeley that will best help you to categorise and keep track of your references:
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The Mendeley Reference Manager is the central hub of the system – this is where your references are kept and organised. You can download the reference manager here.
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The Mendeley Web Importer scrubs webpages for bibliographic data and sends it to your reference manager. It sits in your Chrome browser, and you can download it here.
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Mendeley Cite is a widget that sits in Microsoft Word. It can generate references in different styles. You can download it here.
To get started with Mendeley for your references, you can then follow these steps:
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Step 1: Use the Web Importer to collect data from relevant web pages;
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Step 2: Use the Reference Manager to sort and organise these records;
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Step 3: use the Cite function to generate references based on these records.
Mendeley works best when you treat it as a unified digital bookshelf – just like a real bookshelf, you need a system to find the texts you want! We therefore recommend you create a new collection for each of your assessments, using the “New Collection” option in the Reference Manager.
And just a last couple of top tips to remember while you get started with Mendeley!
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Use the ‘edit reference’ button on the Web Importer to make sure the information is correctly filed – and…
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Always check your References against the Arden Style Guides! Mendeley’s references are only as good as the information they draw upon, so if you do use Mendeley to help you generate references, always check them against the referencing guide on your Subject Guide before submitting your work.
We have this guidance in PDF form available here, if you want to keep it to hand as you get started with downloading and using Mendeley. Our lovely team of Academic Skills Tutors also run regular workshops on Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism, which you can find out more about and book onto here.
Happy referencing!