Hospital library in Karlstad, September 2012, Revised by Linköping’s University library Monday, July 06, 2015

Guide to Mendeley
www.mendeley.com

Introduction
Mendeley is a combined reference management program and a social network for researchers. The
idea is that on the one hand, to collect, sort, and use references, on the other hand to show and
share own research and references, create groups of old and new colleagues. You can also follow
open membership groups within research of interest.

The program is compatible with PC, Mac and Linux and a free version is available. It can be used with
the browsers Safari, Chrome, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. You can also download the
program to a tablet computer or a smartphone. You can upgrade the free version to a premium
version (subscription fee required, not supported by Linköping University) that contains additional
features and capabilities.

A Mendeley account is personal and from this account the users download a desktop version (M-
Desktop) to their computers. The users also has simultaneously access to their reference library
available on the Web (M-Web). Mendeley has an update feature that will automatically notify you of
new software updates.

Create an account & install Mendeley

On your computer

1. To sign up for an account please visit www.mendeley.com and register yourself.

2. When you have an account you can download and install the M-Desktop version to your
computer. When the installation is finished the program is available on your computer and
are ready for use.

3. To save web pages, articles and books as references to your Mendeley account you must
install a web importer. Open M-Desktop, go to the Tools menu and select Install web
importer.

4. Drag the button to your Bookmarks Bar, or right click on it to save it as a

bookmark.

5. To insert references into your text processor open M-Desktop go to the Tools menu and
select Install <Your text processor> Plugin (Mendeley currently supports MS Word and
LibreOffice).
Hospital library in Karlstad, September 2012, Revised by Linköping’s University library Monday, July 06, 2015

At Linköpings University library

1. If you don´t have an account please visit www.mendeley.com and register yourself.

2. M-Desktop is installed on the computers at Linköping University library.

3. The web importer and the plugin for MS Word must be installed every time you use M-
Desktop on a library computer.

4. Open the Internet Explorer browser and move the mouse to the symbols
rightclick and select Fältet Favoriter.

5. You need to open the text processor MS Word.

6. Then log in to M-Desktop, go to the Tools menu and select Install web importer.

7. A Mendeley web page should know open in Internet Explorer. Drag the

button to your Bookmarks Bar, or right click on it to save it as a

bookmark. You can now save web pages, articles and books as references to your Mendeley
account.

8. To insert references into your text processor open M-Desktop go to the Tools menu and
select Install MS Word Plugin.

9. M-Desktop will ask you if you want to close down MS Word, select yes, then the plugin will
be installed.

10. Reopen MS Word, a message will be displayed in Word with the headline SECURITY
WARNING click on Enable content. You can now use the program in word.

Import references and PDF-files to your Mendeley library

Save to Mendeley

1. To import references from Google Scholar and LiU library databases (e.g. Scopus, Web of
Science), first search up the references you are interested in. Next you click on the title in the
result list to the reference you want to import. Click on Save to Mendeley bookmark, the
reference will be saved in your Mendeley library.

2. To import book references please visit www.worldcat.org or libris.kb.se. Search for the
relevant literature and click on the title. After that click on the Save to Mendeley bookmark,
the reference will be saved in your Mendeley library.

3. References to webpages are saved in a similar way, search after a relevant webpage and
then enter the site. Next, click on the Save to Mendeley bookmark, the reference will be
saved in your Mendeley library.
Hospital library in Karlstad, September 2012, Revised by Linköping’s University library Monday, July 06, 2015

Import & add PDF-files

4. To include PDF files as an attachment to the references. Instead of following the instructions
above (1.), save the relevant PDF files in a folder on your computer. Open M-Desktop, select
the folder and drag it into your M-Desktop library. When a + becomes visible drop the folder,
and both the file and the reference ends up in your Mendeley library.

5. If you already have a reference in your Mendeley library and want to add the PDF file to it,
select the reference in your M-Desktop library and scroll down the right-field until you see
the heading Files: click the Add File to add the document.

Information is missing in imported reference

PLEASE NOTE! Sometimes you will need to edit some of the fields in the reference to get the right
information in the right place. This is most common with websites. It may e.g. be the author, the title
or the publisher fields that need to be updated with correct information. Therefore always check that
the references in your Mendeley library contains correct data.

Import from databases to Mendeley

Another way to try to get references with correct information is to import the reference to Mendeley
in .RIS format.

UniSearch at Linköping University Library

If you work from home, you need to adjust some settings first on your computer, see the guide below.

 Do a search in UniSearch, select a relevant source and click on the title.

 Click on the icon Export in right field.

 Direct Export option in the RIS format is the default, click Save.

 Reference is opened in Mendeley.

To import references from databases in .ris format, see the guide Import references to Mendeley
available on our Mendeley page.

Add references manually

 Add references manually. In M-Desktop choose File → Add entry manually and add the
relevant information and save the reference.

Mendeley web & storage limit

When you save your references with the Save to Mendeley bookmark these are first saved in M-Web.
To get the references into M Desktop simply click on the Sync bottom in M Desktop. Your M-Web
library also works as a back-up. You can save up to 2GB, then you have to pay for a premium version
of the program. Therefore, you do not need to have M-Desktop installed on a computer to save
references into your library.
Hospital library in Karlstad, September 2012, Revised by Linköping’s University library Monday, July 06, 2015

Insert references in MS Word (LibreOffice)

1. You can find the link to Mendeley in a box under the references tab in MS Word (2010,
2013).

2. Place the cursor in the text where you want the reference and click on the Insert Citation
function in the Mendeley box. You can choose to search for the reference in your library or
click Go to Mendeley and find it in you M-desktop library, select one or multiple references
and click on the Cite button in Mendeley menu .

3. Choose the reference style in the Style drop down list that you wish to use. If you don´t find a
relevant style choose More in the bottom of the list. More reference styles options will then
be displayed.

4. To create a reference list place the cursor at the end of the text and click on Insert
Bibliography.

Add reference style missing in Style in Mendeley from within MS Word

1. To add a reference style (e.g. Oxford) missing in the Style drop down list in the Mendeley box
do the following.

2. In the References tab in MS Word choose Style → More Styles in the Mendeley box.

3. A new window opens, select the tab Get More Styles and then enter the name of the
reference style (e.g. Oxford) in the available search box.

4. A number of versions of the reference is now (usually) available on the screen. To install,
select one of the versions (e.g. Oxford - The University of New South Wales) and click Install.

5. The reference style is now installed, to use it, choose Style → More Styles and select the
newly installed reference style. Then you can insert references.

6. If you use Oxford or another footnote based reference style see the instructions under the
following heading.
Hospital library in Karlstad, September 2012, Revised by Linköping’s University library Monday, July 06, 2015

Insert footnotes

1. If you want to use a reference style (e.g. Oxford) where the text references are given in the
form of footnotes, you need to add footnotes with the footnote function in MS Word and
then insert references in the footnotes with the Mendeley Insert Citation function.

2. For example, in the References tab in MS Word select Oxford from the scroll bar Style in the
Mendeley box.

3. Place the cursor in the text where you want your reference and click on Insert Footnote (in
the References tab).

4. Then click on Insert Citation. Select one or more references and click on Cite.

5. Repeat the procedure for each reference you want to use in your text.

Edit an existing reference

1. To edit an existing reference, for example, insert a page reference or hide the author, put the
mouse pointer in the reference, the text in the function Insert Citation then changes to Edit
Citation, choose Edit Citation.

2. A window opens up with the current reference, select it.

3. A new window opens where you have the opportunity to edit the reference, finish by clicking
OK.

Choose language and include URL in your reference list

1. You can select to display your references in a certain language and choose to include the URL
in the reference list of all reference types.

2. Choose Style → More Styles, a new window opens, at the bottom there are two headers
Include URLs ... and Citations and Bibliography language.

3. Select the options that are relevant for you (e.g. for All Document Types and Swedish (English
is the default language)) and finish by clicking on Done.
Hospital library in Karlstad, September 2012, Revised by Linköping’s University library Monday, July 06, 2015

Remove the connection to Mendeley in your text

1. When you have completed your text, make a copy and remove the link to Mendeley before
sending the document to your teacher/publisher. This also applies when you want to make
some final minor adjustments in your references, because if the connection to Mendeley
remains, your changes will be lost.

2. Choose Export → Without Mendeley Fields to remove the connection. You will save a copy of
the document without the connection, so to edit, open the saved file.

3. NOTE! You cannot re-create the connection, so always keep the document with the
connection to Mendeley, if you later want to add/edit references to it.

Mendeley support
Support is provided through the program's website even for the free version. Its website also
contains extensive information, including instructional videos, troubleshooting tips, and a list of
known issues.

 Getting Started with Mendeley

 Mendeley FAQ

We at Linköping University library offer introduction and support to Mendeley for employees and
students. Book an introduction or contact us via referenshantering@bibl.liu.se.