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Mendeley: Adding References

a guide to using Mendeley, a free reference manager and academic social network that can help you organize your research, collaborate with others online, and discover the latest research.

Build Your LIbrary

Import references using a variety of methods:

  • Drag and drop PDFs from your computer
  • Import files from your computer
  • Manually create an entry

Import articles from the Internet using the new Mendeley Web Importer. It detects article identifiers on the page you are viewing and automatically retrieves metadata and PDF full texts (where available) for you to add to your library. Mendeley Web Importer is available for Google Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge.

 

Get Mendeley Web Importer: www.mendeley.com/reference-management/web-importer

Adding Citations from PubMed to Mendeley

1. Install Web Importer on the browser of your choice. This will then appear as an Import to Mendeley button in the toolbar or bookmarks list you choose for it. While installing the Web Importer, take a moment to adjust browser popup settings, too, as directed. It is easier to work with the Import documents to Mendeley list if it appears as a new popup window over the PubMed results rather than replacing them in the old window.

2. Do your PubMed search and inspect the results to decide which references you want. Mendeley will disregard any checkmarks you add to PubMed, so isolate your desired references as follows:

  • To download a single reference, click on its title to display it alone. Then click on the Import to Mendeley button in your toolbar.
  • To download a continuous list of references, change PubMed's Display Settings to show as many of the references as possible before clicking on Import to Mendeley. Repeat for successive pages of search results if needed.
  • To download selected references, check them off and add them to the PubMed Clipboard. Display the Clipboard, then click on Import to Mendeley.

3. In My Library in Mendeley, click on Recently Added to display the new PubMed references.

Syncing with Zotero and CiteULike

Mendeley is fully integrated with Zotero and CiteULike. If you already use either of these two browser-based applications to manage your references, you can set up Mendeley to continuously import any documents you add to Zotero or CiteULike, saving you time and effort. This synchronization allows you to manage all of your bibliographic data in one place.