mendeley literature review

• Healey Library
• Research Guides

Literature Reviews

• Researching Your Topic
• What is Mendeley?

Get Started with Mendeley

• Writing a Literature Review
• Reading List
• Citations This link opens in a new window

Mendeley is a web and desktop based application designed to help you gather, organize and cite all your references.

• Get started by creating your Mendeley account on the web, download the desktop application (Microsoft Windows, Mac, Linux) on any number of computers, and access Mendeley Manager web. Sync your Mendeley library between all your workspaces.
• Install the brand-new citation tool, Mendeley Cite  compatible with Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Word versions 2016 and above and with the Microsoft Word app for iPad ® .
• Install the Web Importer to save citations from databases and websites.​

If you are using an earlier version of Word, you can use the existing Mendeley Citation Plugin for Word available with Mendeley Desktop. The Word Plugin is compatible with Windows Word 2007, 2010, 2013; Mac Word 2011, 2016; and LibreOffice. 

A free Mendeley account provides:

• Personal Web Space with 2GB of storage space (about 2,000 to 8,300 PDFs depending on the size of the PDF).
• Shared Web Space to create private groups with a maximum of 25 people per group.

The  Mendeley Support  site is a great place to look more information on all aspects of the program.

• Mendeley Reference Manager Guide
• Mendeley Blog
• Create a  Mendeley account
• Install Mendeley Reference Manager for Desktop  on your computer
• Install the Web Importer  for your browser

• << Previous: Managing Your Sources
• Next: Zotero >>
• Last Updated: Apr 12, 2024 9:39 AM
• URL: https://umb.libguides.com/litreview

Full Tutorial: How To Use Mendeley Including The Web Importer & Mendeley Cite

By: Derek Jansen | Reviewer: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | January 2018 (Updated September 2023)

If you’re fumbling about trying to manage citations and references by hand (or using Microsoft Word’s terrible reference manager), please stop now. Here, we’ll show you how to use Mendeley Reference Manager to save a huge amount of time on referencing, while also ensuring it’s 100% correctly formatted , every time. 

What We’ll Cover

• What (exactly) is Mendeley Reference Manager?
• Registering and downloading Mendeley
• The Mendeley Library interface
• How to add resources to your Mendeley Library
• How to manage resources in Mendeley
• How to use Mendeley within Microsoft Word
• Ask your questions …

What (exactly) is Mendeley?

Let’s start by quickly addressing two important starting questions – namely, “ What is Mendeley? ” and “ Why should you even use it? ”.

Simply put, Mendeley is a fantastic free tool that makes the task of referencing a lot easier – and infinitely more accurate. Essentially, you load up the reference information into Mendeley just once, and then Mendeley makes sure that all of your in-text citations, as well as your reference list are perfectly formatted according to your university’s required referencing system – for example, APA, Harvard, etc.

In a nutshell, Mendeley takes care of the tiresome and error-prone task of managing and formatting citations and references , saving you loads of time and ensuring that it’s all done with 100% accuracy – which is near impossible if you try to do it manually. If you’re undertaking any sort of academic writing, you need to get comfy with Mendeley , pronto! This is especially true if you’re writing a longer-format piece such as a dissertation or thesis .

Downloading & Registering Mendeley

The first thing you’ll need to do is register a Mendeley account . This is free and takes just a minute to complete. You can register by visiting the Mendeley site here .

The next thing you’ll need to do is add the Mendeley Web Importer to your browser (for example, Chrome or Firefox). The web importer is a browser plugin that allows you to quickly add web-based resources to your Mendeley library. I’ll show you how to use this a little later in the video, but for now, you just need to add the web importer to your browser – you can access that here .

Last but certainly not least, you’ll need to get the Mendeley Cite plugin . This plugin is what connects Mendeley (or more specifically, all the reference data you’ll have in your Mendeley Library) with Microsoft Word , which you’ll use to write up your work. Again, this is a free plugin and you can access it here .

At this point, you might be thinking “Well, what about the desktop app?”. If you’d like to use the desktop application to manage your Mendeley library, you’re most welcome to, but we’ve found the web version to be just as good. The web version also ensures that all of your reference data are always perfectly synchronised on the cloud, so there’s no risk of synchronisation issues. All that said, there’s no problem if you want to use the desktop version – everything we cover here will still be relevant 🙂

The Mendeley Interface

Now that we have all the puzzle pieces in place, let’s look at the main interface, so that you can understand what each section does and how to get the most out of Mendeley.

The “home base” of Mendeley is what’s called the “ Library ”. You can access that here , or just click the “Library” button in the top right corner of the main Mendeley site. The Library area is where you will manage all of the reference data. On the left-hand side, you’ll see a selection of options. The first section is essentially a set of filters, providing different ways in which you can sift through your reference data. Most commonly, you’ll use the “ All references ” option, but you can also view recently added references, favourites and so on.

The next section is the collections section. Collections are essentially folders in which you can place related papers in whichever organisation system you like. For example, if your study involves analysing four key variables, you might have a collection for each variable. Or if you’re looking at an issue through different disciplinary lenses, you might have a collection for each lens. 

Continuing down, the final section is the groups section. Groups allow you to share references and collaborate with up to 25 people . This is useful, for example, if you’re working on a group research project and want to share reference info between group members.

 Moving to the top of the page, you’ll see a button labelled Notebook . The notebook is a space where you can jot down any general notes you want to make. These notes are called “Pages” in Mendeley, and it’s important to note that they’re not directly linked to any specific reference . Therefore, this is a useful place to add general thoughts that you can revisit later. If you do want to make notes that are specific to a resource , you can do that using a feature called “ annotations ”, which we’ll look at in the next section.

How To Add References To Mendeley

The first thing you’ll need to do is to add your actual reference data to Mendeley. This is the least exciting part for most students, but the good news is that Mendeley offers quite a few options in this regard.

Option 1: Adding reference data manually

Manually adding reference data is Mendeley is the slowest and most time-intensive route, but it’s useful to discuss it first so that you can see exactly what information Mendeley captures .

To add a resource manually, click the “Add new” button, followed by “Add entry manually”. As you can see, Mendeley then allows you to manually enter all the key information such as the author, date, title and so on. One thing to notice is that depending on the type of resource , the available fields within Mendeley will change . For example, if you select “Television broadcast”, the fields will be different from that of a journal article or a patent.

A useful thing to note here is that you can fast-track this process by using an “ identifier ”. For example, you can search for a DOI or Pubmed ID and it will auto-populate the info.

Option 2: Upload a PDF

The second way to add reference data to Mendeley is to upload the PDF article . Naturally, this is only useful if you have a PDF copy of the resource, and if it is a journal article. For the most part, when you upload a journal article PDF, Mendeley will be able to auto-populate the fields , which will save you the time and effort of filling it in yourself (although it’s always a good idea to double-check this automated data).

The main benefit of using this method is that it means Mendeley will include a copy of the PDF within the Mendeley interface , which makes it easy for you to access the article whenever needed. This approach will also allow you to make highlighted annotations and notes within the article itself. Of course, I’ll show you how to do this in the next section.

Option 3: Use the Mendeley Web Importer

The next way to add reference info to Mendeley is to use the Web Importer, which is the browser plugin we installed earlier. To use the Web Importer, simply visit the URL for any given resource (e.g., a news article, or a journal article within an academic database) and then click the Mendeley icon up in the top right . From there, you can easily add the resource to your library, or you can put it into a specific collection or group.

When using the Mendeley Web importer, it’s always a good idea to double-check the imported info, as this isn’t always perfect. You can do so by clicking the little pencil icon in the importer window, or by editing the information in the library at a later stage. This is particularly important when you’re using the web importer to add general webpages (i.e., non-academic resources), as there will often be some missing information that needs to be included.

Option 4: Use Mendeley’s search engine

The final option is to use Mendeley’s own search engine . Mendeley Search is similar to Google Scholar in terms of functionality, meaning that you can simply enter the name of the journal article that you want to add and then add it to your library with one click.

You can also use Mendeley Search to find relevant journal articles by entering a keyword . This is particularly useful for finding resources as Mendeley Search often allows you to get access to the full article in PDF format, which is great.

Last but not least, it’s worth noting that if you are currently using  different reference management software and want to move over to Mendeley, that’s completely doable. Just click the “Add new” button, followed by “Import Library”. Mendeley allows you to import Bibtex, Endnote and RIS files, which you should be able to extract from most mainstream reference management packages.

How Manage Your Mendeley Library

Now that we’ve added our reference info to Mendeley, let’s talk about how you can manage your library effectively. Mendeley offers a few different options to help you organise and manage all of your resources.

Mendeley Favourites

You can mark any resource as a favourite by clicking the little star next to the author’s name. By doing this, you’ll be able to shortlist your favourites by selecting the “Favorites” option on the left menu. This functionality is pretty basic, but it can be useful if you want to quickly access a small group of key articles .

Mendeley Tags

The next option, which is a little more sophisticated, is tags . Essentially, you can create as many different tags as you like and then mark up any given resource with the relevant tag (or multiple tags). Once you’ve tagged your resources, you can use the “Filter” option in the top right corner to quickly view all the articles using the respective tag. 

Mendeley Collections

Another bit of functionality to be aware of is collections . As we mentioned earlier, collections are much like folders, which means that you can use collections to group resources into certain themes , methodologies, variables, and so on.

To create a collection, just click the “New Collection” section and enter a name, and then you can just drag and drop the relevant resources into the collection. It’s worth pointing out that all of your resources will always be visible in the “All References” section, so don’t worry about not being able to remember which collection you dropped a resource into.

Mendeley Groups

Mendeley’s Groups functionality allows you to share reference information with your colleagues , which can be super useful for collaborative projects.

To make use of this, start by selecting “New Group”. From there, click the three-dot menu and select “Manage group” to add members to the group. To add references to the group, return to the “All references” section and drag and drop the relevant references into the group. Again, don’t worry about this action moving your references out of your library – any reference that you share with a group will still be accessible in your library .

Notes & Annotations

Last but not least, let’s look at the notebook function. The Mendeley’s Notebook area is a flexible space, where you can make general notes that are not specific to any given resource .

To create a note (or what Mendeleys refers to as a “page”), click the Notebook button, followed by “New Page”. Once you’ve created a note, it will “live” in your Mendeley library, but you can also export your notes as RTF files , which are text files that you can open using any Word processor. This is useful if you want to print your notes at some point or store them somewhere else.

Within the notes section, you’ll also notice an option called “ Annotations ”, which allows you to make notes about specific resources . This can be very useful for jotting down insights or key takeaways for each resource . To use annotations, just select the resource you want to make an annotation for, then click the “annotations” tab and enter your notes.

How To Use Mendeley In Word

Now that we’ve looked at how to add and manage your reference data within Mendeley, it’s time to get to the most important part – using Mendeley within your actual Word document. In this tutorial, I’m using Microsoft’s online version of Word, but the layout and process will be much the same if you’re using the desktop version.

The first thing you’ll need to do is open the Mendeley Cite plugin within Word. You can find that over in the references tab (or sometimes the “add-ins” tab). Once you’ve done that, you’ll see that you have a mini-version of your Mendeley library within Word on the right-side bar.

Next, you’ll need to set the citation style for your document , for example, APA , MLA , etc. To do this, just click on the “Citation settings” tab, and then hit “Change citation style”. You can then select whichever style your university requires. If you don’t see the required style in this list, you can search for more styles by clicking the button titled “Search for another style” down at the bottom.

Once that’s all set, you can return to the “References” section within the Mendeley tab (i.e., the default section) and get to work adding citations to your document.

To add an in-text citation, simply place your cursor where you want the citation added , and then select the relevant resource by ticking it, after which you can hit the “Insert” button. If you want to add multiple references to a citation, simply tick the relevant resources and off you go.

To create a reference list (or what Mendeley refers to as a bibliography), all you need to do is head over to the section of your document where you want to place the list and then click the three-dot menu in the Mendeley plugin, followed by “ Insert bibliography ”. Mendeley then does all the hard work for you.

As you can see, Mendeley generates a complete reference list , based on the resources you’ve cited in your document. This list is perfectly formatted according to the style you specified earlier, which saves you a huge amount of time . As long as you’ve captured the reference information correctly when you added the resource to Mendeley, you can rest assured that this reference list is 100% accurate.

The only thing you may still need to do is set the line spacing , based on your university or department’s requirements. To do this, highlight your entire reference list and select the line spacing icon in Word’s formatting menu.

Have A Question?

In this tutorial, we’ve covered the core functionality you need to know about to get the most out of Mendeley. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.

Please keep in mind that while we try to help as much as we can, we cannot provide technical support for Mendeley. If something isn’t working the way it should be, please contact Mendeley support here.

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

You Might Also Like:

19 Comments

I am impressed with Mendeley’s offering.

Awesome! Thank you! Definitely won’t be manually entering each reference anymore for my MSc thesis!

Pleasure, Gitte!

I want to download literature review Excel

Thank very much Derek . You have greatly helped me. God bless you indeed. Thanks

You’re welcome 🙂

All thanks and appreciation to you

Thank you so much for all this invaluable GradCoach info, all the articles are on point it will make our live much easier.

Thank you Derek. Information you shared was helpful.

Great explanation – thank you! Is it possible to change the referencing style at the end of write-up? If so, how does one do this. Thanks again

RE: your video: Good short & to the point. I’ve ADHD & get bored within litterally seconds if the person presenting hasn’t got on with the point. This is key to ADHD people so will recommend you to others.

RE: my question: Does Medeley allow you split the reference docs into sections for the different areas of research I’m doing eg fungi, soil, bacteria, viruses etc?

Thanks in advance

Thank you! Helped with my bachelor

Hello, could you please tell me how to generate the code for “&” in the field “Citation”. For example: the code in the field “citation” is “CITATION Haw15 \l 1029 ” for “(Hawkins, a další, 2015)”. I need the citation in the form “Hawkins & Byrne 2015”

Thanks Derek for all the coaching. It’s a huge help for the literature review I’m doing. Tried to follow the steps from your video but the literature search function is not showing on my mendeley desktop. Did I miss a step in downloading it? I was able to download the reference manager and it was fine but I am a bit stuck with the mendeley desktop? Is there a separate video that shows the steps how to download the mendeley desktop?

I followed your video, however, what version of Mendeley has a Literature search, I cant find it in the Mendeley I installed.

Good day Derek. I’m a PhD student and have just listened to your videos, which are awesome! Thank you so much. I am also a Mendeley fan. However, I find it limiting in some aspects. Do you have any knowledge about how to use Mendeley with cloud storage and also using a cloud-based “Watch folder”? Thank you in advance.

I just want to say thanks so much. I had this software recommended to me from Uni and once I had downloaded it all I didn’t understand how it worked. After your video I now totally get it and this is going to make life so much easier. So thanks again.

how to put website citation and reference

How I should recover the icons missed from the taskbar, it’s already installed. now Mendeley is not visible

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Print Friendly

Library Services

UCL LIBRARY SERVICES

• Guides and databases
• Library skills

Mendeley Desktop

Using mendeley desktop for systematic reviews.

• Mendeley applications
• Creating a Mendeley account
• Navigating Mendeley Desktop
• Synchronising Mendeley Desktop & Web
• Exporting from online resources
• Adding a reference manually
• Editing a reference
• Adding PDFs
• Adding references from another reference management package
• Searching your library
• Using Folders
• Deleting references
• Managing full text documents
• Dealing with duplicates
• Sharing references: Mendeley Groups
• Mendeley Cite-O-Matic toolbar
• Inserting citations
• Creating a bibliography
• Editing citations
• Selecting a citation style
• Journal title abbreviations
• Preparing a paper for publishing / Turnitin
• Using Mendeley with Word FAQs
• Further help

Mendeley would not usually be considered as the best choice of software for a full systematic review. Especially if your review involves downloading a large number of references, or you are planning on publishing your review, we would recommend using EndNote software for your review instead of Mendeley. It is much more transparent about which items are identified as duplicates and has much greater flexibility relating to checking and  removing duplicates . This is likely to significantly reduce the risk of accidentally removing items that are not duplicates and is more thorough when working with large sets of references.

Mendeley is only suitable for systematic reviews if you have the desktop version already downloaded, as the replacement, Mendeley Reference Manager offers only a very limited deduplication option. Mendeley Desktop is no longer available to download for new users and will only be available on UCL computers or on your own device using  Desktop@UCL Anywhere  for a limited time. 

Make sure you are aware of the reporting requirements for the methodology of your review and check that Mendeley will be suitable for providing the data  required for that before you start using Mendeley for your review. 

Below is detailed a step by step process for using Mendeley for your review.

Backing up your Mendeley library

Adding references to your library.

• Removing duplicates

Screening references

It's recommended to keep backing up your Mendeley desktop library as you add new sets of references by syncing it with the online version of Mendeley. 

• Synchronising web and desktop

For each source you search, create a folder in Mendeley where you will add these references to your library.

Export the references from each source in turn to the appropriate folder in your Mendeley library.

• Exporting references to Mendeley desktop

Make sure you record the number of references exported from each database before you import the references into Mendeley, as when you add references to your library it will start removing references it recognises as duplicate references. In practice this means while you might export 50 references from a database, there may only be 45 appearing in the folder if some are duplicates. 

It can also be useful to  tag  all references in the folders with the name of the database or other source so you can tell which database the reference was originally downloaded from. To do this, highlight all items in the folder and edit the reference that is open in the right hand pane by adding the name of the database or other source to the tag field, e.g. Medline. This will update all of the tag fields in references in that folder. 

Once you've added your references to your Mendeley library from all your sources, drag all the records from each of the individual folders into another new folder, from which you will remove duplicates. Mendeley may recognise and remove additional duplicates at this stage, so you may find the number of records in this folder does not total the number in your individual folders.

Now use Mendeley's  duplicate checking tool to find the remaining possible duplicates. Click on the folder that includes all your references for your review to do this.

Make sure that you check the duplicates thoroughly by clicking to expand the reference sets before merging them. After you have merged all the duplicates, it is recommended to do a final manual check for duplicates on the folder containing all your references, by clicking on the title column of the central pane to order them alphabetically.

If you're working with multiple reviewers to screen your references and want to use a reference management software to do so, we recommended using EndNote, following the methodology linked on our EndNote guide.

If you are planning to use reference screening software such as Rayaan or Covidence, however, it is possible to export your references from Mendeley as a RIS file, though please note this will export all references in your Mendeley library. The same methodology can be followed as for the instructions on our EndNote guide. It is also recommended to deduplicate references in Mendeley before transferring them to a screening software.

• Exporting your Mendeley library as a RIS file
• Exporting your library to screening software The same instructions for EndNote can be followed once you have exported your library as a RIS file.
• Screening references within EndNote
• << Previous: Sharing references: Mendeley Groups
• Next: Using Mendeley with MS Word >>
• Last Updated: Mar 13, 2024 1:22 PM
• URL: https://library-guides.ucl.ac.uk/mendeley-desktop

Mendeley Support Center

To post social content, you must have a display name. The page will refresh upon submission. Any pending input will be lost.

Where can I find literature search?

You can access Mendeley’s literature search when landing on Mendeley.com or via the direct link here .

If you are using the desktop version of Mendeley Reference Manager, you can access literature search by opening the 'Tools' menu on the desktop toolbar and selecting the 'Search for articles online' option.

What are the advantages of searching Mendeley Catalog on Mendeley.com rather than via the Literature Search option that was previously available in Mendeley Desktop?

• Search results show what is already in your Library.
• Add new references to your library with one click.
• Open Access articles are clearly labelled.
• Citations and Mendeley Reader count clearly displayed on the search results page.
• 3 sort options: most relevant; most recent; most cited.
• Restrict search to Open Access articles only.
• Filter results by: year; document type; journal; author.
• Find Related content from the search results page.
• View PDF from the search results page.

Was this answer helpful?

Thank you for your feedback, it will help us serve you better. If you require assistance, please scroll down and use one of the contact options to get in touch.

Help us to help you:

Thank you for your feedback!

• Why was this answer not helpful?
• It was hard to understand / follow.
• It did not answer my question.
• The solution did not work.
• There was a mistake in the answer.
• Feel free to leave any comments below: Please enter your feedback to submit this form

Related Articles:

• Mendeley Release Notes
• How do I migrate from the original Mendeley Desktop to Mendeley Reference Manager?
• Does Mendeley Cite work with Mendeley Desktop or do I need to download the new Mendeley Reference Manager?
• What are the differences between Mendeley Reference Manager Desktop and the website versions?
• How do I search for references in Mendeley Reference Manager?

For further assistance:

Systematic Reviews: Mendeley

• Record Keeping
• Developing Searches
• Deduplication
• Screening Sources
• Registration
• Data Extraction
• Useful Links
• Compiled Resources

Primary User Base

The primary users of Mendeley are professionals who have been published, lecturers in various scientific fields, researchers, librarians, and students.

Upload and Annotate

Mendeley users can upload articles from databases as well as online sources (with the use of a bookmark add-on). Yet, there are limitations to what popular sites Mendeley can upload from. It will only upload articles from supported sites. Users can also drag and drop PDFs into the citation manager. Once in Mendeley, articles can be annotated and highlighted.

Word Processor Integration

Mendeley offers a citation plug-in for Microsoft Word, LibreOffice and BibTex for the ability to cite while writing.

Installation Required?

Desktop installation is not required, but is available for Windows (7, 8.1, 10), macOS and Linux. Mendeley can be used in a browser and there are add-ons to help import articles from supported websites. There is a free mobile app for both android and apple devices. ( https://www.mendeley.com/download-desktop/ )

Collaboration Features

All Mendeley users can create groups and collaborate on research. Each plan (including the free plan) allows users to create 1 private/invite-only group with three members and up to 100 MB shared space (around 30-40 articles). Additional group plans are available for groups if more space or members are needed. ( https://guides.library.pdx.edu/c.php?g=474937&p=3249935 )

Price to Students

There are four versions of Mendeley. There is a free option available with upgrades that provide additional storage space. The free version gives users 2 GB of cloud storage. The Plus plan is recommended for students; it costs $4.99/month and allows up to 5 GB of personal library space. The Pro plan, Mendeley’s most popular plan, costs $9.99 a month and provides more storage (10 GB personal space). Unlimited storage space is available for those with the Max plan, which costs $14.99 a month. (https://www.mendeley.com/settings/upgrade/)

Access After Graduation?

Mendeley is a citation manager open for public use. So, as long as payments continue being made, Mendeley can be used. 

• << Previous: EndNote
• Next: Zotero >>
• Last Updated: Jan 19, 2023 3:10 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.byu.edu/systematicreviews

Literature Review Tips & Tools

• Tips & Examples

Get started with Mendeley

A freely-available reference manager that we currently offer support for is Mendeley.

Learn more about Mendeley - and who to contact for help - on the  Citation Managers at UMass  guide.

• Mendeley Reference Management introductory page for Mendeley
• Mendeley Guides Help guides available from Mendeley
• Mendeley Basics from University of Michigan Library

Mendeley Reference Manager has replaced Mendeley Desktop as Mendeley's primary reference manager. Currently both reference managers are available and can be installed at the same time. There will be a notice period before Mendeley Desktop is retired. 

There are four components of Mendeley that will help you to collect, organize, and cite research. Follow these steps to get started. 

• Go to mendeley.com to create an account.  This will create your Mendeley Web Library account.   
• Add Mendeley Web Importer to your browser.  This will identify the browser that you are using and is compatible for UMass Community members with Firefox, Safari, and Edge. Mendeley Web Importer cannot currently be added to Chrome because of UMass IT security settings.  
• Download Mendeley Reference Manager . This is the desktop client that will sync to your Mendeley Web Library account.   
• Install Mendeley Cite  for Word.  This will allow to import citations into your documents. 
• << Previous: Zotero
• Last Updated: Apr 2, 2024 4:46 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.umass.edu/litreviews

© 2022 University of Massachusetts Amherst • Site Policies • Accessibility

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Elsevier - PMC COVID-19 Collection

Knowledge management in the classroom using Mendeley technology

Mari aurora favero reis.

a Universidade do Contestado, Concórdia, SC 89711-330, Brazil

Jacir Favretto

Neide maria favretto, liani maria hanauer favretto, renato p. dos santos.

b Universidade Luterana do Brasil, Canoas, RS 92425-350, Brazil

Research in higher education institutions is present in all courses, and academic instruction in research methodology is vital, with educational technologies being an essential component of this process. With the Covid-19 pandemic, there were changes in teaching, learning, and in performing scientific research in undergraduate courses. Among the technologies, the Mendeley reference management tool has become increasingly helpful in these contexts. Therefore, this manuscript is an account of workshop experiences for the use of the Mendeley tool in the teaching of Research Methodology and Scientific Methodology offered in the distance education modality in undergraduate courses at the Universidade do Contestado, Brazil. After basic instruction on Mendeley, students participating in the workshops were guided to apply the tool using Bardin's content analysis technique. This technique is usually laborious and seldom involved in literature reviews by undergraduate students; Mendeley technology makes it more accessible. From experiences with the 2020 and 2021 workshops, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is suggested that the content analysis method combined with the Mendeley technology can help students present better literature reviews, especially for final graduation projects such as course completion monographs.

Introduction

The Scientific Methodology class in higher education institutions typically guides students to produce scientific articles and end-of-course monographs. A common difficulty student often have is citing and organizing the references according to the required standards. Another difficulty is finding and organizing a library for use in textual production. In both cases, the use of a reference management tool, such as Mendeley, can help students deal with their scientific productions. Researchers and students who use reference management tools to organize their work can save time for reading and writing ( Gunn, 2014 ).

Mendeley was created in 2008 by three German students, Paul Foeckler, Victor Henning, and Jan Reichelt, who were inspired by the principles of what was, at the time, the world's largest social music service “Last.fm”; they took concepts gleaned from this service and applied them to research ( Henning & Reichelt, 2008 ). Their goal was to create an open and interdisciplinary database with usage-based reputation metrics and collaborative filtering. Barbara Brynko (2013) reports that the acquisition of Mendeley in April 2013 represented a significant economic, social, and scientific change for scientific publishing company Elsevier (2013) , involving figures and evolution in the research industry.

Mendeley technology provides authors and readers with the tools Mendeley Desktop, a discontinued iOS or Android mobile version, and Mendeley Web system, all synchronized with the cloud, and a plugin that can be installed in MS Word or Libre Office systems ( Hadiningrat, 2020 ). It offers a functional, easy-to-use PDF reader with resources to highlight important sections of text and make annotations so that changes are saved to the cloud when the device is online ( Shin, 2016 ). Alternatively, when used as a social network, Mendeley technology helped share publications and increase citations, making it possible to discover job trends in a particular area of interest. The user could also contribute to the dissemination of scientific references, for greater opportunities to access scientific knowledge ( Yamakawa, Kubota, Beuren, Scalvenzi, & Miguel, 2014 ).

Web 2.0 fostered changes when listening to music, looking for jobs, communicating on social networks and locating or sharing knowledge, which also enabled significant advances in the medical and academic fields ( Zaugg, West, Tateishi, & Randall, 2011 ). In this sense, Mendeley technology has provided benefits to academic research, such as finding information, identifying partnerships for possible collaboration, disseminating the research itself, and developing a clearer understanding of which studies have had the most significant impact in a given field.

This type of technology promoted radical, rapid, and profound changes in science itself. It allowed the acquisition, manipulation, and storage of large amounts of data to facilitate the research process ( Fausto et al., 2012 ). With university students, it is possible to use Mendeley technology as a library that can be accessed on a desktop, laptop, or even a tablet ( Gunn, 2014 ). Studies show that these procedures can facilitate access to scientific material, citations, and even integration between the different subject areas of the researchers in the quotations ( Thelwall, 2018 ).

As for reading incentives, a survey of 860 Mendeley users shows that 55% of Mendeley's library users have read or intended to read at least half of the publications added to their library ( Mohammadi, Thelwall, & Kousha, 2016 ). The fact that authors and editors increasingly seek to publish scientific literature in digital format reduces printing costs and enables digital tools. A sample of publications taken at random from the Web of Science confirms that readers appear to share similar shapes across fields and can scale to a standard and universal form ( D’Angelo & Di Russo, 2019 ).

In this context, the DOI Digital Object Identifier system operated by CrossRef that allows editors to assign unique identifiers to articles and collect standardized metadata from retrieving identifiers from bibliographic data ( Pentz, 2001 ) – makes it easier to share academic, professional, and governmental publications, such as journal articles, research reports, data sets, and official publications ( Santos, 2020 ). Furthermore, it speeds up registration in the Mendeley library ( Thelwall, 2018 ) and helps to avoid problems with ethical issues, ensuring the integrity of scientific publications and copyright to researchers ( Pithan & Oliveira, 2013 ).

Undergraduates, masters' level, doctoral students, professors, librarians, and other researchers around the world use the Mendeley platform, making it part of modern culture, quality education and obtaining lifelong learning skills. ( Nagherneac & Magher, 2017 ). After the COVID-19 pandemic period, digital tools became a fundamental resource for education, as people started to carry out their activities in the home environment ( Berry, 2020 ; Zenkteler, Darchen, Mateo-Babiano, & Baffour, 2019 ). In university and graduate education, research activities previously carried out in laboratories, clinics, or in the field, in many situations switched to digital technology as the only possible way to continue research ( Joye, Moreira, & Rocha, 2020 ; Mohammadi et al., 2016 ; Nuere & de Miguel, 2020 ).

Online workshops can help students and teachers improve their skills in using Microsoft Word and Mendeley software resources in compiling final graduation projects ( Husadha et al., 2021 ; Restianingsih, Deswardani, & Pebralia, 2020 ). At our university, the teaching of Scientific Methodology was carried out using Mendeley technology in research, in a workshop format, initially to assist students in the development of their research project for the course completion monograph. In a second stage, we added Bardin's content analysis technique (1977) to produce literature reviews. In the coming years, analysis of the results of the workshops in Methodology classes may be carried out, based on the work presented. The purpose of this column is to provide an account of workshop experiences for the use of the Mendeley tool as used in the disciplines of Scientific Methodology and Research Methodology offered in the distance modality for undergraduate students at the Universidade do Contestado.

Mendeley in the discipline of methodology at the undergraduate level

Workshop-format activities on the use of Mendeley technology were developed for the Scientific Methodology classes, taught in the first semester, and Research Methodology, taught in the final semester, prior to the course conclusion work for different undergraduate courses, taught online during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The workshops were held in three separate months on Google Meet: in July with medical students, in August with law students and in September with students from other undergraduate areas (Administration, Engineering, Accounting Sciences, Education, etc.). All lectures were held in the Virtual Learning Environment used in Distance Education classes. The workshops had students who participated online and others who performed the activity by accessing the workshop recording available on YouTube.

The lectures began with a brief presentation of Mendeley's technology and its relevance to scientific research. The instructor then taught the students to access the Mendeley Software website, register, download and install the program. After installation, one of the participants shared the screen with the room, and the instructor guided the system configuration, installing the text editor plugin, the Brazilian technical standard (ABNT), and creating a link to a folder labeled “library”. After configuring the computers, students were instructed to search the Google Scholar or the EBSCOhost database for publications in their research project area. One of the students would share their screen again, and the instructor would guide them through using the personal library, preferably through the search address (DOI).

After accessing the methodology manual, which is available on the research page of the university's website, students accessed the research project template and methodology guide to produce their research project or article. When editing the text, the use of Mendeley facilitates citation and reference, essential elements in any type of scientific writing. The students were responsible for relating written material to the source of information and locating citations ( Sau & Bhakta, 2018 ).

Before the intervention through these workshops, students spent significant time learning the particulars of each type of reference. There were also other problems, such as non-compliance with the standard, absence of references, or presence of references not mentioned in the text. However, the use of the software alleviates these problems and give the student more time for textual production and analysis of relevant literature on the subject. Knowledge outcomes from the workshops were evidenced by students' expression of thanks sent through the virtual learning environment, via email, or similar sentiments expressed by the teachers of the courses. Metrics also demonstrated there were a significant number of students accessing the recordings available on YouTube, showing that students revisited the information after the workshop.

Overall, the Mendeley program allows for quote management, online support, sharing quotes with others, and using social media-like features ( Trout, 2014 ), and can also help with quote counting and tracking ( Zahedi & Haustein, 2018 ). The advent of digital technologies has made it possible to track the diffusion of many forms of new knowledge, allowing for a new stream of analysis and its own related literature ( D’Angelo & Di Russo, 2019 ).

The use of Mendeley in content analysis, according to Bardin, in bibliographic research

After the organization of the personal library, the students were guided to produce bibliographic research based on the analysis of documents, according to the steps proposed by Bardin (1977) : (i) pre-analysis; (ii) exploration of the material; (iii) treatment of results, inference and interpretation. The pre-analysis phase occurs with “floating reading” of the publications added to the Mendeley library, where the first contact is made with the texts that will compose the research library's favorite documents ( Fig. 1 ).

Library to produce these articles about Mendeley.

When organizing the critical criteria for the initial classification, it is crucial to note the frequency of occurrence of the primary criterion. For example, when one assigns the term “Mendeley” in the search ( Fig. 2 ), the system notes 100 hits found. Articles of little relevance are usually discarded. In this phase, the researcher establishes the indicators, which result in categories (or criteria) and subcategories (secondary classification).

Frequency of occurrence for the keyword Mendeley in the highlighted text.

The administration of bibliographies and decision-making in the systematic review of the literature is a long and tedious phase ( Bardin, 1977 ), especially when done manually. With Mendeley, this can be done as follows: The categories and/or subcategories and a previously configured spreadsheet can be highlighted when accessing the texts added in the favorites folder. For example, in the content analysis for research on Mendeley, considering the word “Citation” and the subcategory “research” as the main category, when selecting texts, it is possible to establish search results in the articles from the library. And, in the last stage – treatment of results, inference, and interpretation - technology can contribute to significant results in systematic or integrative literature reviews. The raw data can be processed in Microsoft Excel to give meaning to the research, using statistics, meanings, figures, graphs, or other possibilities for presenting the results. In Excel, the researcher can use the function “classify and filter” ( Fig. 3 ), classify the variables, and relate the categories to the results of the works analyzed.

Data for content analysis using a spreadsheet for the theme “Meditation” in a systematic literature review.

In the previous figure ( Fig. 3 ), a Psychology student relates meditation techniques to other aspects of research using the content analysis feature of Mendeley technology, as demonstrated in the workshop. Other students also highlighted the importance of the methodology used in class in their research, enabling future publications and different areas and research themes. Qualitative research originating in the Humanities can be adapted to the unique realities in the health fields, and content analysis can be used to interpret the data ( Hajinejad, Ebrahimi, de Jong, & Ravanipour, 2019 ; Wisur-Hokkanen, Glasberg, Mäkelä, & Fagerström, 2015 ). Moreover, content analysis has been one of the main techniques in analyzing audio transcriptions in qualitative research ( McKenzie et al., 2017 ). In business, content analysis is used in organizational studies and in the hotel industry ( Yu, 2020 ), which has evolved due to concern with the scientific rigor it has shown ( Mozzato & Grzybovski, 2011 ).

As for the combination of the content analysis technique with Mendeley's technology, practical experience has shown that it can help students to present better-structured reviews in the preparation of their research projects for undergraduate monographs. In the workshops, other possibilities for using this methodology were considered: in the law course, students pointed out the possibility of using Mendeley technology in content analysis for the analysis of civil laws and proceedings; in the medical course there was a discussion about using Mendeley's library to organize folders with medical records. Therefore, Mendeley's technology explored in the workshop made the work more attractive for students from different subject areas, who explored further opportunities for the application of the content analysis method in the teaching of Scientific Methodology and Research Methodology.

Final considerations

In this manuscript, the methodological approach presents two possibilities for using Mendeley technology in higher education: the first, experience-based usage for Research Methodology, where it is demonstrated that it is possible to train students through non-classroom pedagogical lectures. The second is the possibility of using Mendeley technology to analyze content in the production of bibliographic research, ensuring agility and quality of scientific output.

The results of both experimental workshops showed gains for the courses involved and for the institution where the activities were carried out. These results are anecdotal, as there is, so far, no concrete data that assesses the effectiveness of the methodology applied to undergraduate students. However, changes were observed in how undergraduate students researched, as presented in the Psychology course. Therefore, both in face-to-face and distance education, there is evidence for the importance of software in assisting students in writing their graduation course conclusion papers. Once the students who had access to this methodology present their course completion papers, it will be possible to better assess how they took advantage of the training. In addition, based on their presented works, a comparative survey of their research with the research of previous students can be carried out.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Mari Aurora Favero Reis : Writing, preparation of the original manuscript.

Renato P. dos Santos: Conceptualization, knowledge of the software, supervision.

Jacir Favretto and Liani Favretto: Data Collection, Review and Editing.

Neide Maria Favretto : Course supervision, data collection.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

• Bardin L. 70th ed. LISBOA; 1977. Análise de conteúdo. [ Google Scholar ]
• Berry B. Teaching, learning, and caring in the post-COVID era. Phi Delta Kappan. 2020; 102 (1):14–17. doi: 10.1177/0031721720956840. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Brynko B. Swets and Mendeley. Information Today. 2013; 30 (1):31-31. [ Google Scholar ]
• D’Angelo C.A., Di Russo S. Testing for universality of Mendeley readership distributions. Journal of Informetrics. 2019; 13 (2):726–737. doi: 10.1016/j.joi.2019.03.011. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Elsevier Elsevier Acquires Mendeley, an innovative, cloud-based research management and social collaboration platform. 2013. https://www.elsevier.com/about/press-releases/corporate/elsevier-acquires-mendeley,-an-innovative,-cloud-based-research-management-and-social-collaboration-platform
• Fausto S., Machado F.A., Bento L.F.J., Iamarino A., Nahas T.R., Munger D.S. Research blogging: Indexing and registering the change in science 2.0. PLoS ONE. 2012; 7 (12) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0050109. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gunn W. Mendeley: Enabling and understanding scientific collaboration. Information Services and Use. 2014; 34 (1–2):99–102. doi: 10.3233/ISU-140738. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hadiningrat M.S. 2020. MENDELEY PELATIHAN ITSNU PASURUAN. [ Google Scholar ]
• Hajinejad F., Ebrahimi E., de Jong A., Ravanipour M. Factors promoting Iranian older adults' spirituality: A qualitative content analysis. BMC Geriatrics. 2019; 19 (1):132. doi: 10.1186/s12877-019-1146-7. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Henning V., Reichelt J. In: 2008 IEEE Fourth International Conference on eScience. van Engelen R., Govindaraju M., Cafaro M., editors. IEEE; 2008. Mendeley - A last.fm for research? pp. 327–328. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Husadha C., Hidayat W.W., Suryati A., Prasetyo E.T., Meutia K.I., Istianingsih SOSIALISASI PEMANFAATAN MS . OFFICE , INTERNET, DAN PENGGUNAAN MENDELEY UNTUK MERANCANG PENELITIAN BAGI MAHASISWA STT DUTA BANGSA CIKARANG-BEKASI. Jurnal Abdimas Ekonomi Dan Bisnis (JAMEB) 2021; 1 (1):22–27. http://ejurnal.ubharajaya.ac.id/index.php/JAMEB/article/view/660 [ Google Scholar ]
• Joye C.R., Moreira M.M., Rocha S.S.D. Educação a Distância ou Atividade Educacional Remota Emergencial: Em busca do elo perdido da educação escolar em tempos de COVID-19. Research, Society and Development. 2020; 9 (7) doi: 10.33448/rsd-v9i7.4299. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• McKenzie E., Potestio M.L., Boyd J.M., Niven D.J., Brundin-Mather R., Bagshaw S.M., Stelfox H.T. Reconciling patient and provider priorities for improving the care of critically ill patients: A consensus method and qualitative analysis of decision making. Health Expectations. 2017; 20 (6):1367–1374. doi: 10.1111/hex.12576. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Mohammadi E., Thelwall M., Kousha K. Can Mendeley bookmarks reflect readership? A survey of user motivations. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. 2016; 67 (5):1198–1209. doi: 10.1002/asi.23477. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Mozzato A.R., Grzybovski D. Análise de conteúdo como técnica de análise de dados qualitativos no campo da administração: Potencial e desafios. Revista de Administração Contemporânea. 2011; 15 (4):761–765. http://www.anpad.org.br/rac [ Google Scholar ]
• Nagherneac A., Magher M. Mendeley - Instrument util de organizare a referinţelor. Magazin Bibliologic. 2017; 1–2 :95–101. http://moldlis.bnrm.md//handle/123456789/1346 [ Google Scholar ]
• Nuere S., de Miguel L. The digital/technological connection with COVID-19: An unprecedented challenge in university teaching. Technology, Knowledge and Learning. 2020 doi: 10.1007/s10758-020-09454-6. 0123456789. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Pentz E. CrossRef: A collaborative linking network. Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship. 2001; 10 (29) http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/edoc/aw/ucsb/istl/01-winter/article1.html F4CR5RBK. [ Google Scholar ]
• Pithan L.H., Oliveira A.P. Ética e integridade na pesquisa: O plágio nas publicações científicas. Revista Da AMRIGS. 2013; 57 (3):240–245. https://repositorio.pucrs.br/dspace/bitstream/10923/13014/2/Etica_e_integridade_na_pesquisa_o_plagio_nas_publicacoes_cientificas.pdf [ Google Scholar ]
• Restianingsih T., Deswardani F., Pebralia J. Artikel Jpm: Jurnal Pengabdian Masyarakat Pinang Masak Peningkatan Fitur-Fitur Ms.Word Dan Software Mendeley Untuk Membantu Mahasiswa Dalam Penyusunan Tugas Akhir. JPM Pinang Masak. 2020; 1 (2):24. [ Google Scholar ]
• Santos G.C. PPEC; 2020. Importância da obtenção do DOI via Crossref para potencializar publicações científicas. https://econtents.bc.unicamp.br/boletins/index.php/ppec/article/view/9398 [ Google Scholar ]
• Sau A., Bhakta I. Mendeley: A free reference management software. Journal of Comprehensive Health. 2018; 6 (1):52–53. https://journalofcomprehensivehealth.co.in/jch/article/view/11/11 [ Google Scholar ]
• Shin J. Mendeley mobile: Powerful cloud-based article and reference management in your pocket. Journal of Digital Imaging. 2016; 29 (6):635–637. doi: 10.1007/s10278-016-9907-8. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Thelwall M. Do females create higher impact research? Scopus citations and Mendeley readers for articles from five countries. Journal of Informetrics. 2018; 12 (4):1031–1041. doi: 10.1016/j.joi.2018.08.005. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Trout D. Mendeley (Version 1.15.2) Journal of the Medical Library Association. 2014; 16 (2):183–186. doi: 10.5195/JMLA.2016.76. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wisur-Hokkanen C., Glasberg A.-L., Mäkelä C., Fagerström L. Experiences of working as an advanced practice nurse in Finland - The substance of advanced nursing practice and promoting and inhibiting factors. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences. 2015; 29 (4):793–802. doi: 10.1111/scs.12211. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Yamakawa E.K., Kubota F.I., Beuren F.H., Scalvenzi L., Miguel P.A.C. Comparativo dos softwares de gerenciamento de referências bibliográficas: Mendeley,EndNote e Zotero. Transinformação. 2014; 26 (2):167–176. doi: 10.1590/0103-37862014000200006. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Yu C.-E. Humanlike robots as employees in the hotel industry: Thematic content analysis of online reviews. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management. 2020; 29 (1):22–38. doi: 10.1080/19368623.2019.1592733. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zahedi Z., Haustein S. On the relationships between bibliographic characteristics of scientific documents and citation and Mendeley readership counts: A large-scale analysis of Web of Science publications. Journal of Informetrics. 2018; 12 (1):191–202. doi: 10.1016/j.joi.2017.12.005. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zaugg H., West R.E., Tateishi I., Randall D.L. Mendeley: Creating communities of scholarly inquiry through research collaboration. TechTrends. 2011; 55 (1):32–36. doi: 10.1007/s11528-011-0467-y. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zenkteler M., Darchen S., Mateo-Babiano I., Baffour B. Home-based work in cities: In search of an appropriate urban planning response. Futures. 2019; 102494 doi: 10.1016/j.futures.2019.102494. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]