Mendeley: Crowd-sourced reference and citation management in the information era

Mendeley is an award-winning reference manager and academic social network. It has accumulated a devoted network of academic users, and amassed a research library of millions of documents. Mendeley helps its users find research, it helps them easily add their research articles to their electronic research libraries, it helps them organise and even electronically annotate their research articles, and then it helps them cite them in their own research writing, automatically creating reference lists and formatting citations according to thousands of different citation styles.

But documentation on Mendeley is hard to come by. This book provides a comprehensive overview of what Mendeley has to offer the academic researcher, and how best to use it.

Topics include:
- A discussion of what Mendeley is, what its aims and objectives are, and how it can help researchers
- How to register for a Mendeley account, install the program, and set up a Mendeley profile
- A detailed discussion of the Mendeley database structure
- How to use Mendeley to find research articles and easily add them to the library
- How to organise research articles into folders and sort and search the library
- How to annotate articles electronically
- How to form groups with other researchers, and collaborate and share articles with them
- How to use Mendeley to cite research articles in Microsoft Word (for Windows and Mac),
and LibreOffice, and how to create reference lists and bibliographies with Mendeley
- Using the Mendeley iPad app

The 8 chapters of the book span over 300 pages of detailed information, with close on 400 detailed figures showing how to use the program.

From the book cover:

There was a time when what later became known as the Internet was nothing more than an obscure experiment to connect computers. A time before the Internet became a pervasive element of everyday life for billions. A time before almost every device imaginable could be connected with all manner of other devices via the Internet. And a time when connections between people we defined by physical space and physical interaction. A time before we considered ourselves citizens of the social web. That time is gone. Forever.

The world of research has changed just as dramatically as the rest of society as a result of the intrusion of the Internet into every area of life. Research collaboration no longer requires physical interaction. Reading research no longer requires the laborious gathering of journals in hard copy. Researchers are increasingly being tracked and rated by metrics that try to define how much impact their work is having. And searching for research now instantly brings hundreds of thousands of results to sift through and evaluate. Researchers in the 21st Century need a tool that can help reduce the clutter. They need a tool that can help them find the research they need. They need a tool that can help them organise the research articles and documents (now electronic) they already have. They need a tool that can help them connect with other like-minded researchers to share thoughts, to share work, and to form partnerships. And they need a tool to help them cite their sources in their own research writing. That tool is Mendeley.

But users of Mendeley need a tool that will help them discover how best to use the service (for Mendeley is not just software, it is a service), and how to get the most benefit from it.
This book aims to be that tool.