Mendeley is a free web and desktop reference management application that helps you simplify your reference management workflow. With Mendeley you can
As always, it is important to store your work, sources and references in more than one place (back up file).
Mendeley can be used in browser (link to website) or you can download the Mendeley Reference Manager to your desktop (download the app). Students and staff of University of Vaasa can download the app from Software Center. The library recommends the browser version since it is developed/updated more often. The free Mendeley account comes with 2 GB but more storage can be purchased.
First, create an account to Mendeley. If you have an account to any other Elsevier's product, such as Scopus, ScienceDirect or SciVal, you can sign in with the same credentials. Do not choose Sign in via your institution!
Mendeley Web Importer is an extension for web browsers with which you can add references from databases to your own account, i.e., your Mendeley Library. Web Importer does not, however, work in all databases, thus installing it is not mandatory. The extension works in Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari, and you can install it on Mendeley's website (install plugin). After installation, you will see a red Mendeley icon in your browser toolbar.
Choose +Add new > Files from computer or drag and drop the file (e.g. PDF of a journal article) to your Library. Mendeley finds the reference information automatically and saves them to the Library along with the PDF file. Remember to check and edit the reference if necessary!
Choose +Add new > Add entry manually, and fill in the information by hand. You can also search for the reference with, for example, the DOI identifier.
Web Importer in Mozilla Firefox:
You can save the reference as a file to your computer (or cache memory) and import it to your Mendeley Library:
Add Mendeley Cite to Word, so you can add references to your text and create a bibliography:
In Citation Settings, you can choose the referencing style and language in which the references and bibliography are. You will also see a preview of what they look like in different styles.