Mendeley – Managing research articles
Keeping track of my library of personal research articles has always been a pain for me, if only because I’m not as organized as some of my counterparts. Over the years, when I found interesting articles related to my topic of interest and I dutifully printed them out and store them in a file cabinet somewhere. I have at least two drawers of filing cabinets filled with these research articles. Perhaps some of you share my dilemma. If you are really good about it, you’ve probably also taken the time to sort these articles according to different subtopics, so that they are easier to find. I, myself, having overflowing hanging folders of articles in my cabinet drawers. Perhaps, if you were really trying to keep up with the times, there are folders on your computer with electronic copies of these research articles, very much resembling the drawers in a filing cabinet.
A while ago I came across an interesting service called Mendeley. Like EndNote, it provides a way of keeping track of references, being able to insert references into manuscripts, and automatically create a reference/bibliography section based on the references you used. These services are nice because the process is relatively automatic and saves you time from having to compile these things for yourself over and over again across manuscripts. However, there is a big difference between EndNote and Mendeley. Mendeley lets you upload your electronic articles online. EndNote only has your references, Mendeley has your references AND the original article.
If you go to the Mendeley website, it will invite you to download their free software (PC, Mac, or Linux). You will also need create a free account as well. Once you’ve set up your account and you’ve downloaded the software, you can start uploading articles. All of the electronic articles I have are in pdf format, so that’s what I’ve uploaded into Mendeley. Mendeley will scan your document and try to determine the reference items for the article (authors, title, publication name, date, abstract, keywords, etc). The newer the article, the easier time it has getting these reference items correct. It’s all editable, so if it doesn’t get the reference items correct, you can always go back and change it. It also allows you to add in your own keywords as well, something handy you can use if you make up your own keywords. Once saved, Mendeley will upload the document to the “cloud.” This means that any computer that has the Mendeley program and your account information will download that article. Your library is also available online through the Mendeley site as well. Just recently they have added an iphone and ipad app, and will soon be launching an Android app also. The mobile apps allow you to read your articles on your phone. It also has a nifty embedded pdf reader in the desktop program. If you click on an article it opens right up in the Mendeley program, no need to view it separately in Adobe Reader. The embedded reader allows you to annotate your article as well, including adding highlights and additional notes. It also has a very neat tab feature so that you can easily toggle between several articles.
No longer will I have to waste time searching for that article I misplaced in my cabinet drawer! Mendeley has an excellent search function. This makes gathering up the necessary articles for a particular topic very easy to do.
The other neat and unique feature of Mendeley is your ability to share your articles (or a select subset of articles) with small groups of people. The free account allows you to make five private groups with 10 users each. Each group can see selected pdf articles you’ve uploaded. It’s great for private research groups or for a graduate seminar. You can also make a public group as well, but they don’t have access to the pdf articles, just the reference items including the abstract.
Aside from a personal online library, Mendeley is also attempting to be social in a variety of different ways. Each user can create a profile, including articles they have published. Articles you’ve published can be made available to Mendeley members if you desire. You can search for other users or public groups. This is an excellent way to find reference lists related to particular topics based on professionals in the field. The web interface, to some degree, mimics Facebook with status updates, a “people you might know” section, and “most read articles.”
I think Mendeley is a great resource, at the very least, for keeping track of your own personal library of electronic research articles. But given the social aspect, it has the potential for helping researchers collaborate with others to find relevant information.
To end, here’s a video of Mendeley’s founder talking about how Mendeley is like Last.fm:
