Mendeley Reference Manager

Adding entries manually is usually necessary for reports, websites, books, and less-common reference types.
Articles can often be added from databases, Google Scholar, or by dragging and dropping PDFs. However, if these options do not work, you can create a manual entry:

1. Open Mendeley Reference Manager.
2. Click on + Add new in the top left of Mendeley Reference Manager, and then select Add Manual Entry

3. A pop-up will appear prompting you to enter the details for your entry.
4. If the document has a DOI , you can type or paste it in the DOI box and Mendeley should do the rest of the work for you.

5. If you cannot find a DOI, proceed with adding a manual entry. Select the correct Reference Type from the drop-down menu. This step is important to get right, because it will determine what the reference looks like when you cite it.

6. Enter the title of the document. 
7. Enter the author(s). For each additional author, click on the Add another author button. Use the format ‘last name, first name’. For institutional authors, simply type in the institution’s name. e.g., Ministry of Health.

8. Fill in the remaining details and click Add entry.
   For documents with URLs (e.g., webpages, eBooks, online reports), you must first click Add entry, and then edit the new record to add the URL to the URLS field.

9. To add a URL after creating a manual entry, find the new entry in your Mendeley Library, click on it, and click on Add a URL in the info panel:

   

10. Edit the Date Accessed if necessary and paste in the URL. Any changes made to a Mendeley record are automatically saved.

11. To add a PDF or other file to the record, first download the PDF to your computer. Then find the new entry in your Mendeley Library, click on it, and click on FILES  in the info panel:

    

12. Locate the file you want to add, select it, and click Open:

    

13. If you have any questions about how to cite a specific document or unusual reference type, please contact us.

You can add references to your Mendeley Library simply by dragging and dropping article PDFs into Mendeley Reference Manager :

1. Open Mendeley Reference Manager.
2. Select one or more PDFs from your computer.
3. Drag the PDF documents using your mouse and drop them into your Mendeley Library.

   

4. Mendeley Reference Manager will read the metadata  contained in your PDFs and automatically create the references for these documents in your library.

   

5. It is always important to ensure that all the reference details have been added correctly. Your PDF document may/may not contain the correct metadata, and/or some of the information may be missing (see examples circled below). In such cases, the reference will need to be edited manually. (See section on Editing References)

   

6. Alternatively, you can add a PDF document by clicking on + Add New in the top left of Mendeley Reference Manager, and then selecting File(s) from computer.

7. Find and select the PDF file(s) you would like to import, and click Open. This will import the PDF(s) into your Mendeley Library.

   

Bringing in course readings from Moodle or Blackboard

1. In Moodle or Blackboard, go to eReserve (it may be known as ‘course readings’ or ‘readings’.)
2. Open the folder or module that contains the readings you want to bring into your Mendeley Library.

   

3. One option is to download the PDF for each reading onto your computer one-by-one, and then ‘drag and drop’ them into your Mendeley Library (see section on Drag and Drop PDFs).
   
   Alternatively, in the eReserve menu, go to Export, and click Export to RIS. (Note: this will bring into Mendeley the citation information for the readings. It will not bring in the PDFs.)

   

4. The way your computer handles the file is determined by your browser settings. If you are prompted to save or open the file, save it to a location on your computer you will remember (such as Downloads).
   If you are not prompted, the file will have been saved to your Downloads folder automatically. 

5. Go to Mendeley Reference Manager. Add the downloaded RIS file by clicking on + Add new in the top left, then select Import library, then select RIS (*.ris).

6. Find and select the RIS file, and click Open. This will import the references into your Mendeley Library.

   

You can export references from most databases in the RIS format, which is compatible with Mendeley. The references only include the citation information rather than the full text. Exporting instructions are included in each of the database guides. An exception is PubMed where you must use the Mendeley Web Importer.

Importing RIS files

After exporting, the file will be in your downloads folder. There are two ways to import this:

1. Firstly you can drag and drop the RIS file from your downloads into Mendeley Reference Manager, when the programme is open.

2. Alternatively you can click  Add new, select Import library  and then select RIS.

Importing full text files

To add the full text, it is the same process as outlined in Manual Entry.

1. First download the PDF or other file to your computer. Then find the relevant entry in your Mendeley Library, click on it, and click on FILES  in the info panel.

   

2. Locate the file you want to add, select it, and click Open.