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Mendeley

Building Your Mendeley Library

Mendeley have a few options available for adding your existing PDF documents and growing your personal library:

Manual Entry

Adding entries manually is often necessary for reports, websites, books, and other 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.

To create a manual entry, follow the steps below:

  1. Open your Mendeley Desktop App.
  2. Click on the drop-down menu next to the Add Files button in the top left of Mendeley Desktop, and select Add Entry Manually.

    Mendeley add entry manually

  3. A pop-up will appear prompting you to enter the details for your entry.

    Mendeley new document dialogue

  4. Select the Type of entry from the drop-down list. Note, this drop-down list defaults to Journal Article, but it is important that you select the appropriate type for your entry. 
  5. Enter the title of your entry (You will need to overwrite the No Title set as the default.) It is important to use the correct capitalisation for your reference style, as Mendeley will not alter the capitalisation for you.
  6. Enter the author/s of your entry.
    • Use the format: [last name], [first name/initial] [middle name/initial].
    • Initials must be followed by a full stop.
    • Enter each new author on a new line (press Enter on your keyboard.)
    • For institutional authors, select the (Institution/Organization) identifier from the drop-down menu once you have finished typing. This will ensure that the institutional author will be recognised as such. 
  7. Once you have filled in all relevant information, click Save to confirm your entry. 

Book type examples

It is important to gather the following information when creating a manual entry for a book:

  • Title.
  • Author/s (if applicable.)
  • Year of publication.
  • City of publication. (Mendeley may provide suggestions for these as you type. The city must conform to your referencing style.)
  • Edition (if applicable.)
  • Editors (if applicable.)
  • Publisher.
  • URL (when an online version is used.)

Authored books

Manual entry - Book type authored

APA:

Hanretty, K. (2010). Obstetrics illustrated (7th ed.). London, United Kingdom: Churchill Livingstone.

Vancouver:

1. Hanretty K. Obstetrics illustrated. 7th ed. London: Churchill Livingstone; 2010.

Edited books

Manual entry - Book type edited

APA:

Baker, P., & Kenny, L. (Eds.). (2011). Obstetrics by ten teachers (19th ed.). London, United Kingdom: Churchill Livingstone.

Vancouver:

1. Baker PN, Kenny LC, editors. Obstetrics by ten teachers. 19th ed. London: Churchill Livingstone; 2011.

Online books

Manual entry - Book type Online

APA:

MacLean, H. (1932). Nursing in New Zealand: History and reminiscences. Wellington, New Zealand: Tolan Printing Company. Retrieved from http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-MacNurs.html

Vancouver:

1. MacLean H. Nursing in New Zealand: History and reminiscences [Internet]. Wellington: Tolan Printing Company; 1932. Available from: http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-MacNurs.html

Book Chapter type examples

It is important to gather the following information when creating a manual entry for a book chapter:

  • Title of the chapter (as the main title.)
  • Author/s of the chapter
  • Book title.
  • Year of publication.
  • Pages of the chapter
  • City of publication. (Mendeley may provide suggestions for these as you type. The city must conform to your referencing style.)
  • Edition of the book (if applicable.)
  • Editors of the book (if applicable.)
  • Publisher of the book.
  • URL (when an online version is used.)

Chapter in an authored book

Manual entry - Book Chapter authored

APA:

Beauchamp, T. L., & Childress, J. F. (2013). Moral character. In Principles of biomedical ethics (7th ed., pp. 30–61). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Vancouver:

1. Beauchamp TL, Childress JF. Moral character. Principles of biomedical ethics. 7th ed. New York: Oxford University Press; 2013. p. 30–61.

Chapter in an edited book

APA:

Dawson, J. (2015). Privacy and disclosure of health information. In P. Skegg & R. Paterson (Eds.), Health law in New Zealand (pp. 329–388). Wellington, New Zealand: Thomson Reuters.

Vancouver:

1. Dawson J. Privacy and disclosure of health information. In: Skegg P, Paterson R, editors. Health law in New Zealand. Wellington: Thomson Reuters; 2015. p. 329–88.

Report type examples

It is important to gather the following information when creating a manual entry for a report:

  • Title of the report.
  • Author/s of the report. Use the name of the institution/organisation if there are no authors listed.
  • Year of publication (if known.)
  • For Print Reports only:
    • City of publication, or city where institution is based (if known.)
      Mendeley may provide suggestions as you type. Must conform to your referencing style.
    • Publisher/Institution. Place in the Publisher field.
  • For Electronic Reports only:
    • URL
    • For Vancouver only: Publisher/Institution. Place in the Publisher field.
  • For instructions on adding a report number (if applicable), please see our intermediate Mendeley guide.

Print Report

Manual entry - Print Report

APA:

Quirke, T., Edwards, D., & Brewerton, M. (2011). Health and Pacific peoples in New Zealand: Pacific progress. Wellington, New Zealand: Statistics New Zealand and Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs.

Vancouver:

1. Quirke T, Edwards D, Brewerton M. Health and Pacific peoples in New Zealand: Pacific progress. Wellington: Statistics New Zealand and Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs; 2011.

Electronic Report

Manual entry - Electronic Report

APA:

The National Heart Foundation of New Zealand Advisory Group. (2008). Guideline for the prevention of infective endocarditis associated with dental and other medical interventions. Retrieved from http://www.ttophs.govt.nz/vdb/document/312

Vancouver:

1. National Heart Foundation of New Zealand Advisory Group. Guideline for the prevention of infective endocarditis associated with dental and other medical interventions [Internet]. Heart Foundation; 2008. Available from: http://www.ttophs.govt.nz/vdb/document/312

Webpage type examples

It is important to gather the following information when creating a manual entry for a webpage:

  • Title of the webpage.
  • Author/s (if known.) Use the name of the institution/organisation if there are no authors listed.
  • Year of publication (if known.)
  • Date accessed. Mendeley will interpret most date formats and alter to conform to your referencing style.
  • URL

Webpage with institutional author

Manual entry - Webpage Institutional

APA:

Capital and Coast District Health Board. (2016). Our hospitals and clinics are smokefree. Retrieved June 21, 2017, from https://www.ccdhb.org.nz/our-services/information-for-patients-and-visitors-to-our-sites/our-hospitals-and-clinics-are-smokefree/

Vancouver:

1. Capital and Coast District Health Board. Our hospitals and clinics are smokefree [Internet]. 2016 [cited 2017 Jun 21]. Available from: https://www.ccdhb.org.nz/our-services/information-for-patients-and-visitors-to-our-sites/our-hospitals-and-clinics-are-smokefree/

Webpage with named author and no date

Manual entry - Webpage Authored

APA:

Schnabel, D. (n.d.). Orthopaedic surgeon arrested for using duct tape to repair ACLs. Retrieved June 21, 2017, from http://gomerblog.com/2016/02/orthopedic-surgeon-duct-tape/

Vancouver:

1. Schnabel D. Orthopaedic surgeon arrested for using duct tape to repair ACLs [Internet]. [cited 2017 Jun 21]. Available from: http://gomerblog.com/2016/02/orthopedic-surgeon-duct-tape/

Adding to the Library

You can add PDF documents as well as their references simply by dragging and dropping the PDFs into your Mendeley Desktop App:

  1. Open your Mendeley Desktop App.
  2. Select one or more PDFs from you computer.
  3. Drag the PDF documents using your mouse and drop them into your Mendeley library.

    Mendeley drag and drop

  4. Mendeley will read all metadata contained in your PDFs and automatically create the references for these documents in your library. 
  5. NB! 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 some of the information may be missing. In such cases, the reference data will need to be edited manually.

    Mendeley missing references

  6. You can also add a PDF document by clicking on the Add Files button in the top left of Mendeley Desktop.

    Mendeley add files

  7. You can import all PDFs within a folder by clicking on the dropdown menu and selecting Add Folder.

    Mendeley add folder

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 up the folder or module that contains the readings you want to bring into Mendeley.

    eReserve - Open folder

  3. In the eReserve menu, go to Export  Export to RIS. (Note: this will bring into Mendeley the citations in the module/folder that you have open. It will not bring in the PDFs.)

    eReserve - Export

  4. This will create a file, which you will be prompted to save. The file will be saved to your downloads folder.

    eReserve - Save

  5. Go to your downloads folder. Locate the RIS file and drag this into your Mendeley Library.
  6. To attach a PDF to a record: Save the PDF onto your computer. In Mendeley, in the Details pane, click on Files:  Add File.... You will then be prompted to locate the PDF that you saved onto your computer.

    eReserve - Add PDFs

Bringing in PDFs from eReserve into Mendeley

This will have to be done individually.

  1. In ereserve, open up the PDF.
  2. Download or save the PDF.

    eReserve - Download PDF

  3. Go to your downloads folder and drag the PDF into your Mendeley Library.