Mendeley: A Reference Tool Review
As a student in college, one of the things that is inevitable is research. Regardless of your major or career path, there will always be some sort of research that will need to be done. So one must be ready to know how to cite properly and correctly create the bibliography/references page. The good thing about this is that we live in an age where technology has advanced and made it easier for that.
Mendeley is a free online tool software that helps you keep track of your online sources and documents. Not only that, but it also provides an easy way to be connected with a community to stay up to date with the research others are doing.
How it Works
After using Mendeley for a couple of hours, I saw many benefits that came along with using it. One of my favorite functions is the Web Importer. The Web Importer is a function that goes on the bookmark bar; and, whenever you want to save a website as a source, you just click it and it adds the link to your research library! This is such a convenient function because all you have to do is click a button and it automatically syncs it. Once it is in the library, it is easy to access and takes you back to the website you found.
Another really awesome function that this tool has is the ability to help cite your information. It allows for you to install a Microsoft Word plug in and access the citation of your document via that plug in. Another neat thing about it is that it gives you multiple options for the type of citation style you want, all of which come in handy whenever writing for different types of research.
Mendeley is also great in organizing your library. For every time you have a different research project, you can simply make a new folder for each and categorize your links that way. This keeps your library organize, and your mind sane!
It is easy to download. You just have to make a free online account, download the software, and add it to your desktop. It is compatible with Mac and Windows and there is even an app that is available for both iPhone and Android! This makes having access to your research available to you at all times.
One thing that I do have to say about this tool that I wish it did better was the ability to cite more sources other than just scholarly journals and documents. I attempted to site a news source for one of my projects and it did not go well in doing so. Also, the blogger Drew Thomas mentioned in his review that “Mendeley is a freemium service, meaning that it is free to use, but you can upgrade to a premium subscription.” This subscription would go to providing more space, since they only give you 2GB for your library.
Conclusion
So would I recommend this reference manager to other people? I would say yes. Mendeley is very user friendly, allows for you to keep track of your research, collaborate with others, and it is free if you stay within the 2GB range!
