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# Mendeley Review: How to Store and Manage Reference Lists
- URL: https://en.blog.themarfa.name/mendeley-review-how-to-store-and-manage-reference-lists/
- Published: 2025-03-01T12:39:58.000Z
- Updated: 2025-03-01T12:39:58.000Z
- Description: Mendeley is a reference manager for organizing literature sources. It allows you to upload, organize, and sync data across devices. Supports only PDFs, with a free limit of 2 GB.
- Author: Konstantin Dokuchaev
- Tags: review, Windows, macos, linux, web, Mendeley

When writing scientific papers, reports, and similar documents, you need to study numerous external sources. This means you must maintain a reference list to cite them properly in your work.

### How to Handle This?

There are specialized reference managers designed to store and organize source information efficiently. Today, we’ll talk about one such manager — [**Mendeley**](https://www.mendeley.com/).

Mendeley is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, and it also has a web version.

### How It Works

For this review, I used the desktop version of the application. However, since you essentially work in a browser, there’s no real difference between the online and desktop versions. Offline mode isn’t supported, and the app frequently redirects to a full web browser.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/c7/31c7da9c-f519-464c-9a3b-2d4144b557a6/content/images/2025/03/image.png)

I tested Mendeley on macOS and Windows 11\. On a Mac with an M1 processor, I noticed minor but annoying lags when working with text. This issue was absent on Windows.

Mendeley stores information in two ways: **Library** and **Notes**.

• The **Library** contains all your sources and publications, which can be organized into groups and collections.

• **Notes**, however, are quite limited. They can be added separately or linked to a source, but they lack sorting, attachments, formatting, or tags. They are basic and minimalistic.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/c7/31c7da9c-f519-464c-9a3b-2d4144b557a6/content/images/2025/03/image-1.png)

I didn’t encounter any synchronization issues when using multiple devices.

### Managing References

Reference management is where Mendeley becomes interesting.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/c7/31c7da9c-f519-464c-9a3b-2d4144b557a6/content/images/2025/03/image-2.png)

• You can upload files from your computer, but only in **PDF** format.

• It supports importing entire folders or libraries in **.BIB, .XML, and .RIS** formats.

• You can also automatically import files from a monitored folder or manually create references without attaching files.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/c7/31c7da9c-f519-464c-9a3b-2d4144b557a6/content/images/2025/03/image-3.png)

Once added, sources appear in the right panel with **search and filtering options**. Each reference includes details like **author, publication year, title, and storage location**.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/c7/31c7da9c-f519-464c-9a3b-2d4144b557a6/content/images/2025/03/image-4.png)

From this panel, you can quickly copy citations in **LaTeX, BioText, or plain text formats**. Additionally, you can enrich sources with extra information like **city, language, page count, and more**.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/c7/31c7da9c-f519-464c-9a3b-2d4144b557a6/content/images/2025/03/image-5.png)

For better organization, you can use **collections, groups, and tags**. PDF files can be opened and viewed within the app, with an option to add basic annotations.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/c7/31c7da9c-f519-464c-9a3b-2d4144b557a6/content/images/2025/03/image-6.png)

### Pricing

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/c7/31c7da9c-f519-464c-9a3b-2d4144b557a6/content/images/2025/03/image-7.png)

Mendeley is **free** if your database doesn’t exceed **2 GB**. Paid plans start at **$4.99 per month**, differing only in available storage capacity.

### Conclusion

Mendeley is a solid tool for maintaining **reference lists**, but that’s all it does. This means you’ll need a separate knowledge management system for broader project organization. Additionally, its **PDF-only support** can be limiting.

However, if these features meet your needs, Mendeley does an excellent job at **managing references** efficiently.

[Try Mendeley](https://www.mendeley.com/)