Mendeley Review: How to Store and Manage Reference Lists

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.

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.

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.

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

Managing References

Reference management is where Mendeley becomes interesting.

• 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.

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.

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.

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.

Pricing

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.