Getting Help with Mendeley
Need help getting started? Ask a Librarian
Having trouble with Mendeley?
Training sessions
Related Guides
Return to Citations and Bibliographies main page
What is Mendeley?
Mendeley is a free software that will help you manage your research, annotate PDFs, and format citations.
Mendeley has both a cloud-based and desktop component. First, you will create an account with Mendeley, and then once you've downloaded the Mendeley Desktop software, it will prompt you to log in with your account. There are also free mobile apps available for both iOS and Android.
Note: Mendeley has recently released a new version of its product called Mendeley Reference Manager. This is a different product than the Mendeley Desktop, although they offer very similar services. For more information about the differences between these two guides, please see the box below.
What is the difference between Mendeley Desktop and Mendeley Reference Manager?
Mendeley Reference Manager is the newest version of Mendeley Desktop. If you are already a Mendeley user, it is easy to switch to the new interface. Simply sync your Mendeley Desktop library, download Mendeley Reference Manager, and log in with your Mendeley account information. If you are not yet a Mendeley user, download Mendeley Reference Manager and create an account to get started.
For additional help with Mendeley Reference Manager, please see Mendeley Reference Manager's Quick User Guide or the Mendeley Reference Manager Help Guide for support.
Unsure which version you have? Below you'll see a screenshot of Mendeley Reference Manager to help you identify which version you have.
Mendeley Desktop is the original interface for Mendeley. It has recently been replaced with a newer interface known as Mendeley Reference Manager.
Unsure which version of Mendeley you have? Below you'll see a screenshot of Mendeley Desktop to help you identify which version you have.
Next Step
The Getting Started page will show you how to create a Mendeley account, install Mendeley, and export references from databases into Mendeley.