Yes, Mendeley
can be your personal research assistant! Doesn’t make sense huh? Well it will,
once you start using Mendeley. I’m an
academic researcher in Library and Information Science domain and I’m using
Mendeley since few months ago.
I found the tool amazing and I wish everyone experiences this
tool and get the best out of it. Here, I have shared my experience with
Mendeley for the past few months which I hope will give you more insight on Mendeley…
Indeed, this
tool is like a personal research assistant to me. There are reasons, let me
tell you! Mendeley besides being a reference manager, it also assisted me by
playing different roles in different stages of my research as below.
·
Personalized
Database.
I was able to
create separate folders devoted to each of my manuscripts and save all
documents related to those particular manuscripts in that folder. This enabled
me to search any desired document using the filters available rather than
browsing the entire collection. This way Mendeley assisted me in grouping all
related documents together, and saved time in locating them again.
·
Collaborative
Thought Content Tracking Tool
Usually after
a couple of days from reading an article, I tend to forget many of my key ideas
or thoughts which popped up in mind while reading that article (well anyone
would have come across this) but with Mendeley I was able to jot those down
using Mendeley notes which assisted
me in tracking my thought content. I know that you don’t find this appealing
but in a scenario where more than one person are working and sharing different
views on the content of a particular work, Mendeley differentiate the different
notes and highlights created by different peers working on that document. I
believe this in a way encourages collaborative works which is very common in
recent trends.
·
A Global Platform
for Discussions and Collaboration.
YAY!! Here
comes my favorite part! For me, Mendeley online is same as any other social
networking sites except Mendeley encourages only scholarly communication. A
couple of weeks ago, I happened to read a very informative research article but
I was not convinced with one of the ideas highlighted that study. Mendeley
online made it effortless for me to contact the author of that article via
Mendeley online platform in no time on the same day to resolve that raised issue.
Now, that author and I do discuss common ideas in Mendeley platform. Not limited
to this, Mendeley has many peer groups that keep me abreast of my research area
in specific. Mendeley online platform assist me in initiating discussions with
eminent Scholars across the globe without knowing them personally.
I strongly
believe that Mendeley not only assisted me in the initial stages of my research
but also helped in diffusion stage. By taking my research works to avid global
scholars Mendeley facilitates wider visibility to my research. In short, assisting
greatly in all arduous work, Mendeley
spared me more time to focus on my research content. From organizing your
thought content to taking your research work to a scholarly platform, Mendeley
does it all!!!
Now, I hope it’s time for YOU to explore
Mendeley! Happy researching! 