My experience with Mendeley

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!