Using referencing software: Mendeley

Abstract

Reviewing literature for scientific research used to be a mundane task and for those still living in analogue age, it remains a herculean task. This involved selecting relevant journals and books from the library shelves, jotting down relevant facts on small cards or pages of exercise book and finally writing well thought-out essays. It does not end there, the researcher painstakingly had to note the author(s) names, title of the journal, publisher and also be mindful of the prescribed referencing style. However, in this digital age, literature review and referencing have been made far easier to the extent that we now talk of desk review as every task enumerated above can now be undertaken on the office desk top while sipping a cup of coffee. Specifically, this is made possible by the appearance in the market of referencing software like End Note, Qiqqa, Zotero, Reference Manager and Mendeley, among others. These software are truly “Research Assistants” in that virtually everything that needs to do done as far as literature review and referencing is concerned has been automated. Researchers can also choose or switch from one of the hundreds of referencing styles to another automatically. This paper reviews the use of Mendeley referencing software in carrying out these tasks.

Keywords: Literature review; Referencing; Referencing Style; Mendeley