Month: October 2018

Become a Mendeley Advisor!

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Students at the University of State of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) who attended a workshop lead by Carlos Filomeno, Mendeley Advisor

If you are a Mendeley lover who wants to share the benefits of good reference management and the value of Mendeley groups, now’s your chance. We are expanding the Mendeley Advisor community and we’d love to have you join us!

Thousands of your peers around the world have already become Mendeley Advisors and helped us the get the word about Mendeley out on their campuses.  The Mendeley Advisors serve as the Mendeley representative on campus and help us keep the user community thriving.

What Mendeley Advisors do:

They spread the word about Mendeley and good reference management in any way that makes sense. Here are some of the things that our current Advisors do:

  • Put up posters in the library, their offices and the student centre
  • Run informal one-on-one trainings
  • Host Mendeley drop in sessions through the library
  • Run Mendeley workshops
  • Include Mendeley in their curriculum
  • Wear Mendeley t-shirts
  • Post about Mendeley on social media like YouTube or Twitter
  • Anything else you can think of!

Essentially, Mendeley Advisors are our hands on the ground, helping potential users connect with the platform. We also consult with Advisors to understand the needs of users and to beta test new features.  You’re the first group of users we consult when we are considering adding a new functionality to the product.

But the Mendeley Advisor program isn’t just making Mendeley famous—there are also  some nice perks for you:

  • Be the Mendeley representative on your campus (a nice thing to add to your CV)
  • Get a special Mendeley Advisor account with more groups and increased storage
  • Connect with the team behind Mendeley
  • Be the first to know what we are working on and get early access to new features
  • Get access to the exclusive Mendeley Advisor forum
  • Receive free Mendeley giveaways for events
  • And most importantly: a flashy Advisor badge for your Mendeley profile so the whole world can see you’re a Mendeley guru!

Want to learn more about Advisors?  Read our Advisor of the Month column or apply on our Mendeley Advisor webpage.

Have questions?  Reach out to Daniel and Rachel from the Community Team at community@mendeley.com.

Meet the Team: Matt Stratford

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Name: Matt Stratfordmatt

Job title: Senior Product Manager

Intro bio

I’ve had rather a lot of jobs, from teacher to barista to salesperson to conference organizer. I found a way into technology and that led to consulting and from there I was able to make a start in product management.

When did you join Mendeley?

I worked on account for Mendeley from May 2015, but I liked it so much I joined as a full-time employee in September 2016.

What do you love most about your job?

I love that product management is so wide-ranging in terms of what it demands you know about.

What book did you most recently read?

Usually, I have a small handful on the go at any one time. At the moment I’m on a user experience design kick. I finished UX for Lean Startups by Laura Klein last week and I’m part-way through Sprint by Jake Knapp. Away from work, I’ve just started The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell and I can tell already it’s going to be excellent.

What’s one thing you want people to know about Mendeley?

I read all the feedback you send through the feedback widget on Mendeley Feed, even if I can’t respond to everything individually.

How would you explain your job to a stranger on a bus?

I work as part of a team which makes tools to help academic researchers discover and access information. My job is to identify problems that researchers have and to set the direction and priorities for the solution. But the thing about product management is that actually it involves a bit of everything. I talk regularly with customers and users, conduct user research, write software acceptance tests, evaluate web analytics, help out with interaction design, contribute to technology choices, support marketing campaigns, establish operations requirements, conduct analysis for business strategy… the list goes on! And the only way I can possibly do all this is to be super-organised and super-flexible and to invest lots of time in making day-to-day team processes work really effectively. It certainly keeps me busy!

What’s the most exciting part of your job?

I’m a pretty excitable person so there’s usually something most days that gives me some energy. But the most satisfying part of the job is when you hear first hand from someone that you’ve made their lives better by solving a problem they had. That feels worthwhile.

What keeps you awake at night?

Work doesn’t keep me up at night. I compartmentalize pretty well.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned this week?

I learned that depending on how market demand is structured, it is theoretically possible that copyright holders profit from some levels of piracy. For instance, the existence of pirate copies of Microsoft Word helped it to become a de facto standard, which created more demand for legitimate purchases.

 

 

 

Mendeley Advisor of the Month: Chandrashekhar Vithal

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Chandrashekhar is currently working as a University Librarian at AURO University, Surat, Gujarat, India. Prior to this he was associated with TEEAL-Cornell University project ((The Essential Electronic Agriculture Library.)  He was involved in implementing the project and provided training programs in Nepal, Bangladesh and India. He has been working in libraries for over three decades and has conducted over 40 training programs on Database search techniques, managing citations using reference management tools, especially  Mendeley as a user since 2015.

How did you get into your field and what is your research story?

I still remember the days of my tenure with the Department of Atomic Energy, assisting the scientist in developing a bibliography on Gyroscopes, which was a game changer in my professional career. Since then I have been assisting people in developing referencing and bibliography lists. Three decades of experience is huge and now I am involved in providing training sessions on referencing tools, and other library promotion programs.

Where do you do your research/work the best? What kind of environment suits you?

My preference sounds strange; people prefer silence, I love to be surrounded by people. I enjoy working with people, maybe my job demands that!

How long have you been on Mendeley?

Honestly, I was not very familiar with Mendeley until 2015, when I started working for TEEAL (The Essential Electronic Agriculture Library) a project at Cornell University. As a coordinator for South Asia, I have been involved in conducting training sessions on TEEAL for students, scholars, and Faculty. In addition, I conducted training sessions on reference management using Mendeley.

What were you using prior to Mendeley and how does Mendeley influence your research?

I am fortunate in the sense that with three decades in the profession I have witnessed technological interventions in libraries. For my master’s dissertation work I still remember I used to record all my references on bibliographic cards, which is tedious and time-consuming. Mendeley is like a divine gift to all researchers enabling referencing with one click and saving time.

Why did you decide to become an Advisor and how are your involved with the program?

Sharing information to all is in the DNA of librarians! TEEAL-Cornell Project has given me the opportunity of conducting training programs for academia which I have enjoyed throughly. I am happy to say that over 40 training programs on Mendeley have been conducted in Nepal, Bangladesh, and India.

What researcher would you like to work with or meet, dead or alive?

For me, the invention of radio transistor is something like a miracle! In my childhood days, I used to wonder how this small radio transistor transmitted music!! I really wanted to meet Guglielmo Marconi who is an all time favorite scientist for me.

What book are your reading at the moment and why?

There are too many to list! But currently, I am reading “Life’s Amazing Secrets: How to find balance and purpose” by Gaur Gopal Das. The book explains how to conquer your daily battles, align yourself with your purpose and win at life.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned this week?

People are still not aware of referencing tools available to them, I noticed this during my recent training program on Mendeley.

What is the best part about working in research?

Research and learning are a never-ending process both contribute a lot to empower society.

And the worst/most challenging part about working in research?                              

The sense of invention, collaboration, learning from others is the best thing about research and the worst is when the outcome/findings of research is sometimes challenging.

What is the one thing you want people to know about Mendeley?

Mmmmm…. That’s a tricky question to answer! Mendeley as a whole has several features to make the life of a researcher easy.  For me the “Watch Folder” option is really handy for anyone and helps in building my library.

Showcase Your Research with Mendeley

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mendeley difference

The last Mendeley article looked at Mendeley Data, and how it helps you manage your data while you focus on your research. But you also have to manage your research persona…and Mendeley can do that too. It enables you to inform your peers and the public about your academic accomplishments, extending your influence and your career prospects. In addition, Mendeley can help you discover, review and keep track of the profiles of other researchers who could inspire your work or just might end up being your future collaborators.

The Right Connections are Out There

Once you open a free Mendeley account and create a profile, you can join one or more groups, or form your own group to drive information sharing that highlights your research. In Public Groups, you can quickly make new connections by searching for people and finding researchers with similar interests. Your Mendeley feed suggests individuals you might want to follow as well. With only a minimal time investment, you immediately become part of a community – a network of eight million peers now able to learn about your research and your accomplishments.

While you’re shining a light on your research, you’re also opening new opportunities to partner with others working in your field or a related one. The diverse membership of Mendeley’s Research Network represents virtually every field of research, facilitating collaboration across the globe.

Mendeley’s Intelligence Complements Yours

Your research requires you to be highly disciplined, efficient and an expert in your field. Mendeley works that way as well, automatically capturing information like authors, title and publisher. By making organization and browsing easy, Mendeley broadens the reach of your research with minimal effort on your part.

By generating citations and bibliographies while you write, Mendeley shares your process with others and highlights your work. Mendeley enables you to easily see who’s viewing, downloading and citing your research. It gives you more chances to make important discoveries, whether on your own or as part of a team.

You can easily add your research interests to your Mendeley account, encouraging others with the same or related interests to follow you. You may also update your profile with your unique ORCID indentifier, and link with your Scopus profile, to further showcase your research information. Mendeley shows details such as your h-index, citations, readers and views during a given time period.

Don’t Keep Your Light Under a Basket

You have a golden opportunity to make a difference and inspire a community – perhaps the world – with your research. Mendeley can help you expand your impact while you’re focused on your work. Why not be part of a network of connections – and call attention to your achievements – when it’s so easy to do?

Get started! Sign up today.