Managing your research library just got a whole lot easier. We’re thrilled to announce Advanced Search, a brand-new feature designed to help you locate exactly what you’re looking for in seconds.
What is Advanced Search?
Advanced Search gives you fine-grained control over how you explore your library. Instead of scrolling through endless lists or relying on vague keyword matches, you can now build precise queries that target specific metadata, tags, or even text inside your PDFs.
Here’s what you can do:
Search by field or attribute
Target specific fields for faster, cleaner results.
Including:
- title:
- author:
- year:
- abstract:
- tag:
- citation-key:
Mix and match these fields to narrow your results exactly how you want. For example:
title: diabetes
author: johnson
year: 2023
abstract: “clinical trial”
Search inside PDFs
Every word inside your attached PDFs is now searchable. That means you can find that exact phrase you highlighted months ago — even if you don’t remember which paper it was in.
For example: Searching for “string theory” will pull up every document that mentions it, whether it’s in the abstract or buried deep in the methods section.
Be precise in your search
Using search operators can help you refine, expand or exclude results with precision; by combining operators, you can zero in on exactly what you need. Use the following search operators in the Mendeley search bar to build powerful, targeted queries:
“”
Wrap phrases in double quotes to find exact matches. This ensures the words appear together in the exact order specified.
For example: “machine learning”
!
Use the exclamation mark before a term to exclude it from your search results. You can also combine it with a field search to exclude a search term from a specific field.
For example: diabetes !”type 2″ or diabetes !author:smith
How does advanced search advance your research?
- Faster discovery: Quickly finds the most relevant papers when exploring new topics or fields.
- Smarter connections: Reveals relationships between concepts, methods, and authors across your entire library.
- Streamlined workflow: Keeps your focus on research, not library management.
And this is just one of the ways Mendeley Reference Manager can help you manage your sources effortlessly. Try Mendeley Reference Manager for free today and transform the way you research.
Mendeley Blog 
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