Category: community relations

Everything around the Mendeley community. Community programs and competitions will be published under this category as well as general news related to the Mendeley social network and community liaisons.

Advisor of the Month: Emiliano Jozami

Rachel Brennesholtz

What is your name and job title?

Emiliano Jozami.
Teaching assistant and Auxiliary Researcher at the Research Council of the National University of Rosario (CIUNR) in Argentina.

Where do you work?

Parque Villarino, Zavalla
Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the National University of Rosario, Argentina
https://fcagr.unr.edu.ar/

How did you get into your field?

As a student, I started working in research and collaboration in biology. This is a subject for first year students of Agriculture Engineering and the Bachelor of Natural Resources.

What are you currently working on?

I am researching two different lines:

  • Second generation biofuels and their sustainability using life cycle assessment methodology.
  • Climatology, teleconnections such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, and its effects in crops yields.

How long have you been using Mendeley? 

I started using Mendeley in 2014. I was looking for a reference manager that could reduce the stressful work of organizing my bibliography. Mendeley had everything I required from a reference manager (i- easy and versatile ways of adding citations; ii- well-ordered bibliography; iii- it allows you to create your own tags along your library; iv- it allows you to find text within your files).

Why did you decide to become an Advisor?

To aid my colleagues in being more efficient in the time dedicated to the management of their library and its use in a manuscript/thesis or any type of writing that requires references.

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

Dead: Charles Darwin.

Alive: C. Donald Ahrens. I love his books “Meteorology today”.

What book are you reading at the moment?

“Geopolítica y alimentos” by Juan José Borrell, a colleague from the CIUNR.

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

This week was particularly happy for me as I have obtained a scholarship at National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) to finish my PhD.

I have learned how to repair a leak at my bath with a brand-new sealer I have never used before.  (Editor’s note: Sounds like amazing work from Emiliano. Leaky bathtubs are terrible!)

What is the best part about working in research?

I love doing research. Since I was an undergraduate student, I have been passionate about it as well as explaining subjects to my fellow students at university. Both activities make me feel good with myself. It is really gratifying when I receive positive feedback from a student or when passing a selection processes; i.e:  obtaining a scholarship, an award, publishing an article in a prestigious journal or obtaining funding for research in high competition calls.

And the most challenging part about working in research?

Unfortunately, in Argentina, salaries are very low and the procedures to grow in this profession are not what one would expect.

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

It really can make your work easier!! It is worth learning to use Mendeley and is really a user friendly software. It is also a great social network of researchers all over the world.

Do you have any advice for young researchers? 

Although the scenario can be adverse sometimes and things do not go always as you wish, keep trying it. Perseverance is essential to achieve your objectives.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Find out more about Emiliano by viewing his Mendeley profile.

Interested in becoming a Mendeley Advisor yourself? Find out more about the Advisor Community here.

Advisor of the month: Merceline Obwaya

Rachel Brennesholtz

 

Merceline is a Library Assistant at the Kenyatta University Post Modern Library. Merceline grew up in a small village called Nyansara in Kisii County, Kenya. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Library and Information Science from Kenyatta University in December, 2014. She is passionate about providing timely and quality services to the community she serves.

 

How did you get into your field?
I love reading, but that’s not the reason I became a librarian. I love connecting people with the information they need to change their lives for the better. I love the hunt and the power of having the right information at the right time and teaching others to gain the skills too. I chose to pursue a degree in Library and information Science to accomplish all these through serving library/ information centres’ clients. I joined Kenyatta University Post Modern Library a few months after graduating and it has been exciting serving the University Community. It is amazing to work in a library!

Where do you do work the best?
In a relaxed and clean environment with people who are committed to their work and are self-driven.

How long have you used Mendeley?
I was first introduced to Mendeley in 2015 by my supervisor, who is currently the Deputy University librarian at Kenyatta University. Thanks Mr. Thuku!

What were you using prior to Mendeley and how does Mendeley influence your research?
Microsoft Word citations & bibliography. Mendeley is a one-stop solution when it comes to research. It makes referencing and citation so easier, allows one to read the saved PDF documents, make notes and add comments and even search the web catalog for more related reference documents and suggests more articles for further reading. It is an amazing tool.

Why did you decide to become an Advisor, and how are you involved with the program?
When I joined Kenyatta University, I realized most of the users I served had issues with citation and referencing. I took the challenge to learn more about Mendeley, so that I can help them rather than giving them several referrals to the reference experts. I joined the Librarian certification program in 2017 and I learnt and sharpened my skills in using Mendeley. I am involved in the library Information Literacy training sessions and one of the key issues addressed in the trainings is use of the reference management tools. I am the Mendeley expert in my library! I train the students and staff how Mendeley can make their research more enjoyable and easier.

What researcher would you like to work with or meet, dead or alive?
No one in particular, but I wish to meet the Mendeley team. They have done so much to make referencing such an easier task, providing all the support and resources needed by the users to learn more about Mendeley. The people behind this magic.

What book are you reading at the moment?
In addition to the many articles I read while working, I am currently reading “Doors of opportunity: issues in personal development and achievement” by Sebuye Livingstone.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned this week?
Learning is a continuous process. There is always something new to learn each day.

What is the best part about working in research?
Always learning to solve problems scholars face to make their research life better and interesting.

And the most challenging part about working in research?
When people assume that as an information professional you know everything, and that you can solve all the challenges they face in the research world.

What is one Mendeley “ProTip” you have?
All the Mendeley features are just where I exactly need them. The new Mendeley web importer is an amazing development! I can now save the subscribed articles without going through the long process of downloading them to my desktop folders first.

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Interested in becoming a Mendeley Advisor yourself? Find out more about the Advisor Community here

Advisor of the Month: Gustavo Bernardi Pereira, Federal University of Paraná, Brazil

Rachel Brennesholtz

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

Since my childhood, I have been passionate about learning how things work as well as any quirky stuff I can find. Because of this “quirky stuff” side, I ended up starting a bachelor in physics and maths. However, something was missing… the “how things work” side. So, I decided to change my degree to Industrial Engineering at Federal University of Parana.

In the meantime, I got a scholarship to study MEng. Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Warwick. Back to the quirky stuff… my project was called “Manufacture of functional polymer-composite materials for electromagnetic applications by extrusion”. Even though it was a challenging project, my supervisor at the time suggested I use a reference manager called “Mendeley”. As most of the students, I did not pay enough attention to her and made it without using it.

Back in Brazil I began a Masters in Process Mining. As soon as I started studying it, I realized that working only on the research itself would consume much more energy than I expected (as you often have to redo your work). At this point I decided to optimize my research process. And I decided to follow my former supervisor’s advice and start using Mendeley.

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

Usually I like to balance two environments: loud and talkative (to generate the ideas) and quiet and surrounded by nature (to organise the ideas).

How long have you been on Mendeley? 

I first heard about it in 2013. However, it was only in 2016 I started exploring its features and using them effectively.

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

I used to have a notepad file with a list of references, which I pasted in to the document at the end. When I found out what Mendeley could do for my research, I must confess I was bit sceptical in the beginning. As I started using it, the intuitive environment changed my mind and now I am very comfortable about swapping my notepad to Mendeley.

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

Seeing my Master’s peers struggling to finish a 6 page assignment because of the references brought my attention to simple problems around me. So I became an Advisor and since then I have been holding teaching sessions for many groups in the university.

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

Leonardo da Vinci is one researcher I would like to meet and work with. Possibly because of his broad range of skills in different areas.

What book are you reading at the moment and why?

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. The book talks about how decisions you assume are being made rationally sometimes are not really something you have a choice about.

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

Well… some people say it is possible to use a biological virus to improve computing power hahaha https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsanm.8b01508

What is the best part about working in research?

Having your research used by someone else (to help someone, not to have citations) is the best part.

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

Dealing with egos, in my humble opinion, is the biggest challenge we have been facing in science as it jeopardises both the speed and the environment in which the research is made.

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

Unless your notepad file still can solve your problems, use Mendeley…. for the greater good.

 

Follow Gustavo on Mendeley

Find out more about the Mendeley Advisor Community

Find out more about all-things Mendeley

Planned Downtime on 11 & 12 January 2017

Christian DeFeo

Please be aware that due to essential maintenance work, on Wednesday, January 11th and Thursday, January 12th, 2017, some users may not be able to access Mendeley services between:

0600 and 0800 GMT

(Please check the World Clock Time Zone Converter to convert the time to your local time.)

During this time, users will be unable to sync Mendeley Desktop or their mobile apps, and all parts of the live site (feed, online library, stats, etc) will be unavailable. If the users are already logged into Mendeley Desktop before the downtime begins, they will continue to be able to use it offline.

Check our Support Twitter account @MendeleySupport for updates.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

The Mendeley Team

Mendeley welcomes the SSRN Community!

Shruti Desai

SSRN

Mendeley is excited and pleased to welcome members of the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) to our community! Elsevier, our parent company, today announced the acquisition of SSRN, meaning the users of SSRN will have access to the technology and collaborative tools of Mendeley.

We at Mendeley think this is a perfect match. As you know, Mendeley is all about “changing the way we do research.” SSRN, a scholarly research preprint repository and online community, believes in providing “tomorrow’s research today.” Together, it is yet another step towards creating the research future, with more global collaboration and a greater range of scholarly knowledge.

While Mendeley is a research platform for all disciplines, it is no secret we were founded by three PhDs in the so-called “hard sciences.” Meanwhile, SSRN has been attentive to the unique needs of the social sciences community, a place where research is often done with smaller collaborative groups and reliance on hypotheses and networks is often a key building block to research.

SSRN-and-Mendeley
SSRN CEO Gregg Gordon (center) with Mendeley co-founders Jan Reichelt and Paul Foeckler at Mendeley headquarters in London.

This aspect will stay the same at SSRN, but with the added bonus of Mendeley’s technology platform, our collaboration network, and other library and reference management tools. SSRN users will also be able to create Mendeley profiles, with all the benefits of network communications and “follow” capabilities.

For Mendeley, this brings the robust community SSRN has built into the fold, plus the opportunity for enhanced author relationships and provides access to a leading resource for content.

“Together, SSRN and Mendeley can provide greater access to the growing base of user-generated content, build new informational and analytical tools and increase engagement with a broader set of researchers,” said Gregg Gordon, President and CEO of SSRN. Read the full article from Gordon on Elsevier Connect.

“SSRN has established a solid network in Social Science domains, sharing working papers and showcasing researchers and institutions,” said Jan Reichelt, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Mendeley. “Together we can provide greater access to a growing user-generated content base on which we can build new tools and increase engagement between researchers and their papers. We intend to scale and maximize SSRN in ways that benefit authors, institutions and the entire scientific ecosystem.”

We look forward to working with SSRN and all the SSRN community members!

Announcing a Special Contest for Mendeley Users at University of Toronto and York University.

Sarah E Hoey

canada uni may 2015

Celebrate Your Research Team!

At Mendeley we understand that life in a research team is very busy: focusing on your research as well as collaborating with your colleagues and trying to keep up with the latest research in your field. We’re here to help you with your research productivity while trying to make sure you having some fun too!

That’s why we’re introducing a new contest for you called “Celebrate Your Research Team” that will run from June 1st 2015 through to August 1st 2015.

You can win the following:

  • 1st Prize: Mendeley funded Pizza Lunch ($80 gift card) and Mendeley Researcher Edition for your team
  • 2nd & 3rd Prizes (each month): Mendeley Researcher Edition for your team.

Sounds great right?

What is the Mendeley Researcher Edition (MRE)?

Mendeley Researcher Edition (MRE) is a premium version of Mendeley, a reference management tool built on top of one of the world’s largest academic collaboration networks that allows you to do the following:

  1. Create and keep your ‘online profile’ on Mendeley, helping you be more discoverable, connecting you with others, and making it easy for others to follow you.
  2. It’s great for research teams as you can connect with other researchers and share full-text documents (manuscript, readings, etc.) via an unlimited number of private groups. You can form public-Invite only groups to bring together small research groups to further promote and expose what you are working on.  You can set up topical public groups with other researchers to generate interest about your discipline.
  3. It also helps research teams that want to keep on top of the changes in their field as you can utilize the various search and proactive recommendation features such as Mendeley Suggest to alert you on the latest articles, people, and groups you’ll want to know about.
  4. Mendeley Researcher Edition (MRE) is easy to use and comes with 5 GB of cloud storage to manage your documents and references. Mendeley also makes it convenient to create proper citations.

Here’s how you enter:

  •  Make a post in your university’s group with the following information:
    • Your Name & Institution
    • Description of your team’s research focus (50 words max)
    • Tell us how your team uses/would use Mendeley (50 words)
    • Explain why your team should win (80 words)
  • Submit that same information via this form (using your institutional e-mail address, this is so we can verify your information)

The criteria used to determine the winner of this contest is:

25PERCENT

…so be sure to invite your friends and colleagues to the group!

The winner is selected on the last day of every month and an announcement is made via the Mendeley Blog. Those who have won a prize are not eligible to participate in the contest again.

For more information please contact Yath on y.ithayakumar@elsevier.com

Back to the Future with Mendeley

Shruti Desai5 Comments

We were so inspired by Josh Emerson’s Back to the Future look at internet history, we wanted to do one of our own!

We had quite a productive 2014, but it is nothing compared to what is in the works for 2015. Some of it we can reveal to you now — but stay tuned this year. Good things are happening, but here is a look at the past, present, and future of Mendeley 2015.

 

Mendeley Future — Android, iOS and Web Library

It’s 2015…the year we were due to get our hoverboards, according to the movie “Back to the Future.” We’re trying to convince the developers to make it happen by the next Mendeley Hack Day, but until that does, the new future of research means bringing it on the go with our upgraded iOS app and upcoming Android app. Our iOS upgrade improves syncing speed across your Mendeley platforms, using our fresh API. We expect the update to hit the iTunes store later this month — we’ll be sure to let you know when it does.
And our Android app is expected within the first half of this year! That’s right, before the summer sun (or winter sun for our southern hemisphere users) you’ll be able to take your Mendeley library on-the-go with your Android smartphones and tablets.

Anxious for a sneak preview? Product Manager Steve Dennis walks us through the latest iteration on this preview video.

 

We also have a sneak preview of the fresh web library, your Mendeley library accessed through a browser. The new web library, expected within the next month, is redesigned from the ground up, with a much improved user interface. Highlights include the ability to upload PDFs with automatic metadata extraction.


This is just a brief sneak peek, there are many other new things coming soon! And don’t worry about missing the news — we’ll sound the trumpets when they all get officially released!

Mendeley Present — Desktop Update

When you opened your Mendeley Desktop after your New Years’ break (and of course you took a proper break rather than work through the holidays, right?), you may have noticed an update to your Mendeley Desktop (version 1.13-dev7 for the technically-minded).

So what’s new in your Mendeley Desktop? We:

  • Fixed empty titles on document deduplication.
  • Fixed issue that would prevent the user from deleting a document note created by another user in a shared group.
  • Fixed issue that could crash the application if the owner of a shared group had deleted his account
  • Fixed issue that would prevent the user from restoring the backup.

For more information, and to find out what to do if you’ve encountered any issues with the new release, read the release notes on our website.

All of these changes feed into our bigger goal to give our users the ability for users to easily access and sync their Mendeley
library across a range of devices.

All of our updates take advantage our fresh API, which is open for everyone to use for building tools to make researchers’ lives easier.

Mendeley Past — A look back to where we started

Do you follow us on Twitter or Facebook? To close out 2014, we took a look back to the Mendeley past.

Check out what your Mendeley Desktop looked like in 2009:

And learn what Mendeley was called before it was Mendeley. Hint: It has B-movie overtones.

 

What do you remember best about Mendeley past? What are you hoping for most in the Mendeley future? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Meet the Desktop Team!

Shruti Desai

It’s hard not to throw too many bouquets at our Desktop Team. The Mendeley Desktop is at the heart of Mendeley as a referencing tool, the first thing you download after signing up to use Mendeley. The Desktop team is always hard at work iterating and improving the Desktop App — you can always read the release notes on our website to know the latest and greatest. Recently, the team worked together with several other teams here to introduce support for importing articles in MEDLINE format, to enable better bulk importing from PubMed. This is useful for medical researchers, who use this for systematic literature reviews. The team is already working with beta testers on the next iteration of Mendeley Desktop, a version that paves the way for our iOS and Android apps!

Vincent Delannoy — Team Lead

vincentVincent’s past positions are, in order: military Flight simulator, phone operator, finance, visual arts, mobile phones, maps, finance, finance, video, research. What finally led him to London is the french immigration services, and Londoners in general.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

As a team leader, I’m responsible for the well being of the team. That includes writing code, communicating with other teams to solve cross-team issues, promote good practices, promoting projects that will make the desktop code better, more scalable and easier to understand for new starters, taking decisions when there is no consensus on what to do.

What is your favourite part about working for Mendeley?

A happy team

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

baby sitting / playing music / drawing / painting

 

George Kartvelishvili —Senior Software Engineer

GeorgeGeorge was born in Tbilisi, Georgia back in the Soviet days. He developed his love of computers from an early age due to his dad’s ZX-81 and Atari ST. He moved to England with his family in the mid-nineties and studied Computer Science (BSs) and Advanced Computer Science (MSc) at the University of Manchester. Soon after graduating, he headed down to London to seek his fortune and adventures in the games industry. After 10+ years as a graphics and gameplay programmer creating electronic entertainment for PC and consoles in a variety of companies including Rockstar Games, he decided to join the thriving London startup scene. He joined Mendeley in 2012 and is now busy maintaining and improving the desktop client.

How do you describe your role on the Desktop Team?

My role involves looking after the workings of our Mendeley Desktop client. This has mostly involved extending and improving the user interface and a large chunk of behind the scenes work.

What is your favourite part about working for Mendeley?

My favourite part of working in Mendeley is the casual friendly atmosphere about the place and the underlying feeling that I might be doing something just a little bit good for the progress of science.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

I do a fair bit of “recreational” programming, enjoy a good bit of DIY and I like travelling and tasting the local cuisines of the world. Although, recently my life has gotten a lot more interesting and my spare time is mostly filled with rocking a baby to sleep and changing nappies.

 

Robert Knight — Senior Software Engineer

Rob 2Rob studied Computer Science at Southampton University. During that time he was a contributor to the KDE desktop for Linux. Arrived at Mendeley via a recommendation from an employee he met at their annual aKademy conference.
Connect with him at Twitter @robknight_.

How do you describe your role on the Desktop Team?

I work on all areas of the desktop app across all platforms. I work on end user facing features to make the app a more useful, and hopefully delightful, tool for researchers to use, as well as infrastructure to help us improve and maintain the stability of the app and deliver updates to users.

What is your favourite part about working for Mendeley?

I like working on a tool that makes a difference in people’s working lives and makes them more productive researchers. It’s also great to be in the heart of London’s busy tech scene.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

I run and cycle with my local athletics club and hack on various open source projects to keep myself in the loop about new and evolving technology.

 

 

Carles Pina — Software Engineer

CarlesCarles was born and grew up in Manresa, near Barcelona. He studied computer engineering in Barcelona, worked at Elvior (Estonia) and Lexatel Technologies (Barcelona). He was involved in Linux User Groups in Catalonia and collaborated in different free software projects. In June 2009, Carles moved to London to join Mendeley. Connect with him online at his homepage and a blog.

How do you describe your role on the Desktop Team?

We all implement features and fix bugs. I always try to improve the CSL (Citation Style Language, used for citations and bibliographies) integration with Mendeley.

What is your favourite part about working for Mendeley?

Make our users happy helping them to be more productive. Seeing that users like Mendeley, find it useful, etc
Another really good part is the colleagues in the office.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

In no particular order: programming (usually Python outside working hours, for a change), play table tennis, hiking (recently I finished the London LOOP), travelling…

 

Arnau Josep Rosselló Castelló — C++ Developer

arnauMonday was literally Arnau’s first day! His background is in the games industry and finance (yes, both).
How do you describe your role on the Desktop Team?
Newbie
What is your favourite part about working for Mendeley?
The newness of it all
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
Climbing, Rollerblading, and catching offers on Steam

 

What you should know about Mendeley Open Day 2014

Shruti Desai

Whew. We’re just now recovering from the craziness that was Mendeley Open Day. While we didn’t film everything (to protect the innocent…and the not-so-innocent), you can relive, rewind, and re-watch the day via our YouTube Playlist or catch up on Tweets through our Storify.

If for some reason you decide you don’t want to watch 9 hours of video (why ever not?!), here are some of the highlights and features announced at Open Day.

Top 5 Features announced at Mendeley Open Day

1. Improved iOS speed + Android phone preview!
Steve Dennis was surprised to receive a spontaneous ovation from the audience after describing the iOS sync speed as improving 5000 percent better

You can catch his moment below (starts at 28:05) and stay tuned for the Android preview

2. Improved Web Library
Your Mendeley Library will soon be even more portable, with improved Web Library (starts at 35:36)

3. Research Data Management
Joe Shell, Senior Project Manager, shared why he thinks data is like wine, (“it gets better with age”) and his vision for seamless data management for researchers and laboratories. (starts at 1:00:00)

4. Sneak preview of your new Mendeley Profile Page
See Wah Cheng gave us a sneak preview of an updated Mendeley profile page and explained how Mendeley is creating better research work flow through improved social networking. (starts at 1:10:00)

5. Mendeley API is improving other workflow tools, including writeLaTeX

API Developer Joyce Stack shared how third-party developers are using Mendeley API to create better tools for researchers, including better .bib import to writeLaTeX, as announced Dr. John Lees-Miller

Best Talk on Researcher Workflow

One of my favourite bits was from Mendeley Advisor Vicky Pyne, who talked about how she gets things done with her system called (wait for it) “Getting Things Done.” (starts at 37:10)

There was so much more, so you really ought to watch the videos. If you tuned in already, tell us, what was your favourite bit? What are you hoping to learn more about?