Tag: Mendeley

Introducing Mendeley Reference Manager – designed for today’s researcher workflow

dmitriyshlyuger

Updated on 22 February 2022 with new details and timelines.

Whether organizing research, annotating articles, generating a bibliography or sharing references, Mendeley has been there to help ease the workflow of millions of researchers around the world. Using valuable feedback from our users, we have developed a completely new build of the reference manager that is more resilient, streamlined and intuitive – and we can’t wait for you to try it.

Do more with Mendeley

Mendeley Reference Manager simplifies your entire referencing workflow and provides what you need to stay organized and focused on what matters – your research. Mendeley Cite, an add-in for Microsoft Word, makes citing seamless. Together they make storing, organizing, annotating, sharing and citing references more efficient than ever before.

Try the new Mendeley to:

  • Work in different locations with identical desktop and web versions
  • Insert citations seamlessly while writing – without having to leave your document
  • Enjoy peace of mind with automatic sync, knowing that your latest changes are always backed up in the cloud
  • Collaborate with others in real time – automatic sync enables sharing and annotating papers alongside team members in private groups
  • Experience the reliability of software regularly updated with new features and releases

A closer look

Mendeley’s new reference management suite consists of three integrated applications that together provide you with a single, powerful solution.

Mendeley Reference Manager – Installed on your desktop or as a web application, you can easily organize all your references in one library using collections and tags, and find important references quickly with keyword search and filtering. The built-in notebook helps you keep your thoughts organized in one place. Create notebook pages for different topics and use them to collect annotations and highlighted text from PDFs as you read them. Create and participate in private groups from within the app and share resources and annotations efficiently with a team. You can switch seamlessly between desktop and web versions of the reference manager for convenient access to your research on any computer.

Mendeley Cite – Generate citations and bibliographies and change citation style in just a few clicks with the new Mendeley Cite add-in for Microsoft Word. Your whole document remains visible while finding, selecting and inserting references – you no longer need to switch back and forth between your library, the citation panel and what you’re writing. What’s more, because your library is stored in the cloud, Mendeley Cite works even without the desktop version of Mendeley Reference Manager being installed. Compatible with Microsoft® Office 365, Microsoft Word versions 2016 and newer, the Microsoft Word app for iPad® and the free Microsoft Word for the web, Mendeley Cite offers users a range of options, and we will continue to expand these in the future.

Mendeley Web Importer – Adding this extension to your browser enables you to easily build your library of references as you search online. Access full-text research with one click where available, and spend less time navigating and more time building your knowledgebase.

The three applications are fully integrated – your collections are visible and searchable throughout your workflow so that you can quickly and efficiently build, manage and cite from your library. Because all three are available on a wide range of platforms and web browsers, you have the flexibility to work how and where you want.

The new Mendeley suite also has a clearer, more intuitive look and functionality, so that you can get up and running quickly and manage your references with ease.

How to upgrade

Mendeley Desktop users can try Mendeley Reference Manager’s desktop app worry-free – both applications can be installed on your computer at the same time. Ready to explore the new Mendeley? Here’s how:

  1. Sync your existing library in Mendeley Desktop
  2. Download and install Mendeley Reference Manager
  3. Open the new reference manager, and sign in using your existing Mendeley credentials

That’s it! With those simple steps, you are ready to use a more powerful version of Mendeley.

Mendeley Reference Manager will replace Mendeley Desktop in the long run

As part of the continued evolution of Mendeley, from 1 September 2022, users will no longer be able to download and install Mendeley Desktop software. Existing users of Mendeley Desktop will continue to be able to sign into, use and sync their Mendeley Desktop.

Longer-term, once we are confident that the new Mendeley Reference Manager sufficiently meets your reference management needs, we will begin the process of stopping all sign-ins to Mendeley Desktop. We will be sure to give you plenty of notice before this happens.

We want to hear from you

Listening to Mendeley’s user base has been a critical part of developing the new Mendeley applications. Because we understand that your needs evolve, the product team is always eager to hear from you, so we can continue to build a Mendeley that supports you. Send us your feedback, ideas and suggestions anytime from within the apps, or via the link below.

We are regularly releasing updates for the new Mendeley applications, which helps us progressively integrate your feedback and suggestions. It also ensures that bugs are fixed quickly and updates to approved third-party software are implemented in a timely way. Our aim is to provide a smooth experience for Mendeley users, so your attention can stay focused on your research.

The Mendeley team values the opportunity to provide solutions that help researchers do their vital work more easily and efficiently. We are proud to be a trusted partner to so many researchers around the world, and committed to supporting you and your research today – and into the future.

Try the new Mendeley Reference Manager now.

Your experience matters

We welcome your feedback about the new Mendeley Reference Manager. While we will be unable to respond individually, your message will be reviewed by our team and suggestions may be added in future releases. Provide feedback.

Advisor of the Month – Devarajan Rathish

dmitriyshlyuger

Meet Devarajan Rathish, our July Advisor of the Month! 

Advisor of the Month - Devarajan Rathish
Advisor of the Month – Devarajan Rathish

Dr. Devarajan Rathish is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, located in the Anuradhapura district in North Central Sri Lanka. He studied medicine (MBBS), completed his master’s degree in public health (MPH) at EUCLID University and obtained a master of philosophy (MPhil) at the Rajarata University of Sri Lanka.

How did you get into your field?

I like teaching, treating, and researching. Also, I had a passion to work in a rural region of my country. Therefore, I choose to become a Lecturer in a faculty of medicine located in a rural region. And, now I am happy teaching medical students, treating patients, and doing research in Anuradhapura. My fields of interest are Pharmacology, Primary Care, Public Health, and Medical Ethics. 

Where do you do work the best?

I feel fortunate to work in fields that focus on broader aspects of medicine. It has given me an opportunity to achieve a diversity of knowledge. Further, I prefer to work in an environment where my teammates have competency, a strong sense of companionship, and a good work ethic. 

How long have you been using Mendeley?

I have been using Mendeley for six years. Since June 2015, I have been a Mendeley Advisor. I am happy to have introduced Mendeley to many undergraduates, postgraduates, and academic staff members of Sri Lanka. 

What were you using prior to Mendeley?

I used to make references manually. Thanks to my Mendeley advisor Dr. Buddhika Wijerathne (my previous colleague and now a general practitioner at Ropes Crossing Medical Practice, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), I could learn Mendeley at the very beginning of my career. 

Why did you decide to become an Advisor?

To share the treasure that I found – “Mendeley”. The need for Mendeley was felt by many of my academic colleagues who are involved in research work. Also, annual workshops on Mendeley had to be conducted as part of the “Research in medicine” module for the 3rd year medical undergraduates at the university. Thus, my role as an official Mendeley advisor was important. I extend my gratitude to the team Mendeley for extending their continuous support. They register my workshops on time and provide useful materials and merchandise as well. 

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

I would like to meet and work with Dr. David Nalin, Professor Emeritus, Center for Immunology and Microbial Diseases, Albany Medical College. He along with Dr. Richard Cash, and their colleagues “successfully tested the efficacy of an oral glucose-electrolyte solution, later known as oral rehydration therapy (ORT), to be used instead of intravenous fluid for the treatment of patients with severe cholera”. The Lancet called it “… possibly the greatest medical discovery of this century”. And, the UNICEF describes its value as follows: “no other single medical breakthrough of the 20th century has the potential to prevent so many deaths, over such a short period of time and at so little cost”. The above are compelling reasons for my willingness to meet and work with him. 

What book are you reading at the moment? 

I am reading John Murtagh’s General Practice. The textbook describes the essentials of general practice in depth. It’s a great read for anyone that aspires to progress as a family physician, and I would recommend it to my colleagues and students. 

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

The new variants of Coronavirus. There will be a lot more to learn on the above topic during the next few months as well. 

What is the best part about working in research?

I like reviewing and referencing. It helps me broaden my existing knowledge.

And the most challenging part about working in research?

Finding suitable collaborations and research grants have always been a challenge. However, once the above two are finalized the journey is much easier.

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

Mendeley is a high-quality reference manager provided free of charge for all. 

Do you have any advice for young researchers? 

“Research is seeing what everybody else has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.” – Albert Szent-Györgyi (1893-1986) 

Interested in becoming a Mendeley Advisor? Learn more about the Advisor Community.

Efficiently building knowledge

sallyransom

By: Louise Springthorpe

BMK webinar image 2How much time do you spend adding to your knowledge base? Consider all the tasks involved: searching for data and literature; evaluating their relevance; downloading what you need; and then organizing everything, including your own experimental data, so that you can always find and share a given piece of information when it’s required.

We estimate that researchers spend one to two days per week on such tasks. Fortunately, there are ways to increase efficiency, leaving more time to focus on research projects.

One way is ensuring that information is easy to discover. Elsevier’s research solutions, like ScienceDirect, Scopus, Reaxys and Engineering Village, access high-quality collections of literature and data indexed with dedicated taxonomies. Articles and books are available in electronic formats to support efficient review, and data export is possible in a range of formats suitable for further analytics.

Mendeley is a popular and user-friendly platform for creating your own library. Its collaborative features allow multiple researchers to annotate documents and share information. Elsevier is also refining our text mining tools to improve library searching. For more reliable data capture, management and storage, we offer an ELN and cloud-based platforms, including Mendeley Data.

These cutting-edge solutions reflect Elsevier’s promise to build an ecosystem of solutions and services that help researchers achieve their goals more efficiently.

Join our Build My Knowledge: Effectively collect, organize and retrieve your personal knowledge base webinar where 3 fellow researchers will discuss how they effectively collect, organize and retrieve their personal knowledge base and provide insights on how they keep themselves organized in the era of information overload.

Date: Tuesday 10th September
Time: 10am Los Angeles, 1pm New York, 6pm London

Register here

BMK webinar image 1

Supporting researchers with the new Mendeley Reference Manager

sallyransom

Laura ThomsonLaura Thomson, PhD, is Head of Reference Management at Mendeley. She has been with Elsevier since the start of 2015, and brings over 18 years’ experience with information products and research solutions to her role. Praised by her group for her clear vision and creative approach, she plays a key role in shaping how reference management is discussed and driven at Elsevier. With some exciting new developments happening with Mendeley’s reference management solutions, we met with her to find out more.

We recently heard from your colleague Gaby Appleton about the overall vision for Elsevier’s researcher solutions, especially Mendeley. How do Mendeley’s reference management solutions, specifically, fit within that vision?

As Gaby will have told you, the vision for Elsevier is to contribute to improving the information system supporting research. Our aim is to help researchers work even more efficiently so they can spend more time making discoveries.

That’s a statement that truly resonates with me. I started out as a biochemist and, as that career progressed, other tasks started to take over more of my time. In many ways, it stopped being fun because there was less time to do the real research.

The vision for Mendeley is to provide researchers with time-saving tools that help speed up and simplify their workflows. We want to take reference management off researchers’ minds by making all the tasks related to collecting, organizing, reading, annotating and citing as simple as possible – and key to this is the development of the new Mendeley Reference Manager.

With that guiding vision, communication with researchers must be very important to your team’s development plans.

Absolutely. The tools we offer must address challenges in researchers’ daily reality, so we are in constant communication with a range of researchers – those that use Mendeley, those that use other solutions, and those that don’t use any digital software at all to manage their references. These aren’t just casual conversations either. We have a robust user discovery program consisting of weekly sessions in which researchers test what we’re doing and give feedback.

This is an ongoing process, allowing us to provide researchers with a reference manager that not only addresses feedback gathered in the past, but also continues to develop over time with regular releases responding to feedback we continue to receive. Mendeley Reference Manager will evolve as researchers’ needs and the research landscape evolve.

Can you tell us more about the new developments you’re making with Mendeley Reference Manager?MRM image 2

In 2008, Mendeley was launched as a reference manager for researchers. Over the years, we’ve continued to develop Mendeley Desktop and the reference manager products.

More recently, though, it’s become increasingly difficult to keep developing the original Mendeley Desktop in the way we and our users need. A key element of this is how often we release a new version; with Mendeley Desktop we release four to five times a year, but with the new Mendeley Reference Manager we are releasing every two weeks. This means that we can respond faster to user feedback, and get new functionality and fixes out more regularly.

We have also built Mendeley Cite – a new citation add-in for Microsoft® Word. As with Mendeley Reference Manager, we have developed this very much in response to user feedback. For example, users have increasingly been asking for citation support in Microsoft® Office 365 but we could not offer this with the existing Mendeley citation plugin, as it’s built in VBA. We have built the new Mendeley Cite in JavaScript so users can now cite in Office 365.

Can you give us some more details about Mendeley Cite, and any other changes people can expect with the new Mendeley Reference Manager package?

In terms of new functionality that’s already available, two tools I’m really excited about are Mendeley Cite, as mentioned, and Mendeley Notebook – we’re hoping both will really help simplify researchers’ workflows.RNS_963_b.Cite version image

Mendeley Cite enables users to cite references and generate a bibliography, just as they could with our existing citation plugin, but as I mentioned, Mendeley Cite now works with Office 365. You also don’t have to be a Mendeley Desktop user to use Mendeley Cite – it works with your cloud library which is loaded into the add-in, so there is no need to switch between applications when citing, another feature that users were asking for a lot.

Mendeley Notebook is our brand-new note-taking tool. It’s a working space for keeping thoughts in one place, making it quick and easy to collect highlights from multiple PDFs and add you own comments. Researchers told us that they liked having highlights and annotations associated with the PDF, but that they were usually reading multiple PDFs at once and wanted their notes from all of these in one place. With Notebook they can do this.

We’ve also made the reference management experience generally more accessible and streamlined by making a lot of things just that bit better. A user’s library now automatically syncs to the cloud when they’re signed in; notifications about whether an action was successfully completed are a lot clearer; the look and feel has also been updated… And we’re continuing work on more features and functionality, which will release throughout 2019 – watch this space!

Gaby also talked about Elsevier’s commitment to source neutrality and maintenance of user control. How does the new Mendeley Reference Manager align with that?

Mendeley Reference Manager remains a place where researchers can gather papers and documents from any publisher or source. We do not give priority to Elsevier content; there’s no change there. Research support solutions of this type must remain source neutral. It’s essential for the researcher to remain unrestricted in that.

How do you feel now that the new version is out in the world?

I’m naturally excited to see the response to the new Mendeley Reference Manager. The development vision was very much informed by conversations with researchers about daily challenges. The post-release feedback on the new version is a key part of our development vision because it feeds our continuous iterative development. So, I’m excited and I know the development team are too.

And, lastly, where can people go to see all this for themselves?

The new Mendeley Reference Manager can be downloaded from www.mendeley.com/reference-management/reference-manager-beta. It’s currently in BETA, and doesn’t have all the functionality of the existing Mendeley Desktop just yet – but, as mentioned, we’ll be making releases to it every two weeks. The BETA works alongside Mendeley Desktop so you can try it out whilst still using your existing Desktop – just sign in using your Mendeley credentials and your library will sync.

You can get Mendeley Cite from Microsoft AppSource at www.mendeley.com/cite/word/install.

We’d love to get feedback on both of these to help inform future developments. So I encourage everyone to let us know their thoughts using the feedback links within Mendeley Reference Manager and Mendeley Cite. We really hope everyone enjoys using them!

Thank you very much for your time.

You can find out more about all-things Mendeley here

Mendeley’s vision for supporting researchers

sallyransom

Gaby-Appleton-at-MendeleyGaby Appleton is the Managing Director for Mendeley and Researcher Products at Elsevier. She leads an expert product management team in a mission to support millions of researchers with better digital information systems. The aim is to help them have more impact with their work and effectively demonstrate that impact, to stay up to date, to organize and share their knowledge, and to advance their career. She brings over 15 years’ experience to her role along with a passion for the world of research. We met with her to discuss the development vision for Mendeley.

Thank you for taking the time to discuss the development vision for Mendeley. How would you define that vision?

Our vision for Mendeley and indeed for all the Elsevier solutions is to contribute to improving the information system that supports research — an ecosystem of tools and data that addresses real challenges in researchers’ daily reality.

What informs that vision?

Above all, it’s informed by conversations with researchers, which is something I spend a lot of time on. Not that it is a hardship! Spending time with them is truly one of the highlights of my job. Hearing about ground-breaking research from people who are so enthusiastic about what they’re doing is inspirational.

But it’s also essential. The Mendeley team that is responsible for defining our vision needs that open, honest contact with researchers.

Why are those conversations so important?

Because our development strategy has to focus on the problems we can solve for users. If we were doing something because it was exciting technologically but it didn’t address real challenges, then we’d be completely missing the point. We need to ground our development in researchers’ needs.

That’s why we start by listening to gain insight into their challenges, then look at what the technology can do, and finally design solutions to those challenges.

What is the vision for Mendeley’s development that has come out of conversations with researchers?

Based on all the challenges researchers have talked about, we’ve adopted four principles to guide our development strategy: source neutrality, interoperability, transparency, and user control.

Source neutrality means that researchers can use this information system to retrieve, store and disseminate information regardless of the publisher. An unbiased view is the essence of good research and we want to ensure that our platforms and tools are open to content beyond Elsevier’s. Mendeley users can receive recommendations on what to read next (Mendeley Suggest) based on what they’ve already added to their library, and funders-imagethese recommendations are not limited to Elsevier – they can be from any publisher. And we don’t restrict that to papers. Researchers have talked about challenges with staying abreast of funding opportunities, so we’ve worked to provide one of the largest aggregations of funding information, maintaining source neutrality and transparency. The same applies to career postings.

Interoperability is about ensuring that applications, tools and data sets from different providers can work together. The Mendeley API represents our commitment to interoperability with any tools that researchers need.

Transparency is vital to researchers. If they receive an alert or recommendation, they need to know what prompted it. Otherwise, they can’t know if it’s relevant without spending time assessing it. If they are looking at search results, it’s great if they can see how their search string relates to those results. That helps with filtering and refining the hit set. An example of how we maintain transparency is in the functioning of Mendeley Suggest. It makes recommendations for further reading based on what a user and their colleagues are reading, but crucially, it includes information about why that article is relevant.

Control is all about giving researchers control of their own data, where it’s shared and how it’s used by the system. If they don’t want their data to be visible beyond a select group of users, or they don’t want their behavior to provoke recommendations, they should be able to opt out of those features. User control is all about making it easy for an individual to find the settings for preferences. A good example in our system is Mendeley Data, which makes it easy for users to define exactly who sees their data. Similarly, the organization, privacy and recommendation settings of researchers’ reference manager library are easy to control. What displays in a Mendeley Profile is entirely at the user’s discretion.

That’s where our development team constantly strives to take Mendeley: to keep it open to content from any source; to make sure its application programming interface is compatible with multiple tools and platforms; to give users insight into how its features make recommendations; and to ensure that it’s easy for users to set their preferences.

You’re currently developing a new reference manager, now available in BETA, which is a completely re-platformed and updated version of Mendeley’s core reference management function. How does it align with this vision for Mendeley?

I’ll leave it to my colleague Laura Thomson, our Head of Reference Management, to talk about the new Mendeley Reference Manager in more detail in her upcoming interview. Briefly, reference management tools are what we’re best known for. Mendeley Desktop is now ten years old and, while it’s developed incrementally over that time, to really act on users’ feedback and make some big improvements, we felt we needed to take a new RNS_963_a.General version image (2)approach and take advantage of new technologies that have become available since the original Mendeley Desktop was built.

The new Mendeley Reference Manager remains free-to-use and publisher agnostic. The Mendeley API remains open, allowing researchers and developers to create interoperability with multiple tools. We’ve ensured that the settings for the library, recommendations and so on are transparent and in researchers’ control. It’s unique in satisfying those four aspects of the vision for an information system supporting research.

Every aspect of Mendeley follows the same principles and is informed by real-world conversations: from reference management through data sharing to showcasing impact.

We would never pretend that we have all the answers, but we listen. We’ll continue to communicate with researchers as we work on each application of Mendeley. Our goal at Elsevier is an information system that supports research, and Mendeley aims to remain a core part of that.

Thank you very much for your time.

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Find out more about all-things Mendeley here

Find out more about the information system supporting research here 

Advisor of the Month: Robin Pertz; science librarian, NASA Glenn Research Center

Rachel Brennesholtz

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

I started at a library in Gahanna, Ohio (Columbus Metropolitan Library) as a homework help center coordinator. As a former middle school science teacher seeking a new venue for my talents it was the library where my passion for teaching and my enthusiasm for learning collided. It was there I was encouraged to go to grad school where I earned my MLIS from Kent State. During my last semester at KSU I was assigned a project in which I interviewed the manager of the library at NASA Glenn. In a twist of fate, I was asked to complete my practicum, a culminating experience at a place I pined over as a child growing up in the Cleveland area. NASA was always a dream of mine. So it happened that a position became open while I was there and one thing led to another, the rest is history! Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought I’d be the science librarian at NASA.

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

My best work is done in the morning, outside of my building at a picnic table. With the sound of wind tunnels and jet engines in the background with a cup of tea out of my NASA mug is when I’m doing my best work!

How long have you used Mendeley for? 

I have been on Mendeley since January 2017, I was actually the first person to “graduate” from the librarian certification program!

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

I was using NOTHING! Mendeley helps me save time and lean my research process. Saving me time, therefore saving the government time!

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

I guess it goes back to the need for teaching and learning. You can take a teacher out of a classroom but you can’t take the classroom out of the teacher. I host all of our Mendeley demos here at our lab and encourage folks to lean their research process as well!

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

After having been afforded the opportunity to have lunch with legend astronauts and personal heroes like Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, Walt Cunningham, and Frank Borman…I cannot answer this question. I’ve already met some of the most wonderful humans that ever walked this earth and who have been to space.

 What book are you reading at the moment?

Secret time. I’m the librarian that doesn’t read as much as “most” librarians. I go through so much research everyday all day long that by the end of the day I’d rather go to the gym, go for a walk or work in the garden.

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

That someone actually wants to play football for the Cleveland Browns. Welcome to Cleveland OBJ.

What is the best part about working in research?

Seeing things grow from the ground up. I’ll get a research request, 8 months later see NEW research published that used the research that I found and culled together months ago!

And the most challenging part about working in research?

The misconception that I know everything that NASA publishes because I’m the librarian. (a humorous challenge)

What is one Mendeley “ProTip” you have?

Using the “search” feature to find research that spans across multiple disciplines of research that I’ve saved over the years. That is usually my starting point to a new research project.

Biography

Robin grew up in the Cleveland, Ohio area. Always wanting to be a teacher she ventured to central Ohio for her undergraduate degree in middle childhood education. While in college she was a supervisor of summer day camps for kids. After college graduation she stuck around central Ohio and was teaching until finding her love of libraries with the Columbus Metropolitan Library. It was there where she was encouraged to attend grad school where she could advance her career and passion for libraries and learning. Fate would have it that she landed an experience at the NASA Glenn Research Center where all her passions would collide into the perfect dream job! As the science librarian for one of 3 research centers that NASA has, her day to day is filled with many typical librarian tasks like cataloging, collection maintenance, promotion and outreach as well as citation verification, in depth research and reference. Robin also hosts various demos and workshops for the NASA Glenn staff of 1,500. As NASA celebrates the 50th anniversary of the iconic Moon landing and the 60th anniversary of the Agency she hopes to be around to see many more anniversaries in the future and not for one moment takes for granted the esteem that comes for working with someone of the brightest people and most iconic Agencies in the world.

You can follow Robin’s Mendeley profile here

Shameless plugs…

https://www.instagram.com/tv/BlT1z7PghHU/

Follow me on twitter @glennlibrary

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Find out more about the Mendeley Advisor Community here

Meet the team: Rachel Brennesholtz

Rachel Brennesholtz

Job title: Researcher Community Manager

Intro

I’m originally a New Yorker, but I’ve been living in Amsterdam for almost 4 years.  It’s a great city for me since I’m a pretty devoted cyclist.

When did you join Mendeley?

I’ve been with Elsevier since 2015, but started working with Mendeley in June 2018. Before taking over the Researcher Communities, I was running marketing for Pure and some of the funder solutions.

What do you love most about your job?

Definitely the Advisors.  I love seeing just how many people in different parts of the world are using Mendeley and hearing about all the ways you love it.

What book did you most recently read?

Whatever I picked up at the little free library in my neighborhood. My Dutch reading level isn’t great, so I read whatever I can find in English. I also read The Economist and National Geographic- not books, but still great reading.

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

I’ve got two things (which might be cheating)…

  • Mendeley is so much more than a reference manager. The groups functionality is amazing and I would tell everyone to play around with Mendeley Data.
  • We, the team at Mendeley, love hearing about your research success! When Mendeley lovers send us pictures, we print them and hang them in the office to remind us that there is massive community of devoted users.   (You can send them to us at community@mendeley.com)

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

As the Researcher Community Manager, I’m ultimately responsible for the Mendeley Advisors and several other community programs at Elsevier.  I’m running a lot of the things behind the scenes, making sure the Advisor program is growing with you and that we are giving you the best tools.

What’s the most exciting part of your job?

Definitely meeting with the Advisors. I’ve had virtual coffees with many of you, and I love when Advisors drop by our office in Amsterdam and London.

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

The metro stop by my house has the longest escalator in Benelux!

 

Rachel explains what she loves about Mendeley in her #MyMendeley video

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Find out more about the Mendeley Advisor Community here

Show your love for #MyMendeley!

Rachel Brennesholtz

As Mendeley Advisors, you do a great job speaking to the researcher community on your campus about the benefits of using Mendeley. But now we’re calling on you to spread the word even further! Take part in #MyMendeley by making a short video (15 seconds or less) about why you love Mendeley, and upload it to YouTube so we can share it across the social media universe.  (We’ve also raided the marketing giveaways cupboard, so we’ll be sending backpacks and t-shirts to the makers of our favourite videos.)

So here’s how it works:

  • Upload a short video of yourself to YouTube, telling us about why you love Mendeley – maybe how it helps you with your research, your favourite feature, or why you’d recommend it to others
  • Tag your video with #MyMendeley so we can find it and share it

What’s in it for you?

  • Mendeley Glory! We’ll be sharing the videos across our social media channels, so your wisdom will travel far and wide
  • Giveaways! We’ve got new t-shirts and some other fun things to send to the makers of our favourite videos

Looking for inspiration?  Check out Mendeley team members Rachel and Daniel’s videos.

Some tips for making a good video:

  • Keep your video short and snappy (15 seconds or less)
  • Use a fun background! Maybe your lab, a sign of your university or something else that shows where you are from. We used New York City’s famous Grand Central Terminal and Elsevier’s rare book room at our Amsterdam headquarters
  • Film somewhere that doesn’t have too much background noise
  • Give your video a catchy title, and feel free to tell us more about yourself, your research and how you use Mendeley in the description
  • Don’t forget to tag your video with #MyMendeley so we can find it!

We’re looking forward to seeing your videos.

 

Case Reports Live Webinar: How to write good case reports and get them published

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Good case report foldersAs a scientific documentation on a single clinical observation, case reports offer timely and valuable information of best medical practices, especially on rare diseases. They show doctors how fellow practitioners have acted in similar situations and thus aid in the decision-making process. Not only do they significantly contribute to the medical knowledge pool, but they also help add to researchers’ portfolio. For those reasons, case reports have been a time-honoured and rich tradition in medical publication.

Writing a good case report, however, requires much more than just an interesting case. In fact, the most common reason for the rejection of case reports lies in writing styles. This can be a real challenge, especially for early-career researchers who are sharing their clinical experiences for the first time. Apart from that, it is also important to take into consideration the ethical issues and the journals to publish in. As suggested by Professor Oliver Kurzai, Editor-in-Chief of Medical Mycology Case Reports, case reports are often not as well cited as other publications, and therefore, publishing your work in the right journal will ensure it is read by the right people.

Case reports may sound quite overwhelming with all the work they demand. Yet, there are a lot of resources that can help you solve this puzzle. Adding to this knowledge, Researcher Academy, is hosting a webinar on How to Write Case Reports with Oliver Kurzai and Adilia Warris, the Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board member of Medical Mycology Case Reports journal. The webinar will be held on Thursday, February 28th (2pm UTC) to give researchers a chance to interact with the editors who will talk them through the process of choosing suitable subjects, setting up and writing case reports, considering ethical issues as well as selecting an appropriate journal to publish in. You can now send the speakers questions in advance by joining the Researcher Academy Mendeley group and post your queries there.

Register for free here and see you at the webinar!

Mendeley advisor of the month: Sunday Linus Makama (DVM, MFS, PhD, ERT)

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makamaSunday Makama is a researcher with interest in Food and Environmental Health and safety, and currently works at the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI), Vom, Nigeria. He is a Chief Veterinary Research Officer (CVRO), Toxicology in the Biochemistry Division of the NVRI. He has researched into various aspects of Emerging Food borne viruses, Food and Environmental Toxicology, Nanotechnology, Ethnoveterinary medicine, and Antimicrobial and other chemical residues. Before his current position, Sunday has worked as a private Veterinary practitioner, then as a Sales and Technical representative of an Agro-allied Company. His research works were conducted in several institutions at different times including the Netherlands Food Safety Institute (RIKILT) and Wageningen University and Research (WUR), the Netherlands Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM) and Alterra, the Institute for Environmental Research, WUR.

Sunday holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. He also holds a Master’s degree in Food Safety (MFS) and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in toxicology from the Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands. Sunday is also a certified European Registered Toxicologist (ERT).

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

Towards the end of my Bachelors program in Veterinary College, I contemplated what I wanted to do with my Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree. Clinical practice, especially surgery fascinated me; so did issues of food safety and security as well as public health and environmental health and safety. I love finding answers to very intriguing questions, especially those that have significant impact on public health and environment. The research field provided a good opportunity to be involved in all these interests in a meaningful way. Afterall, multidisciplinarity is the spice of both fundamental and applied research. Now when I realized research and development was going to be the core of my career path, I wanted to be involved in doing something novel. The emerging (or re-emerging) fields in science like emerging technologies (nanotechnology) and emerging infectious diseases therefore, became my primary interests.

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

A nice, clean and comfortable environment with lots of nature and a soft music (including those from nature) is a perfect setting for me. The only addition would be some tea.

How long have you been on Mendeley? 

Officially, I have been on Mendeley since January 2015

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

I used EndNote mostly and once in a while the Microsoft Word citations & bibliography. Mendeley has now become my main reference manager and with so much interactive and simple user interface, it is safe to say Mendeley plays a significant role in my research.

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

Working in a research environment with the inherent requirement of dissemination of your findings means lots of reading and writing. Finding a tool that is well amenable to your reading, writing and networking needs is a great relief that it will be inconceivable to ignore such an excellent support. Now, when you find a helpful tool that has aided your research work, it is only proper to share the good news. Being a passionate advocate for sharing of useful knowledge and seeing the enormous need around me, I decided to contribute my quota by transferring Mendeley knowledge to those that need it; and what a blessing it has been! I could liken my experience to that of the three Samaritan lepers (in Biblical times) who found food in the time Samaria was under siege and told themselves, “we do not well!” by not sharing the good news.

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

Hmmm… that’s a tough one. I think it will be Prof. dr. Marcel H. Zwietering of Wageningen University.

What book are you reading at the moment and why?

I am actually reading two books:

  1. Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
  2. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason (Read it several times).

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

The fastest person does not necessarily win the race.

What is the best part about working in research?

Getting to work in a multidisciplinary environment and overcoming the challenges of deciphering the unknown.

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

The weight of responsibility laid upon you by the fact that many depend on your findings to guide sometimes very critical decisions and policies.

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

Mendeley is a sweet medley; a researcher’s best friend.