Mendeley: The Basics

This guide is no longer be updated as of December 2021.

We recommend transferring your references to EndNote or Zotero, which we do support.

Groups allow you to share references with colleagues or the public.  Three types of groups are available:

Private: Not visible to the public.  Share references and documents with other Mendeley users who you invite to the group.  Only group members can view and edit the references.  Free version of Mendeley limits users to 1 private group of up to 3 members, and 100 MB of shared web space.

Public, Invite-Only: Visible to the public.  Share references only.  Any Mendeley user can follow the group, but only group members can add references.

Public, Open: Visible to the public.  Share references only.  Any Mendeley user can become a member or follow the group.

Click Create Group... in the left-hand panel of Mendeley Desktop or Web.  Enter a group name and choose the type of group you want to create.  Click Create Group.

Create group from Mendeley Desktop

Name group and choose type

To add references to a group, drag and drop references, and attached documents (private groups only) from your Mendeley library in to the group.

Click the Sync button  in the toolbar to share references and documents with group members.

To add or remove members from a private or invite-only group, select the group, then click on the Members tab at the top of the center panel (Desktop) or left column (Web).

To add a group member, enter the email address of the person who you would like to add in the box at the top of the page

To remove a group member, select Remove from group from the drop-down menu to the right of the name of the person who you would like to remove.