Having a citation management system like Mendeley can save you a lot of time and will format your citations for you.
However, no system is 100% accurate. You will still need to check over your citations to ensure they are correctly formatted before you turn in your paper. Fortunately, the Library has a guide specifically to help you format your citations!
The tutors at the Academic Success Center can also help you with your writing, both at the word/sentence level and to improve flow and structure. They can also help you proofread your citations and ensure they are properly formated.
No matter the size, topic, or scope of your paper you should consider having a writing tutor read it and provide feedback before you turn it in (allow time for editing!). Every paper benefits from a second opinion!
Citation management is keeping track of your sources and keeping them organized. Staying organized is really important for larger projects and papers!
There are many methods that people use to try to keep track of their sources when working on large projects, but the most efficient and robust is to use a type of software called a citation manager. A citation manager helps you save sources as you find them, label and organize your sources, add important notes/annotations, and easily create citations and bibliographies directly in Word. There are several citation managers available including Zotero, Endnote, and Mendeley.
As a student at Westminster, you have free access to Mendeley and that is the citation manager that we recommend.
In this guide, we'll show you how to
Please contact John Garrison if you have questions or need any help using Mendeley!
Follow these steps to get started with Mendeley citation management:
1. Go to Mendeley.com and Create a Free Account. (please make sure to use your @westminster.edu email address for your account)
2. When you log in with your new account, you will be able to view and edit your Library of citations from this page or download an app to your computer called Reference Manager to use your Library.
** Please note: As long as you have an internet connection, changes made to your Library will sync between the Library in your browser and the Library in Reference Manager.
Add citations to your Mendeley Library in any of the following ways:
Option 1: Drag-and-drop article PDF into Library. (Mendeley.com or Reference Manager)
Option 2: Download the Mendeley Web Importer browser extension (using the Reference Manager app).
Option 3: Use direct database citation export tools (available in ScienceDirect and Scopus).
NOTE: If you are not signed in to Mendeley on your browser, Scopus will allow you to do so after selecting Export -> Mendeley
Option 4: Download individual citations in .ris format and upload to your Library (use this in WISE, EBSCOhost, and other databases).
Add citations from your Mendeley Library into your Word document, choose the citation style, and insert a bibliography.
Add citations to your Word document
Choose the citation style
Insert a bibliography
