Mendeley offers a web-based API, but it contains only uploaded data, so relying on it means that anyone wanting to export their own data first needs to upload all their data and files to Elsevier’s servers.
The export formats supported by Mendeley don’t contain folders, various metadata fields (date added, favorite, and others), or PDF annotations.
Elsevier later stated that the change was required by new European privacy regulations - a bizarre claim, given that those regulations are designed to give people control over their data and guarantee data portability, not the opposite - and continued to assert, falsely, that full local export was still possible, while repeatedly dismissing reports of the change as “#fakenews”.ĭirect access to the Mendeley database is the only local way to export the full contents of one’s own research.
The Mendeley 1.19 release notes claimed that the encryption was for “improved security” on shared machines, yet applications rarely encrypt their local data files, as file protections are generally handled by the operating system with account permissions and full-disk encryption, and anyone using the same operating system account or an admin account can already install a keylogger to capture passwords. Until recently, Mendeley Desktop imported data from Zotero’s own open database, as it had since 2009. Elsevier made this change a few months after Zotero publicly announced work on an importer, despite having long touted the openness of its database format as a guarantee against lock-in and explaining in its documentation that the database could be accessed using standard tools.
Remember to always check the citation information that Mendeley imports, as it may not be 100% correct, depending on the source.Starting in Mendeley Desktop 1.19, Elsevier began encrypting the local Mendeley database, making it unreadable by Zotero and other standard database tools. Make sure to sync your Desktop Library to have them added there as well. These items will be saved to your Mendeley Web Library. Select the items you want to save to your Library and click 'Add'.
There is a check-box option to download the full text PDFs, if found. You may need to sign in to your Mendeley account if you haven't already done so. Just click the button and the web importer will look for citation information on that page. Use the Mendeley web importer button to import citation information from: Click the red button to install the Importer Mendeley web importer is available for all major web browsers.Ģ.
Import papers, web pages and other documents directly into your Library from search engines and academic databases. Highlight and 'Open' it to import the references into your Mendeley library.Ī major feature of Mendeley is the web importer.Browse your computer's desktop for the file that you saved from the research database.Select 'Import RIS (.ris)' or 'Import BibTeX (.bib)' as appropriate.In your Mendeley library, click the 'Add' button.
Create a free account online to get access to more features, such as groups and other networking features. Install the web importer for the Internet browser(s) you wish to use. Mendeley works with Chrome, Firefox, or Safari browsers. You just need to be viewing an article or a list of references in the browser and click on the Mendeley Web Importer extension icon in the toolbar. Description Mendeley Web Importer detects article identifiers on the page you are viewing and automatically retrieves metadata and PDF full texts (where available) for you to add to your library.