Vinayak Arali, a research scholar at Yenepoya University, emphasizes the importance of accurate citations in scholarly work and introduces Mendeley as a practical, user-friendly tool to simplify reference management. Arali explains why citations matter, how Mendeley streamlines the process, and offers step-by-step guidance for integrating it into academic writing.

Manually compiling references can consume hours that might otherwise be spent on analysis and writing. Tools like Mendeley offer a smart solution, allowing researchers to collect, organise, and insert citations with ease and accuracy. This article discusses why citations matter and how Mendeley can transform what is often a laborious task into a quick and seamless process.
Completing a research paper is an intellectually rewarding endeavour; however, the process of compiling and formatting citations often presents a significant challenge. Manually creating references can consume substantial time, detracting from the research and writing process. Reference management tools, such as Mendeley, offer an efficient and accurate solution to this problem. By streamlining citation creation, they enhance the credibility, organisation, and integrity of scholarly work.
It may be a feeling of accomplishment for having finished writing a 5000-word article or a paper, but after this only comes the most daunting task of writing as many references in an APA or MLA style. It is a task that may take hours, but when the right reference management system is used, it takes only a few minutes. This reference management system simplifies the process of citing or writing references and sharing with collaborators. A recent study revealed that most researchers spend 20% of their time writing the references manually. We should understand that it is a smarter way to use a reference maintenance system.
Why should we cite? The first reason is to give credit to the original authors by acknowledging their work, ideas, research, and words from their work that we have used. This is the basic method to respect intellectual property and to avoid plagiarism. The next reason is to provide evidence for our arguments by citing reliable sources that strengthen our arguments. It shows the work is based on established knowledge and supported by research. The next reason is to enable the readers to verify our work, which, according to me, is a very important reason to provide citations. This provides the roadmap for the readers to trace the source of information we have provided. They can further explore the topic and understand the broader context of the research. To quote an example, if I am writing an article, and I have used in-text citations, when the reader reads my article, he may want to know more about my article, and he can easily track the references that I have used in my work as they would have been cited. The fourth reason is to demonstrate the research depth. A citation shows that we have thoroughly researched the topic, found many perspectives, and our work was based on the foundation of existing knowledge. It is also important to avoid plagiarism. Failure to give citations may lead to doubt and accusations of plagiarism, which is a legal violation in academic and professional settings. We are transparent about the origin of our information through citations.
Effortless reference management
There are many reference management systems available on the market. Mendeley is a very user-friendly software, and it is free and open-source software. We do not have to pay any money for this. We can download it from the Google Play Store. We have to analyse how we will read and annotate PDFs, how to cite research while writing, and how to collaborate with other researchers. In Mendeley, there are three aspects: Mendeley reference manager, Mendeley cite, and Mendeley importer. When we start using it, we will understand how easy it is. We can add the references directly, manually, and add PDFS on a desktop so that we can directly import the files into Mendeley. For example, if I write a journal article on the Institutional Repository, I look into Google Scholar for scholarly published articles. I can do a literature review, take the one that I feel will be useful. If there are more authors, I can put the author’s last name first and check.
Citations made simple
I can easily download the app from the Google Play Store. When I click on the Mendeley web importer, it will list all the articles shown on Google Scholar. I will find good references on the page. I have to add now to the Mendeley website. So I will be using these articles for my work. I will take about 5 articles and add them to the Mendeley Reference Management System. Once I have added the reference, I can start writing the article. I can use Microsoft Word. I need to add the Mendeley site to MS Word. When I click on references, I can see all the article references. Now, I can start writing the article. When the research question is formulated, I have to do the literature review and then start writing the article. I can start with an introduction. I would have written a paragraph that is not my own; I would have taken it from someone else’s work. So, I have to cite the work, so I have to click on the Mendeley site in my collection, which will show the articles that I have chosen in MS Word.
When I click on MS Word, I will see the articles that I have selected. Since I have taken the content for the paragraph that I completed from one of the references, I have to click on it, insert the citation. It will automatically generate the index citation for the paragraph. Like this, I can go on writing the articles and add citations from the articles I have selected.
So at the end of each paragraph, we can see the in-text citation. I can change the citation style also. I can use the American Psychological Association 7th Edition or MLA style. While using MLA 9th or 7th edition, I can select whichever I want. Medical researchers mostly use IEEE. We have one more reference style called Nature. There are many reference styles available in the market. Most of the journals use APA style. I can use whichever I am familiar with. After writing the article, bibliographies have to be added at the end. We can take information from the articles. I need to put the cursor at the end of the paragraph.
I must write the author’s last name, a comma, and then the year. This is called APA style. I can take the information for the index citation from one of the articles, click on this, and it can be added to the in-text citation for the article. Once I have finished all the articles, at the end of the article, at the end we need to write a bibliography.
I can click on insert bibliography, and it will ask for the location to insert. In this way, I would have used all the articles I chose, listed at the end of the article. I can change the citation style also. I can use MLA or IEEE style for this. Every style has its advantages. I would have now finished the article with citations and bibliography.
It may take time to sign in for the Mendeley web importer. I can add references by importing the files. If I have all the articles in one folder, I can directly import all of them into the Mendeley website. I am currently writing an article on IB vs CBSE, a comparative study. I have added more than 15 references to that.
Organise with ease
Mendeley is an open-source software. If we are using JSTOR, we can directly use the web importer for JSTOR and organise references in alphabetical order. We can organize them based on years, also. We can arrange them alphabetically, or by author’s name, also. The last name of the author comes first, and when I organise them alphabetically, the article with the author’s name starting with A will show on the first of the references, and so on. In this way, we can organise all references in Mendeley. Mendeley integrates only with MS Word right now. We can directly import the references from the web importer into MS Word.
There are many videos available on YouTube on how to download Mendeley, how to create an account in Mendeley. It is easy to download the app from the Play Store. It is user-friendly. There are many more reference management software available, similar to Mendeley, such as Zotero and more tools. I prefer Mendeley because it is very user-friendly. Anybody can use Mendeley as it is free of cost.

Contact:
Vinayak Arali
Assistant Librarian
Stonehill International School
M: 9164801996
E: vinayakarali@gmail.com