What Is Mendeley? How to Cite Sources Automatically

What is Mendeley in a thesis?

Mendeley is reference management software for research sources. You can add journal articles, books, reports, or PDF files to a personal library, save author and publication-year information, and then insert citations directly into Word. Mendeley can also create a reference list in APA, Harvard, IEEE, or the citation style required by your university.

If you are writing a graduation thesis, Mendeley can reduce a group of errors that often appear in the literature review chapter. For example, you may cite Nguyễn Văn A in the text but forget to include the source at the end, or your reference list may contain a source that never appears in the text. When you follow the correct process, in-text citations and the bibliography remain linked.

Mendeley does not assess whether a source fits your topic. It does not read the paper, verify the source, or write your argument for you. The software supports information management and citation formatting. You still need to check the author names, year, title, DOI, and your department's formatting requirements before submitting the final version.

The standard structure of a reference section

A thesis reference section usually has three layers of information. The first is the short citation in the body, usually consisting of the author's name and year. The second is the complete source information at the end of the document. The third is the overall formatting rule, including author order, italics, commas, DOI, and alphabetical ordering.

You can think of the process this way: the original source is saved in Mendeley, a citation is inserted at the point of the argument in Word, and Mendeley creates the matching entry in the reference list. The table below shows what you need to check in the manuscript.

For a quantitative thesis, references usually support the theoretical foundation, research model, scales, and methods. You need to distinguish a source used to define a concept from a source used to obtain measurement items. Adding every PDF you downloaded to the bibliography makes the list longer, but it does not strengthen the argument.

Steps for writing the reference section

Step 1: Create a Mendeley library for the correct topic

Download Mendeley Reference Manager from the official website, sign in to your account, and create a separate collection for the topic. You could name it after the project code, such as KLTN_Chat_luong_dich_vu. If you are working on several papers, do not place all sources in one folder. It will become difficult to identify which sources belong to each thesis.

You can create smaller collections such as Co_so_ly_thuyet, Thang_do, Phuong_phap, and Ket_qua_tham_khao. A source can belong to several collections without creating multiple copies. This is useful when one article supports both the research model and the methods section.

Step 2: Add sources and check the metadata

You can drag a PDF into the Mendeley window or add a source using its DOI. After importing it, the software usually identifies the title, authors, and publication year. Automatic metadata can still be wrong. A scanned PDF, a Vietnamese article, or a source with several authors often requires manual correction.

Open each important source and check these fields: document type, author names, year, title, journal name, volume, issue, page range, and DOI. For Vietnamese author names, check whether Mendeley has separated the family name and given name correctly. If the name has been entered as one continuous string, APA formatting may display the name in the wrong order.

You should also use a consistent file-naming rule, such as Nguyen_2011_Phuong_phap_nghien_cuu.pdf. The file name does not determine the citation, but it helps you locate the source when a lecturer asks, “Which article did this definition come from?” Do not delete the original PDF immediately after importing it. The Mendeley record may contain only metadata, so it does not guarantee that you still have the full text.

Step 3: Install and check Mendeley Cite in Word

Mendeley Cite is the add-in used to insert citations in Microsoft Word. In Word, open the References tab and select Mendeley Cite if the add-in is already installed. If it is not visible, install it from Microsoft AppSource or check which Microsoft account is currently signed in.

Open a copy of the thesis before testing. Place the cursor after the sentence that needs a source, open Mendeley Cite, search by author name or title, select the source, and insert it. If the citation appears in the correct position, continue with the main document. Testing on a copy reduces the risk of damaging the formatting while you are still learning the tool.

Step 4: Choose the citation style required by your university

In Mendeley Cite, the Citation Style section lets you choose the citation format. APA usually displays the author and year, while IEEE usually uses reference numbers. Do not choose a style simply because it looks familiar. Open your department's thesis formatting guide or check a recent thesis to identify the accepted style.

If your university's style is not available, you can choose the closest style and make small manual adjustments at the end. However, editing every line of the bibliography too early creates problems when Mendeley updates the list. Keep the citations linked until the end, then make minor changes in a copy of the document.

Step 5: Insert citations into the argument, not by habit

A citation should appear immediately after the claim supported by that source. If a paragraph contains three different ideas from three sources, do not place all three sources at the end without showing which source supports which idea. The reader and the committee need to see the relationship between the argument and the evidence.

For a definition, model, or scale, record the original source as soon as you write the draft. For a statistic, report, or empirical conclusion, check that the source actually contains that information. Mendeley helps you insert citations quickly, but speed does not replace reading the source.

Step 6: Update the bibliography and check the links

After inserting citations, use Mendeley Cite to create or update the bibliography. Each inserted source will appear in the list according to the selected style. When you add or remove a citation, update the bibliography before exporting the PDF.

Then check in both directions. Starting from the text, every important citation should have an entry in the bibliography. Starting from the bibliography, every entry should be cited at least once, except for sources that your university specifically requires you to list separately. Do this before running a Turnitin check, because reference formatting does not resolve copied content when a source has been used incorrectly.

Usable sentence templates

You can use the sentences below as frameworks, then replace the bracketed sections with real information from your topic. A template is not evidence. Keep a citation only after you have read the source and confirmed that it is appropriate.

How to write this in your thesis

You can adapt the following sentence for the literature review chapter: “To develop the theoretical foundation for [topic name], this study selected sources focused on [concept or relationship] and then organized them into [number] groups, including [group 1], [group 2], and [group 3].” Place the citation after the specific claim supported by the source instead of attaching a group of references to the end of the paragraph.

When describing how you used Mendeley in the methods section, you could write: “References were managed with Mendeley, and the bibliographic information for each source was checked against the original document before citations were inserted and the reference list was created.” Keep this sentence only if you actually followed those steps.

A shortened reference-section example

Suppose your topic examines the intention to use a shopping application. You read three sources. One defines usage intention, one presents a technology acceptance model, and one provides a scale. In the draft, you could write a short paragraph like this:

“Usage intention reflects the user's willingness to continue using or begin using a system. In technology acceptance research, usage intention is commonly treated as an outcome variable influenced by perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use (Davis, 1989). On this basis, the study proposes examining the effects of these two concepts on consumers' intention to use a shopping application in [location].”

This is illustrative output showing how to organize an argument. It is not the result of a real study and is not a paragraph you should copy word for word. When writing your own topic, read the original source, adapt the concepts to the context, and check that the source actually supports the stated relationship.

In Word, you could create the paragraph by typing the argument, placing the cursor after “perceived ease of use,” opening Mendeley Cite, and selecting the Davis source. If you cite the same source in another paragraph, insert it again from the library instead of typing (Davis, 1989) yourself. Manual typing breaks the link between the citation and the bibliography and can prevent the reference list from updating.

After finishing, review the preview before converting the document to PDF. Check author names with diacritics, publication year, periods, italics, and DOI. If you find incorrect metadata, fix it in Mendeley and update the citation. Avoid manually correcting many lines in Word while the source data is still wrong, because the next update may overwrite those changes.

If you are developing a complete research topic, separate the source list by role: theoretical sources, sources used to develop the scale, sources explaining the method, and sources used to compare results. This grouping helps you write with a clear purpose instead of finding an arbitrary article to place after every sentence.

Common errors that make the committee ask questions again

The first error is trusting automatic metadata completely. Mendeley may assign the wrong year, omit an author, or use the title of a webpage instead of the title of the article. When the committee asks you to open the source, you will waste time explaining an error that could have been found by checking the PDF.

The second error is using one style while making uncontrolled manual edits. Some manuscripts mix APA with numbered references, write author names in full in one place and abbreviate them in another, or arrange Vietnamese and English sources according to different rules. Choose one style, update the entire bibliography, and make only the changes required by the university's guidelines.

The third error is citing a secondary source as though you had read the original. You see an author mentioned in a review article and add that author to the bibliography even though you never opened the original source. The committee can then ask about the source's content and context immediately.

The fourth error is inserting a citation into every sentence to make the paragraph look academic. A citation should accompany a supported claim, not serve as decoration. When you are expressing your own reasoning, distinguish clearly between the material synthesized from sources and your study's proposal.

The fifth error is keeping sources that never appear in the text. Before submitting, create a comparison list with three columns: source in the text, source in the bibliography, and verification status. If the bibliography contains many unnecessary sources, remove them through Mendeley Cite instead of deleting individual lines manually.

The final error is confusing reference management with plagiarism checking. Mendeley helps you record sources, while duplicated content must be reviewed separately through the plagiarism process. You should also reread your paraphrasing, because a paragraph can contain a citation and still be too close to the wording of the original source.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mendeley, and is it free?

Mendeley is a reference management tool that supports PDF storage, library organization, citation insertion, and bibliography creation. Some functions and storage limits may depend on the account or version, so check the current terms before synchronizing a large number of sources.

For a thesis, you can begin with a small library containing the sources actually used for the topic. Checking metadata and keeping a backup of your data matter more than having a large number of features.

Does Mendeley automatically cite sources in Word?

Mendeley does not read your paper and decide where citations belong. You must place the cursor at the required location, find the source in Mendeley Cite, and insert it. The software can then format the citation and create the bibliography according to the selected style.

If the citation does not appear, check the Mendeley Cite add-in, the signed-in account, the internet connection, and whether the source was imported correctly into the library. Do not type the citation manually as a substitute for fixing the problem if you want the bibliography to update automatically.

Can Mendeley cite sources in Vietnamese?

Yes, but Vietnamese sources often require more manual metadata checking. Review the author names, year, title, organization or publisher, and Vietnamese diacritics. For a source without a DOI, enter the document type and publication information according to your university's guidelines.

If your university requires a separate rule for Vietnamese sources, test it on a copy before applying it to the entire bibliography. Departments may use different formats for reports, textbooks, and official documents.

Why does Mendeley not show a source in the reference list?

A common reason is that you saved the source in the library but did not insert it into the text, or you have not updated the bibliography after adding the citation. Open Mendeley Cite, check whether the source appears in the list, insert it at an appropriate location, and then update the bibliography.

If the citation is present but the bibliography is still incorrect, check for duplicate records or missing metadata. Delete the duplicate record, correct the valid record, and update Word again using a copy of the thesis.

Should you use Mendeley or enter references manually in Word?

Mendeley is useful when you have many sources, frequently add or remove citations, or need to change the citation style. Manual entry may be faster for a short paper, but it creates more opportunities for errors when the reference list is long or the order of sources changes.

Regardless of the tool, you still need to verify the original source and your university's requirements. Mendeley saves formatting work, but it does not assess source quality or replace reading the research article.

If your thesis file contains scattered reference data, gather the sources actually used into one collection, check the metadata for each source, and test one citation in a copy of the Word file. When you need to standardize the process of writing your chapters, you can review the Graduation Thesis topic and thesis topics, then use DoThesis M5 for chapter writing to turn your checked results and sources into a structured draft.