Adding Members and Documents to Groups
Once you have created your group, you can add members and documents to it.
- To Invite Members to the group go to the Members tab. You can either add people that are already your contacts on Mendeley by clicking on "Add" or you can invite people to join you on Mendeley by clicking on "Invite".
- You can view the documents of a group by going to the Documents tab. To Add Documents, go to the group and click on "Add documents" in the top bar, or you can simply drag and drop them to the group.
- To download the PDFs that other group members attach to a group, go to "Edit Settings" and tick "Download attached files to group." Note: attached PDF files can only be shared in Private Groups, not in Public Groups.
- To upload your group wth all its settings to Mendeley Web, hit the "Sync Library" button.
Creating Groups
Groups are a simple way for you to collaborate with your colleagues and share a collection of documents. Any member of a group may upload documents to it. You can create a group by clicking on "Create Group" in the left hand pane. In general, you will want to create Private groups.
Your Mendeley Profile
Your Mendeley profile is similar to a social networking profile, except that it focuses on your research and scholarship. Completing your profile helps you connect with others and promote your work.
You can add papers you've authored to the My Publications folder in your Library in Mendeley Desktop or Web.
Managing Your Privacy on Mendeley
To edit your privacy settings in Mendeley, click "My Account" in the top right hand corner of the website and select Privacy. Use this page to manage how much information others can see. You can control who sees individual elements of your profile by selecting one of three privacy settings:
Everyone: full visiility to anyone using Mendeley
My contacts: limits visibility to Mendeley users you have accepted as contacts
Only me: limits visibility to you only
You can also use this page to opt in/out of search engine indexing. If you check the box labeled "Let Google and other search engines index my profile page," your Mendeley profile will be included in results when people search for your name in Google and other search engines.
Using Groups
Groups in Mendeley allow you to share and collaborate with other researchers with Mendeley accounts. You can create your own groups in Mendeley Desktop or Mendeley Web. Mendeley Web will also allow you to search, join, and follow groups.
Types of Groups
- Open: An open group will allow anyone to contribute, become a member, or follow.
- Invite-Only: This group will allow you to share references, but not files, and can be viewed publicly.
- Private: Private groups allow you to share files and annotations between members. These groups are not visible to others outside the private group. The free version of Mendeley allows you to create one private group and invite two members.
You can follow your groups using the Mendeley Web Dashboard.
When viewing a group in Mendeley Desktop or Web, use the Documents / Papers tab to view the shared references, and the Members tab to view or invite members.
The overview tab shows a summary of what has happened in your Group. You can see updates on who has joined, who said what, and which papers have been added by whom.
You can also post status updates by entering your update into the box at the top of the overview section.
Additionally, you can post comments and discuss your research. Just click on "comment" and start a discussion on any given topic.
