How to Import References Into Mendeley

Direct Export Method

Scopus and Mendeley are owned by the same company (Elsevier) and share the same login for exporting references. Once you are logged into Mendeley, you should be able to directly export references from Scopus into your citation database.

1. Log into either Scopus or Mendeley before searching. 
2. Run a search on your topic in Scopus and mark one or more references of interest.
3. At the top of the search results, you will see a "Save to Mendeley" link. Click it once! Don't click it multiple times or you will likely create duplicate entries in Mendeley.
4. The export takes place entirely in the background. You will see a confirmation message reading, "The data for the n documents you selected have been exported to Mendeley. View in your Library," with a link to your Mendeley library.

Note: If you click the down caret symbol next to the  "Save to Mendeley" link, it will open the "Export document settings" pane. Mendeley should already be selected as your method of export. While you can change the "Customize export" settings for Mendeley, this may cause your citation to lose important information.

Caveat: There is currently a problem with exporting citations if you access Scopus through the Library's proxy server -- e.g., from the A-Z Database list. For the time being, the easiest way to avoid this bug is to use this unproxied www.scopus.com link. However, this link will not let you access Scopus if you are working off-campus. In this instance, see the Manual Export Method.

Manual Export Method

In Scopus:

1. Run a search on your topic in Scopus and mark one or more references of interest.
2. At the top of the search results, you will see a "Save to Mendeley" link. Click the down caret symbol to open the "Export document settings" pane.
3. Select the "RIS Format (EndNote, Reference Manager)" option as your method of export.
4. You have to choose options from the "Customize export" settings to export your references. At a minimum, it is recommended to select all of the "Citation information," "Bibliographical information," and "Abstract and Keywords" options.
5. Click the "Export" button in the "Export document settings" pane.
6. Save the "scopus.ris" file to your computer desktop or download folder so you can find it again in Mendeley.

In Mendeley:

1. Login to Mendeley if you are not already.
2. In your Mendeley library, click the "Add" button. Select "Import RIS (.ris)".
3. Browse your computer for the "scopus.ris" file that you saved from Scopus.
4. Highlight and "Open" it to import the references into your Mendeley library.

Note: Once you have selected "RIS Format" as your method of export in Scopus, the "Save to Mendeley" link will change to "Save to RIS" with all the "Customize export" options you selected the first time. This saves time for subsequent manual exports.

Review the Results

In either method, you may occasionally find errors or omissions in the citations. Review each citation while you still have the citations up on the screen in Scopus to more easily correct any errors.

To cite articles, you need at a minimum, the article's author(s), the article title, the journal it appeared in (the name may be abbreviated or not, depending on the database), the volume number, the issue number (usually), the year of publication, and the page numbers or document identifier if the journal doesn't use page numbers. Consult the rules for the citation style you have been instructed to use so you know what is needed.

Scopus does not include the full-text of the articles that it indexes. If you want to add article PDFs to your Mendeley database, you will need locate them outside of Scopus. However, Scopus does provide a "Locate full-text in Library" link for each of the article entries that can get you started. If the Library subscribes to the journal the article appears in, it will retrieve it through the Library's Citation Linker. Download the PDF of the article and manually add it to your Mendeley citation.