AOSARS TRAINS ON APA 7 REFERENCING USING MENDELEY DESKTOP
AOSARS recently delivered comprehensive research skills training to masters students at the University of Nairobi. The program focused on mastering APA 7 citation guidelines through effective use of Mendeley Desktop’s reference management capabilities.
A major component of the training addressed multiple methods for loading documents into Mendeley Desktop. Students learned efficient techniques for importing PDFs directly from their computers and setting up automated loading of documents mass-downloaded from Firefox browser. The training demonstrated how Mendeley’s “Watch Folder” feature could automatically import research papers as they are downloaded, significantly streamlining the research workflow.
Students received detailed instruction on extracting Research Information System (RIS) citations from diverse sources including Google Scholar, Google Books, and AnyStyle. The workshop highlighted how Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) facilitate automatic metadata extraction in Mendeley, allowing the software to accurately populate author names, publication dates, journal titles, and other bibliographic details with minimal manual input.
During the intensive workshop, students learned to implement both narrative and parenthetical citations according to APA 7 requirements. They practiced incorporating author names naturally within sentences while also mastering the technique of placing complete source information in parentheses at appropriate points in their writing, all facilitated through Mendeley’s intuitive interface.
A significant portion of the workshop focused on using Publish or Perish (POP) to generate RIS citation files, which can be directly imported into Mendeley Desktop. Students learned how this streamlined approach saves considerable time when building comprehensive literature reviews and ensures citation accuracy.
Extensive hands-on training with the Mendeley Word plugin covered the Mendeley Cite feature, which integrates directly with Microsoft Word. Students practiced inserting APA 7 citations and generating bibliographies with just a few clicks. The training emphasized how to effortlessly switch between narrative and parenthetical citation styles without reformatting documents manually.
Participants also learned techniques for extracting complete bibliographies from their Mendeley libraries and how to make amendments to bibliography entries when source metadata was incomplete or incorrect. The workshop covered manual editing of citation fields to ensure perfect compliance with APA 7 guidelines, even when working with unusual or complex source types.
The training emphasized how Mendeley’s interface simplifies collaborative research through shared libraries and group features, enabling research teams to collectively build and annotate reference collections. By mastering these interconnected tools, University of Nairobi students are now better equipped to manage complex research projects while maintaining impeccable APA 7 citation standards in their academic writing.
