Mendeley is a free reference application developed by Elsevier for mobile devices. This teaching tool enables academics to manage and share research papers and reference material easily. Through this app, users can stay up to date and read up on various articles on their smart devices while on the go.

Similar to other academic applications like Zotero or Publish or Perish, Mendeley serves as a reference manager that provides a platform to manage, publish, and share their research papers with the academic community. It also features cross-platform compatibility. Thus, all changes you make are synced across all devices.

What is Mendeley?

Mendeley is a London-based company that provides various products and services for academic purposes. It was named after the biologist Gregor Mendel and chemist Dmitri Mendeleyev and was founded back in 2007. A few years later, in early 2013, Elsevier acquired it. At present, the app is still owned and being operated by the same academic publisher. 

While Mendeley's products and services expanded since the acquisition, it is still mainly known for its reference management software. It allows you to build your library to organize, search, and read all of your references in one place. Mendeley Notebook helps you gather and highlight notes from multiple sources. Additionally, you can use the Mendeley Cite plug-in for Microsoft Word for easier citations.

There are some points of improvement and consideration that are worth taking note of with Mendeley. For one, syncing issues across devices occur from time to time. Another is the matter of server instability, which has caused some users to be unable to access their accounts and libraries. Lastly, mobile app development has stopped, raising questions regarding future support and viability.

A powerful reference manager for academics

Mendeley has been a popular choice for academics, and it's not hard to see why. It has a clean and intuitive user interface and has cross-platform compatibility. Not only that, but its integration with other services makes it an even more powerful and reliable solution for research and reference purposes. While its mobile app division is up in the air, there's no doubt it still one of the best services around.