Citations & Bibliography

How to Export from Mendeley to BibTeX for LaTeX

Mendeley is a popular reference manager, but getting your references from Mendeley into LaTeX requires exporting to BibTeX format. This guide covers both Mendeley Desktop (legacy) and the newer Mendeley Reference Manager. Once exported, you can import your .bib file directly into Bibby AI, which offers a smoother citation workflow than manually managing files in Overleaf.

Export from Mendeley Reference Manager (Web/New App)

The newer Mendeley Reference Manager supports BibTeX export for individual references or your entire library:

% Step 1: Open Mendeley Reference Manager (web or desktop app)
% Step 2: Select the references you want to export
%         - Click individual references, or
%         - Ctrl+A / Cmd+A to select all
% Step 3: Click the "..." (More) menu or right-click
% Step 4: Choose "Export" → "BibTeX (.bib)"
% Step 5: Save the .bib file to your LaTeX project folder

% Then in your LaTeX document:
\usepackage[backend=biber, style=numeric]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{mendeley-export.bib}

\begin{document}
As shown by \textcite{smith2024deep}, the results are significant.
\printbibliography
\end{document}

% Or with natbib/BibTeX:
\usepackage{natbib}
% ...
\citep{smith2024deep}
\bibliographystyle{plainnat}
\bibliography{mendeley-export}

Export from Mendeley Desktop (Legacy)

Mendeley Desktop allows automatic BibTeX syncing. Set it up to keep a .bib file always in sync with your library:

% Mendeley Desktop auto-sync setup:
% Step 1: Open Mendeley Desktop
% Step 2: Go to Tools → Options (Windows) or
%         Mendeley Desktop → Preferences (Mac)
% Step 3: Click the "BibTeX" tab
% Step 4: Check "Enable BibTeX syncing"
% Step 5: Choose sync option:
%         - "Create one BibTeX file for my whole library"
%         - OR "Create one BibTeX file per group/folder"
% Step 6: Set the output path to your LaTeX project folder
% Step 7: Click "Apply"

% The .bib file auto-updates whenever you add/edit references!
% Your LaTeX file just needs:
\bibliography{library}  % If your synced file is library.bib

% MANUAL EXPORT (alternative):
% Step 1: Select references in Mendeley Desktop
% Step 2: File → Export... → BibTeX (*.bib)
% Step 3: Save to your project folder

Clean Up the Exported BibTeX File

Mendeley exports sometimes include messy fields. Here's how to clean them up for reliable compilation:

% COMMON ISSUES in Mendeley BibTeX exports:

% 1. Special characters not escaped properly:
% BAD:  title = {Naïve Bayes for Señor García}
% GOOD: title = {Na\"ive Bayes for Se\~nor Garc\'ia}

% 2. Mendeley adds extra fields you may not need:
% Remove: abstract, keywords, mendeley-groups, file, annote
% Keep: author, title, journal/booktitle, year, volume, pages, doi

% 3. Duplicate citation keys — Mendeley generates keys automatically
% but may create duplicates. Check for and rename duplicates:
% smith2024 → smith2024deep
% smith2024a → smith2024neural

% 4. Missing braces around capitals in titles:
% BAD:  title = {A Study of BERT and GPT Models}
%       BibTeX may lowercase this to: "a study of bert and gpt models"
% GOOD: title = {A Study of {BERT} and {GPT} Models}

% Example cleaned-up entry:
@article{smith2024deep,
    author  = {Smith, John and Johnson, Sarah},
    title   = {Deep Learning with {BERT} for Text Classification},
    journal = {Journal of {AI} Research},
    year    = {2024},
    volume  = {15},
    pages   = {234--256},
    doi     = {10.1234/jair.2024.001}
}

💡 Tips

•Always wrap acronyms and proper nouns in braces in BibTeX titles: {BERT}, {ImageNet}, {Bayesian} — otherwise BibTeX may lowercase them.
•If Mendeley adds the abstract field to every entry, you can safely delete them — they just bloat your .bib file.
•Bibby AI can import your Mendeley .bib file directly and provides a built-in reference manager that eliminates the need for a separate tool.
•After exporting, compile your LaTeX document twice (or use biber/bibtex + pdflatex cycle) to resolve all citation references.

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