How to Import a Mendeley Library Into Notion as Reference Database

You have a Mendeley library full of research papers and you want to bring those references into Notion to build a searchable reference database. Mendeley stores citations as a BibTeX file, which Notion cannot import directly. This article shows you how to convert your Mendeley library into a CSV file and import it into a Notion database, preserving key fields like title, author, year, and DOI.

After the import, you can link your references to other Notion databases, add tags, and attach PDFs. You will also learn how to clean up common formatting issues that occur during the conversion. This method works for Mendeley Desktop and Mendeley Reference Manager on Windows and Mac.

What Happens When You Export a Mendeley Library

Mendeley stores references in a proprietary format. When you export, the program generates a BibTeX file, which is a plain-text format used by LaTeX and other citation managers. BibTeX uses a specific syntax with fields like author, title, year, journal, and doi. Notion does not read BibTeX directly. It only imports tabular data from CSV (comma-separated values) or TSV (tab-separated values) files.

To bridge this gap, you need to convert the BibTeX file into a CSV file. Several free online tools and Python scripts can perform this conversion. The most reliable option for most users is a web-based converter that maps BibTeX fields to CSV columns. After conversion, you must manually map the CSV columns to Notion database properties during the import process.

The quality of the imported data depends on how complete your Mendeley entries are. Entries with missing fields will show up as blank cells in Notion. You can edit those cells manually after the import.

Steps to Export Mendeley Library and Import Into Notion

1. Open Mendeley and select your library
   Launch Mendeley Desktop or Mendeley Reference Manager. Make sure the library you want to export is selected in the left sidebar. Click on the main collection that contains all references, or select a specific folder if you only want part of your library.
2. Export the library as BibTeX
   Go to File > Export. In the dialog that appears, choose BibTeX (bib) as the file format. Click Save and choose a location on your computer. Name the file something like mendeley-library.bib. This file contains all your references in plain text.
3. Convert the BibTeX file to CSV
   Open a web browser and go to a BibTeX-to-CSV converter such as bibtex.online or the converter at bibtex.com. Upload the .bib file you just exported. Most tools will ask you to select which fields to include. Check at least these fields: author, title, year, journal, volume, number, pages, doi, url, abstract, and keywords. Click Convert or Export. Download the resulting CSV file. Name it mendeley-references.csv.
4. Open Notion and create a new database
   In Notion, go to the page where you want the reference database to live. Click the + icon to add a new block. Choose Database and then Table. A new empty table appears. Do not add any columns yet.
5. Import the CSV file into the new database
   Click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of the new database view. Select Import from the dropdown menu. Choose CSV from the list of file types. Click Select a file and navigate to the mendeley-references.csv file you downloaded. Notion will show a preview of the data.
6. Map CSV columns to Notion properties
   In the import preview, Notion attempts to detect the column type for each field. Verify the mappings:
   – Title should map to a Title property
   – Author should map to a Text property
   – Year should map to a Number property
   – DOI should map to a URL property
   – Abstract should map to a Text property
   If a column is misidentified, click the dropdown next to the column header in the preview and select the correct property type. Click Import to finish.
7. Review and clean up the imported data
   After the import, browse through the database. Look for rows where the author field contains BibTeX formatting like curly braces or commas that separate multiple authors. You may see author names written as Last, First and Last, First. Use Notion’s Find and Replace feature (Ctrl+H or Cmd+H) to replace and with a semicolon or line break if you prefer a different separator.

If Notion Import Shows Errors or Missing Data

CSV file does not import at all

Notion only accepts CSV files with UTF-8 encoding. If your CSV file contains special characters such as accented letters or Greek symbols, the import may fail silently. To fix this, open the CSV file in a plain text editor like Notepad, then save it with UTF-8 encoding. In Notepad, click File > Save As, choose UTF-8 from the Encoding dropdown, and save the file again.

Author names are split incorrectly

BibTeX stores multiple authors separated by the word and. After conversion, the CSV may show authors as Smith, John and Doe, Jane. Notion treats this as a single text string. To split authors into separate entries, you can use a formula property that splits the text by and , or you can manually edit the cells. For large libraries, use a text editor to replace and with a semicolon before importing.

DOI links do not open correctly

If the DOI column is mapped as a Text property instead of URL, clicking the DOI will not open the paper. Change the property type to URL after the import. Click the property header, select Edit property, and change the type to URL. Notion will prepend https://doi.org/ automatically if the DOI is entered without the domain.

Abstracts contain line breaks or HTML tags

Some BibTeX exporters include HTML tags or line breaks inside the abstract field. After import, these appear as raw HTML or extra spaces. Use Notion’s Find and Replace to remove

and

tags. Replace them with nothing.

Mendeley Export Formats vs Notion Import Capabilities

Item	BibTeX (.bib)	CSV
File structure	Plain text with field tags	Tabular rows and columns
Notion direct support	No	Yes
Preserves author names	Yes, with and separator	Yes, but may need cleanup
Preserves DOIs	Yes	Yes, if mapped as URL
Preserves abstracts	Yes	Yes, but may contain formatting
Best for	LaTeX users, archiving	Import into Notion

After the import, you can enhance your Notion reference database by adding a Select property for tags like Read, Unread, or Reviewed. You can also create a Relation property to link references to a separate project database. Use the Rollup property to display the number of references per project. To keep your database updated, export new references from Mendeley periodically and repeat the import process. For advanced users, a tool like Zotero offers a native Notion integration, but the CSV method remains the most reliable way to bring Mendeley data into Notion.