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Mendeley is (used to be?) a popular tool for reference management, but it seems that the past year or so it's been in a downhill trend. First they discontinued their mobile app, then they announced that they're discontinuing the desktop application, and finally we're stuck with the Mendeley Reference Manager which is nowhere nearly as ergonomic nor as functional as the desktop application they used to have. (And to boot, the Reference Manager can't be used in private mode on the browser.)

I'm bewildered by such an apparent decline of an otherwise very useful tool. Any rationale behind it?

Tfovid
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    Ask Elsevier. Only they know. I can only comment that it is only a pale reflection of the big issues we are having in our western world, i.e. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership . Concentration of media means concentration of ideas which means ownership of ideas as well as deciding which ideas should circulate and which one not. In your specific case, it is just concentration of profits, but still ... – EarlGrey Sep 27 '22 at 19:49
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    Mendeley Reference Manager looks like just a replacement for Mendeley Desktop, and maybe some people find it easier to use. A mobile app for reference management doesn't sound very useful to me. So it doesn't look like a big decline to me. – Oliver882 Sep 27 '22 at 20:48
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    Mendeley should die. Hated it from day one. No privacy and clunky. – Prof. Santa Claus Sep 28 '22 at 00:18
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    To whoever closed the question: What would be an appropriate question with the tag reference-manager if mine isn't appropriate? – Tfovid Sep 28 '22 at 06:53
  • The tone does seem a bit off, but is the question really unsalvageable? I agree that "not in scope" doesn't seem appropriate here. –  Sep 28 '22 at 15:37
  • The rationale behind it is that Elsevier figured they can make more profit by not spending money on developing and maintaining useful software. A great reminder to avoid vendor lock-in and support open software and standards. Zotero, for example, checks those boxes. – henning Sep 29 '22 at 07:22

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