Use Mendeley's CSL Editor to modify and create citation style languages - allowing you to style your citations and bibliography to your precise requirements.
view all guidesThe citation style language (CSL) editor is a powerful tool hosted by Mendeley which allows you to quickly and easily modify a citation style. Citation styles control the way in which your references appear in a document you author using the Mendeley Citation Plugin. Mendeley provides access to nearly 7000 citation styles which already exist, however you may want to tweak a style to meet your own requirements.
Although the CSL Editor provides an intuitive interface, citation styles are complicated. As such, the CSL Editor should be regarded as one of the more advanced aspects of using Mendeley. This guide will explain some basic actions that can be undertaken, as well as providing an introduction to tackling more sophisticated objectives.
The CSL initiative is a cross-platform program designed to standardise citations in a format which can be used by multiple applications. Mendeley supports and contributes to this open-source project.
Although the CSL Editor allows for very sophisticated modifications to styles, the majority of users only use it to make minor additions or cosmetic changes. You may find it easier to follow one of the sets of specific step-by-step instructions that we've provided in this guide.
This guide is not intended to be an exhaustive set of documentation for the CSL Editor. If you have a specific question that you need assistance with, please contact our support team.