Ambiguous Citations

Versions: Endnote X4, Windows XP all updates, MS-Word 2003 SP2

I found the Endnote Output Style of the AGU Journal ‘Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems version 8’  to be problematic in three points. May be somebody has ideas for a more elegant way to deal with it:

1) The name of this Outputstyle provided by Endnote is so lengthy, that it is not completely displayed in little window to choose the style. Unfortunately there are two versions of it, which cannot be distinguished due to this incomplete display. The workaround is to go to the directory, where Endnote stores it Styles and rename the Output style.

But I think, developers might have recognized that a longer display window is needed or the Journal name should be shortened.

2) The output  by the Endnote provided style for this Journal is incorrect in displaying citations when there are more than one first authors with the same family name. Initials are added by Endnote and all authors are added also, but both should not be.

I give an example:

References:

Johnson, H. P., Hutnak, M. , Dziak, R. P.; Fox,  C. G.; Urcuyo, I.; Cowen, J. P. ; Nabelek, J. ; Fisher, C. (2000), Earthquake-induced changes in a hydrothermal system on the Juan de Fuca mid-ocean ridge, Nature, 407, 174-177.
Johnson, K. S., J. J. Childress, and C. L. Beehler (1988), Short-term temperature variability in the Rose Garden hydrothermal vent field: an unstable deep-sea environment, Deep Sea Research, 35(10/11), 1711-1721.
The wrong in-text citation created by Endnote is:

[H P Johnson, Hutnak, M. , Dziak, R. P.; Fox,  C. G.; Urcuyo, I.; Cowen, J. P. ; Nabelek, J. ; Fisher, C. , 2000]
[K S Johnson et al., 1988]

The correct in-text citation would be:

[Johnson et al, 2000]
[Johnson et al, 1988]

3) Now that I try to correct the output style by selecting from the menu: ‘Edit/Output Styles/ Edit G3_v8’ I can edit this style. I go to 'citations/ambiguous citations" and deselect ‘include the author initials or full name in citation’. (At this point I would wish there were a menu point “save” instead of the MS-Windows cross at the upper right corner to close the window). Now at the end I am asked 'Save the changes to Endnote Style file “G3_v8” before closing. Of course I chose ‘Yes’. The Style file name suggested by Endnote is ‘G3_v8 Copy’ what obviously would create a new file instead of changing the old. But OK.

But after that nothing has changed. The old faulty  ‘G3_v8’ still is active and the new ‘G3_v8 Copy’ cannot be chosen.

After some search with the filemanager I find my newly created style in ‘C:\documents and settings\user\own files\Endnote’ which obviously is not searched by Endnote … ?

Do I really have to copy this file manually back to the Endnote Styles folder ?

OK, I copied the ‘G3_v8 Copy’ manually to the Styles folder. After that, I selected this style in the Endnote program and in the MS-Word Endnote menu. But it doesn’t effect the result. Even not when I created a completely new MS-Word file and copied the citations into this new file.

Everything is completely unchanged.

G3_v8 Copy.ens (15.1 KB)

OK … I already incorporated this reply into my post, because I wrote it before any first answer.

May be this thread might have been placed better in the “Endnote How To” section.

But probably there is no way to move it … or ?

OK, after some intense inspection, I found the solution … but I don’t really understand it.

I had to go to a second point in the menu: ‘Edit/Output Styles/ Edit G3_v8/citations/author name’ and also deselect ‘use initials only for primary authors with the same name’.

Now I get the right in-text citation.

But what I don’t understand is: Why are there two points where this one issue has to be treated:

  1. ‘Edit/Output Styles/ Edit G3_v8/citations//ambiguous citations’

    and

  1. ‘Edit/Output Styles/ Edit G3_v8/citations/author name’

besides the fact, that the Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems v8  is faulty if one compares with the AGU Styles manual

And finally the next strange thing is:

Editing my selfgenerated Styles copy in the styles folder was possible and didn’t make me search for where the newly created copy might have been stored as it was after editing the original styles file and generating a copy version as Endnote pushed me to do.

Wow, I am not sure where to start and your messages included many questions, comments and some subsequent solutions.  But here is my attempt. 

In most places you can view the full output style name, I guess you mean in the word drop-down menu it is “too short”.  But if you Browse, or use the style manager to only show those styles you wish to use (so they show up in the dropdown) and hide the others, it won’t be a problem. The window and spacing can be enlarged. At least I couldn’t find any other styles display box that you couldn’t enlarge to show the whole of a long file name. 

There are two places styles are stored in endnote. – so when you “save as”  to a shorter name or the name appended with the default “copy”, the edited files, or the newly downloaded files, etc, are all saved in your user folder, (folder location set in the preferences), which by default that is usually My Documents/Endnote/Styles, a folder that doesn’t exist until you edit and/or “save as”.   The program installed files are in the C : programs folder/endnote/styles location which is write protected in the newer Windows operating systems, which forced Endnote to make the change.  It is actually nice,  so that when you update or upgrade endnote, you now still have access to your edited styles and don’t need to remember to back them up first.   Endnote DOES look in both these places in the styles manager or show all styles lists. Check what is in your Edit>preferences folder location for styles.  It cannot be the program folder location, or you will end up in an infinite copy loop. 

As to your last question in the last response, about two locations for similar settings.  Many style manuals require that you differentiate the two different authors with the same surname when they are used in citations, by including their initials. So that is why there is a place that specifies this specific situation in the Citation, Author Name preferences. 

The other - ambiguous citations are if you have the same first author who published two papers you are citing, in the same year.  Those need to be disambiguated too, often by 2000a, 2000b or the addition of more authors in the citation, or if they ARE two different authors, you could just use their initials, but that is less common.  I am not sure in this case, why in your example, the reference was also showing more than the first author. 

Anyway, I tested your style attached in the original post, and it correctly formatted several examples of refs I threw at it.  Except for the fact that two first authors that were different having the initials included, I was never able to get multiple authors in the citations such as you experienced.  - So I am not sure what was going on there.

I understand you found the setting to avoid showing the initials for two different authors with the same last name. 

Anything I missed addressing? 

Oh - added in edit- I never save as and edit the name to the SAME name as an existing style that originated in the “program folder” location, because I find that endnote can’t distinguish them and I don’t know which one is being used. 

@irgendwas wrote:

Versions: Endnote X4, Windows XP all updates, MS-Word 2003 SP2

 

3) Now that I try to correct the output style by selecting from the menu: ‘Edit/Output Styles/ Edit G3_v8’ I can edit this style. I go to 'citations/ambiguous citations" and deselect ‘include the author initials or full name in citation’. (At this point I would wish there were a menu point “save” instead of the MS-Windows cross at the upper right corner to close the window). Now at the end I am asked 'Save the changes to Endnote Style file “G3_v8” before closing. Of course I chose ‘Yes’. The Style file name suggested by Endnote is ‘G3_v8 Copy’ what obviously would create a new file instead of changing the old. But OK.

 

But after that nothing has changed. The old faulty  ‘G3_v8’ still is active and the new ‘G3_v8 Copy’ cannot be chosen.

After some search with the filemanager I find my newly created style in 'C:\documents and settings\user\own files\Endnote' which obviously is not searched by Endnote … ?

 

I’m just commenting on your #3 item.

 

Keyboard Shortcut. You can use a keyboard shortcut to close the output style window [CTRL + W] which then prompts you to save the style changes.  This shortcut is an alternative to clicking the “x” in the upper right-hand corner of the active window to close it and lets you keep your hands on the keyboard. 

 

Folder Location. In later versions of EndNote when you edit and save an output style the file will be saved in an EndNote folder located in the My Documents folder. (Note: This is different from the EndNote styles folder located in the Programs folder directory.] EndNote will search and locate the modified style based on the folder’s path directory. Check EndNote’s setting for “Folder Locations” to confirm whether the correct path is designated. [Go to the EndNote toolbar, select FILE, PREFERENCES.]  Click the “Folder Locations” (see attached image) and the pathway for the Style Folder should be the same as the folder’s location in My Documents. Use the Browse button to locate and select the EndNote folder within My Documents then close the Preferences window to save the changes.

 

 

 


Preferences_FolderLocations.gif

Thank You CrazGecko

Thank You for the suggestion to use [CTRL + W] for closing the window.

But my point, why I’m hesitating, just to close a window is, that it is like a step into the dark.   I’m afraid that all my modifications might be lost, when I just shut down a window. At that point there is no indication, that only after closing, a new window will pop up and give me the opportunity to save my modifications.

I checked the Folder Locations in the FILE/PREFERENCES and I found the folder included, where my modified style was stored by Endnote. The styles included in this folder are searched by the Endnote program.

But this folder is not searched by the MS-Word /Extras/Endnote_X4/Format_Bibliography/Browse - Window. Here I only can choose styles from the native Endnote folder …/EndnoteX4/Styles

Thank You Leanne

>>In most places you can view the full output style name, I guess you mean in the word drop-down menu it is “too short”.<<

No, the menu too short is the one in the top line of Endnote itself, where I have the opportunity “Select another Style …”

When I use this menu, not all available styles are visible in their complete length.

>>Endnote DOES look in both these places in the styles manager or show all styles lists. Check what is in your Edit>preferences folder location for styles<<

Yes, Endnote program does look, but not MS-Word’s with it’s built-in Endnote Styles choice. There I get only the list of the Endnote native styles folder.

When you look at MS-Words builit-in Endnote Styles choice in the Format Bibliography menu, it shows those styles you have selected in the “style manager” (which can be from either folder location, as all are listed) in the dropdown menu (same as Endnote’s).  When you “Browse” it shows all available styles in both folders. 

When I browse in MS-Word at Extras/EndnoteX4/Format_Bibliography I simply get one list with all Styles in the Endnote Styles folder. No Style from any other folder is included and a the bottom of the Browser-window I get the message “Showing 295 Styles from …/EndnoteX4/Styles”. My custom folder in the Windows System is neither evalutated nor mentioned at this point and I don’t see, where I could choose another extra folder.

Versions: Endnote X4, Windows XP all updates, MS-Word 2003 SP2 (Me too!)

I can see why you might think that it is only looking in one place.  In the attached screenshot, I see that the Endnote X4 styles dialog is showing 233 styles “from N:\styles” which is where the Default Content Styles folder resides in my setup (this has been changed from the default setting which is usually C:\Program Files\Endnote\Styles)  but the number is 233, while that folder only contains 152.  The other styles in the list come from the H:\My Documents\Endnote\Styles folder (which contains 86.  the two numbers don’t add up, because there are 4 or 5 files with the same name in both locations (which there probably shouldn’t be).  


irgendwas wrote:

When I browse in MS-Word at Extras/EndnoteX4/Format_Bibliography I simply get one list with all Styles in the Endnote Styles folder. No Style from any other folder is included and a the bottom of the Browser-window I get the message “Showing 295 Styles from …/EndnoteX4/Styles”. My custom folder in the Windows System is neither evaluated nor mentioned at this point and I don’t see, where I could choose another extra folder.

Thank You Leanne.

This is really a misleading hint given from EndnoteX4 in the MS-Word browser window.

But I really didn’t find my newly created Style in my custom styles directory.

So I tried close and reopen my word-file to no avail.

But restarting EndnoteX4 brought the success.

So it seems EndnoteX4 reads the list of styles in the beginning after it’s program start and from that moment on, it doesn’t look again but has the list from the start in it’s mind and tells MS-Word and outdated truth.

Yep, and I am about to report that to the developers! 

Leanne, I think they should pay You. You are really helpful.

You do a lot of work, Thomson and Reuters should do, as supporting customers and reporting bugs.

That are all tasks people that make the money with the software should do.