Hi! I am having problems with ambiguous citations in endnote X4. I have 3 references with the same authors and year. The program add a letter to all of them, but this is done according to the alphabetical order of the references (Authors, year, title) and not according to where they appear in the text.
These are the references:
Facelli, J.M. & Pickett, S.T.A. (1991a) Indirect effects of litter on woody seedlings subject to herb competition. Oikos, 62, 129-138.
Facelli, J.M. & Pickett, S.T.A. (1991b) Plant litter: its dynamics and effects on plant community structure. Botanical Review, 57, 1-32.
Facelli, J.M. & Pickett, S.T.A. (1991c) Plant litter: light interception and effects on an old-field plant community. Ecology, 72, 1024-1031.
And the order of appearance in the text is 1991b, then 1991c, and then 1991a. I tried modifying the ambiguous citation part of the style I am using (which by the way is J Ecology (UK)). I select sort order Author + Year in citations and bibliography parts, but it didn’t work.
I know some other people has the same problem, but I couldn’t found the answer in the forum. Any ideas on how to fix it?
Most publishers actually specify the order to be based on alpha (author) then year and then usually title, which is what you are getting, and not in order of citation. That is because in the bibliography itself, that is how they want them to be listed.
To get around this, in my tests, you need to edit the style and change the bibliography sort order. Probably for your “esthetics” you want to sort only on “First Author” (or Author, but that will probably create some instances incompatible with your expectations), and then year and nothing else (so use the Other and specify these two fields). The third parameter will automatically be by order of appearance.And make sure the citation sort is set as the “same as bibliography”.
Save as to a new name, and use this new output style in the format bibliography options of the manuscript in question.
(note added in edit – I suppose you could make this change in the citation sort order and let the bibliography be listed in Author, Year, Title and then the letters would be out of order there, if you prefer, but I didn’t test that option.)
I don’t usually read “solved” messages, but looked at this. I can’t help without a lot more detail than your message contains. What do you get, what are you trying to get for what publication (giving the link to author instructions can help too) and attach the output style you are currently using.
Thank you for your reply. This is for my thesis. The attached picture describes the problem. I also attach the EndNote Style I’m using. It is based on APA 6th and I have made changes to it as per your instructions to the previous questioner. Thank you very much for your help. Muzi
From the screen shot, I can see that the initials have been entered differently for the two records. Copy and past the one with the separated initials into the record where they are joined together, and it should fix your problem.
what you mean by From the screen shot, I can see that the initials have been entered differently for the two records. Copy and past the one with the separated initials into the record where they are joined together, and it should fix your problem.
