EndNote X5 - Ambiguous Citations

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1

Hi, I’ve a problem with ambiguous intext citations that I didn’t have with my old X4. I have the anbiguous settings set to include the author’s initials when names are ambiguous. In some cases this works and in many others EndNote includes the complete name.

Can anybody help me??

Thanks in advance!

2

Have you:

  1. Reconfirmed that the output style that EndNote is using does indeed have the “Ambiguous Citations” set to include initials (refer to attached example from the APA 6th output style)?   Also check whether additional options are needed and should be included in order to differentiate what is “ambiguous”.

  2. Now that you’re using X5, did you try unformatting then reformatting the citations?  

a.  First make a backup copy of the document file as a precaution, in the MS Word ribbon, locate the EndNote tab.

b. Within the EndNote tab, click the “Convert Citations an Bibliography” drop down menu then select: Convert to Unformatted Citations. This will convert the in-text citations to the temporary “curly-cue” format.

c. Now that the citations have been unformatted, it’s time to re-format them.  Return to the EndNote tab, but now click to select: Update Citations and Bibliography.

  1. Did you take a closer look the references which you expect to have the author’s initials included (per the Ambiguous Citations setting) to see if there’s any pattern?  Also, did you open each of those references to see if the way the author’s name has been entered (including unintended blank spaces) may be affecting the way EndNote is “reading” the names?

Ambigous Citations.gif

3

Hi CrazyGeko,

Thanks! The settings are all fine. I’ll try the reformatting and see if that helps.

4

Sorry folks, that didn’t help.
It would appear that the main problem occurs with book sections, some with one author and some with multiple authors

That may not be much help, but it is all that I have at the moment 

5

OK, I have found one of the problems. I have entered / imported the names as they were published and in one case the name was Bennett, Janet M. and in the other Bennett, Janet Marie and despite the fact that it is the same author and the articles had different dates, EndNote decided to use the full name to differentiate them.

Is there any way around this without adapting the names to suite EndNote??

6

Not unless you want to jetison the whole of the “ambiguous” settings.  Endnote doesn’t have a way for you tell it that the two names are the same author, unless you make them exactly the same. 

7

Thanks Leanne,

I thought that might be the answer, but one should never give up hope.

If authors names were written in the same manner in all medien our life would be a lot easier. I am working with around 1000 sources at the moment and the mere thought of having to go through them all and adjust things to suit is not funny. On top of that it is required that the literature is cited in the reference list as printed :frowning:

Once again thanks for your help!