"Invalid citation, traveling library" but if citations are working in a new word document

EndNote EndNote General
1

Hello,

I have some troubles with my list of references.

Some references are mentionned “Invalid citation, traveling library”.

Nevertheless, i noticed that i open a new word document, then i can insert properly my references.

How can i repair the word document where i have the references with this mention : “Invalid citation, traveling library”.

Thank you for your help.

Best regards,

2

When you see these (!!! Invalid Citation !!!) items in the document, this means that something has damaged the background EndNote field code for this item in the document.  This generally occurs when the document has been opened by a Non-Microsoft Word word processor.

Opening a Word document in a different word processor is invariably going to strip, or damage the Word specific field codes behind the EndNote citations, which will cause this problem.

The two solutions to the issue are to reinsert the citations into the document using EndNote, replacing the (!!! Invalid Citation !!!)s with good replacement citations.

The other option would be to restore a backup version of the document prior to when this issue occurred.

Once the field codes in a document become damaged, there is not a way to repair them.

You would also want to use the steps from our website to clean the document:

In Windows:

  1. Make a backup of your document.
  2. In Word 2010/2013/2016 with Endnote X4 or later , go to the EndNote tab and choose the “Convert Citations and Bibliography > Convert to Unformatted Citations” command.
    In Word 2007 with Endnote X1 or later , go to the EndNote tab and choose the “Convert Citations and Bibliography > Convert to Unformatted Citations” command.
    In Word 2007 with Endnote X or earlier , go to the Add-Ins tab and choose the “EndNote > Unformat Citations” command.
    In Word 2000/2002(XP)/2003 go to the Tools Menu and select “EndNote > Unformat Citations” command.
    This will remove the reference list and revert the citations to a temporary format.
  3. Press [Ctrl]+A on the keyboard to highlight everything.
  4. Press [Ctrl]+6 (above the “T” and “Y” key) to remove any additional hidden field codes.
  5. Press [Ctrl]+C to copy the highlighted text.
  6. Open a new document and press [Ctrl]+V to paste.

Note : If you have citations in footnotes, you will need to click in the footnotes section and repeat steps 3- 6.

You should now be able to format this cleaned up version of the document without running into problems.

Please note that you may get the “EndNote Select Matching Reference” dialog box when formatting the bibliography. This may be because you have modified the author name or the year in one of the references. Please click at EndNote: Select Matching Reference for information on how to resolve this.

On a Mac:

  1. Make a backup of your document.
  2. Word 2008/2011 : Choose the “Tools > EndNote > Unformat Citations” or “Convert to Unformatted Citations” command, which will remove the reference list and revert the citations.
    Word 2016 : Go to the EndNote tab and select the “Tools > Convert to Unformatted Citations” command.
    This will remove the reference list and revert the citations to a temporary format.
  3. Press [Command]+A on the keyboard to highlight everything. Note: The [Command] key may be identified as the [Apple] key on some keyboards.
  4. Press [Command]+6 (above the “T” and “Y” key) to remove any additional hidden field codes.
  5. Press [Command]+C to copy the highlighted text.
  6. Open a new document and press [Apple]+V to paste.
    Note : If you have citations in footnotes, you will need to click in the footnotes section and repeat steps 3- 6.

You should now be able to format this cleaned up version of the document without running into problems.

Please note that you may get the “EndNote Select Matching Reference” dialog box when formatting the bibliography. This may be because you have modified the author name or the year in one of the references. Please click at EndNote: Select Matching Reference for information on how to resolve this.

You can find these steps on our website as well

https://support.clarivate.com/Endnote/s/article/EndNote-Problematic-field-codes-causing-jumping-cursor-the-range-cannot-be-deleted-or-other-problems-while-formatting?language=en_US

3

Hello thank you for your help.

The step 5 for the windows precedure looks weird for me.

When i do Ctrl + 6, all the text disappear. Is it normal ?

Thank you for your help

4

  That is weird.  Is it replaced by a 6?  – you need to continue to hold the ctrl key while hitting 6. 

It is possible you have redefined that key combination for something else, I guess.  I use Ctrl+Shift+F9 which is an equivalent  command (convert field codes to plain text).  

5

Thanks for your help.
Currently I’ve experienced the same problem, however I’ve never used any Office software other than MS Office. I tried most of the solutions on the websites, none of them worked. My software version is MS Office 2019 Professional and EndNote 20, I guess this ‘INVALID CITATION’ issue can also be caused by the newly updated version of the softwares.
Updated: I used EndNote X9 and same issue still remained. Then it’s not about the software version. I am hopeless.