Fixing and avoiding Endnote linking a citation to the wrong reference

Hi,

My team of 10+ authors uses EndNote X7 and we notice a problem with some reference randomly getting mapped to incorrect references. For example, I will be working on a document on one topic and my references are correct, then when I go back and edit the document, the references show up as references from a project I did months ago.

I think this is related to EndNote assigning unique record numbers to the same reference on different computers, even when a user’s library is synced. We all work from office and home PCs. I remember reading that Endnote tries to match references based on Author and Year datafields, but I can’t find that resource and would like to confirm this. We occasionally have references that do not have author or year information and I wonder if this contributes to the problem.

What can my team do to avoid this mix-up? Should we put “placeholder” information in the author and/or year fields? Should the reference types be modified? Detailed clarification would be appreciated, as this is the biggest point of resistance with my team and I want to ensure that my manager is still on board with us using the product.

Thanks.