Reference type Journal Article suddenly ignoring all space and punctuation

This is rather bizarre to me.

I use a custom output style, which on the whole works very well. Journal Articles have always worked fine.

Recently, however, all the spaces and punctuation defined in the bibliography template for Journal Articles (but not for other reference types) seem to be just ignored.

Let’s take as an example a Journal Article which looks like this in my EndNote:

Journal Article details

This would be expected to be formatted like this in a bibliography:

Hoffmann, Karl. 1955. Ein grundsprachliches Possessivsuffix._Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft_6. 35–40.

But instead, what I see – both in the little preview window in EndNote and in an actual, generated bibliography in Word, is this:

Hoffmann, Karl1955Ein grundsprachliches Possessivsuffix_Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft_635–40

The bibliography template for Journal Articles in my output style looks like this (using * for the link adjacent marker):

Author. Year._Title_. Journal|*Volume|(Issue)|.*Pages|.

There are very clearly periods and spaces in that belonging to their respective fields. The fields themselves are obviously populated in the formatting – but the periods and spaces are ignored.

The corresponding bibliography template for the Book reference type is:

Author. Year._Title_|,*Volume|.*Translator*(transl.)|.*Edition*ed.|.*Editor*(ed.)|*(|Series Title*Series Volume|)|. Place Published: Publisher|.*Reprint Edition|.*Original publication:*Original Publication|.

– and that works exactly as expected, with all spaces and periods intact.

Switching to a different output style, Journal Articles are also correctly formatted, so it does appear to be an issue with this particular template in this particular style… but what? How? Why?

What can possibly be causing this?

Can you zip the output style into a zip folder and attach it? 

Does it happen to all the journal articles. 

Also are you sure you have inserted a space rather than some other space type character lookalike? 

try replacing the punctuation and space and saving the output style again.  or

Copy the template from one that is working (say from generic) and then save - does it work sort of?  If so, you can now go back and adjust it to the correct journal article format.  

@leanne wrote:

Can you zip the output style into a zip folder and attach it?

 

Does it happen to all the journal articles. 

 

Also are you sure you have inserted a space rather than some other space type character lookalike? 

 

try replacing the punctuation and space and saving the output style again.  or

 

Copy the template from one that is working (say from generic) and then save - does it work sort of?  If so, you can now go back and adjust it to the correct journal article format.  

 

 

I just tried copying the template from Chicago 17th Author-Date – no dice. Works just as it should if I choose the Chicago style, ignores periods and spaces if I choose my own (now entirely identical) style.

They are definitely regular spaces – I deleted and retyped them earlier to check.

I’ve attached the style here, zipped. I tried opening the .ens file in an editor to see if there might be something findable in code somewhere, but it’s apparently a binary format, so that didn’t get me very far…

CSIE.ens.zip (3.19 KB)

I can confirm that the style when opened on a Mac or Windows machine that the template for a Journal article has lost the spaces and punctuation around all the fields expect Volume.

I was able to add the spaces and punctuation then save the style with a new name. The changes were retained when previewing the style and reopening it.

You might want to check the location of where output styles are getting saved on your machine.

Windows:

Edit then Preferences then Folder Locations.

Mac:

EndNote menu then Preferences then Folder Locations.

If the path for the Styles folder includes a location that is set sync with a cloud service like DropBox or iCloud that could be related to the issue.

Please find the edited version of your style attached.
CSIE 2020.zip (2.76 KB)

Fantastic – my spaces and punctuation are back!

So presumably the .ens file had somehow become corrupted somehow. If it happens again, I’ll see if I can save to a new location and get it back.

(The folder is in my local Documents folder – no cloud services or any other kind of sync on that, so it wasn’t that; but I have been tinkering quite a lot with things in EndNote recently, so something must have caused the glitch.)

Okay, issue apparently not quite resolved after all…

It works when I move the file Tony provided into my Styles folder and use that – but as soon as I edit anything (e.g., removing the space between Volume and _(Issue)_that had crept into Tony’s file and add the period before Pages), it goes right back to ignoring all periods and spaces all over again!

What in the world is going on here? :confounded:

took out the errant space.  

This sounds like a bug so what version of Endnote and on what operating system and where is your styles folder preferences pointing to (and make sure you are using the new output style in your document)?  

CSIE 2020 Corrected vol(Issue).zip (2.81 KB)

P.S. – don’t move the style to your installed styles folder – let endnote “save as” to your user preferences location with a new name.  

I’m using EndNote 9.3.3 on macOS 10.15.5. The styles folder in my preferences is /Users/[my username]/Documents/EndNote/Styles, which is also the only folder I’ve made any changes to.

@leanne wrote:

P.S. – don’t move the style to your installed styles folder – let endnote “save as” to your user preferences location with a new name.  

So far I’ve been putting the .ens file in the styles folder, but I just tried opening your corrected version by double-clicking on it and then, from inside EndNote, do a Save as – no discernible difference.

The bug seems to be spreading (for lack of a better word) now. If I add either yours or Tony’s version and select that as the current output style in EndNote, it works. But it seems now I don’t even have to edit the style to get it to break again – it even breaks if I just select a different output style in the preview section in the application (eve one of the ones available by default like APA or Chicago), and then change back to the corrected version of mine. Instantly borked again.

This does seem like a bug, but a weird one, and one appearing at a very inopportune time, just as I have to generate what will probably be a 50-page bibliography for a book that needs to go off to the printer by Thursday.

I would suggest contacting support for additional help with this issue.

Please contact Technical Support directly

1-800-336-4474 option 4 then 1

or

https://endnote.com/contact/

I’ve written to support and am awaiting a reply from them.

In the meantime, the book I’m collating needs to move on to typesetting today, so I really need a version I can use to create the bibliography as quickly as possible.

Could I trouble one of you to export a fixed version of my .ens file again with the spaces and punctuation added back in? The Journal Article template should be precisely like so:

Author. Year. Title._Journal_|*Volume|(Issue)|.*Pages|.

– that is:

  • Journal italicised
  • no-break spaces both before Volume and before Pages
  • period after Author, Year, Title, Issue (after the separator) and at the end; but not after Journal or Volume
  • parentheses around Issue
  • separators after Journal, Volume, Issue (outside parentheses, before period) and Pages (before period)

Thanks a lot for all the help!

CSIE 2020.ens.zip (3.24 KB)

Here you go!  I will private message you my email for more immediate response)  

CSIE 2020 LMW.zip (2.81 KB)

Fantastic! Thank you so much. That’s a real load off my mind, knowing that I can now export my bibliography!