Formatting Citations and Creating Bibliographies
The Citations Dialog for Format Paper
The Citation Matches dialog opens in the EndNote program when you format a paper. It lists all of the citations found in a document, in the order in which they appear in the paper.
In the Citations dialog, EndNote brings special attention to unmatched and ambiguous citations. You can choose from the checkbox options to show only the Matched Citations, Unmatched Citations, or Ambiguous Citations.
The Citations dialog lists all of the citations found in the document and displays the number of matching references for each citation. If any number other than a 1 appears in the Matches column, the corresponding citation will be left unformatted in the document and will not be included in the bibliography EndNote generates.
Ambiguous Citations (Matches Greater than 1)
A number greater than 1 indicates that multiple references in the currently open library (or libraries) match the citation and EndNote does not know which reference to use. (EndNote automatically checks the matching references to see if any are duplicates. If so, they are not listed as separate possible matches.) To see which references are considered matches, highlight the citation in the Citations dialog and click Lookup. Reinsert the correct citation into the paper.
Unmatched Citations (A "Zero" Match)
A zero in the Matches column indicates that there is no matching reference in any open library for that particular citation. The Author, Year, and Record Number (if used in the temporary citation) must all match the Author, Year, and Record Number of a reference in an open library in order for EndNote to consider it a match.
If text in your document is surrounded by citation delimiters (such as "{sic}), EndNote will treat the text as a mismatched citation. You can ignore the warning about it being a mismatched citation, and EndNote will leave the text as it was before formatting. (You could also change the Citation Delimiters, see Temporary Citation Delimiters.)
Uncheck the Unmatched Citations box at the top of the Citations dialog to hide these items from view if you have numerous sections of bracketed text in your document and the corresponding unmatched citations are just cluttering the Citations dialog.
Correcting Mismatched Citations
Mismatched citations must be corrected either in the word-processing document or in the EndNote library—whichever contains the incorrect information. Normally, the easiest way to fix a mismatched citation is to search the word processing document for the mismatched citation, delete it, and then reinsert the citation from the library.
If there is a citation for which EndNote lists multiple matches, you can highlight the citation in the Citations dialog and click Lookup. EndNote displays the matching references in the Library window. You may then select the appropriate reference and reinsert it into the paper. Mismatches of this type are only possible when the record number has been omitted from the temporary citation in the text.
After you have corrected the mismatched citations and saved your changes to the paper, Format again. (The Citations dialog is still available after formatting if you want to see the list of citations.)
The best way to avoid citation mismatches:
- Keep all of your references in one main library.
- Copy and paste your citations from EndNote to your word processing documents instead of typing them.