Repeated Citations in Footnotes

Most of the complex formatting in footnotes is relevant only to styles in the humanities. There are a wide variety of formats required for citing references that are repeated in the footnotes of a paper. Citations that are not repeated in consecutive footnotes are covered by the short form set in the footnote template. See Bibliography and Footnote Templates and Rules for Working with Style Templates for information on setting up templates, including the short form template.

Some styles take the shortening of references in footnotes even farther when the repeated references appear in consecutive footnotes (or in the same footnote). EndNote provides additional options for the special handling of these cases in the Repeated Citations panel.

If the Same Reference Repeats in Consecutive Citations

When the same reference repeats in consecutive footnotes, you have three general options for how the repeated citation will be handled.

  • Replace repeated data with: This option will allow you to replace the repeated data with text and/or a field of your choice. This is normally "Ibid." (or a variation of the term). You may also select an option from the Insert Field list. For example, the Cited Pages option lists the page numbers when the same reference repeats in consecutive footnotes. In this instance, you would have to go to the Edit & Manage Citations dialog in Cite While You Write, or use the "@" sign and the page numbers to enter a temporary marker if using Format Paper, so the cited pages would show in the document. See Editing Citations in Microsoft WordEditing Citations in OpenOffice Writer, and Citation Suffixes for information on editing citations to include cited pages.
  • Omit repeated data: This option allows you to omit the repeated data and replace it with nothing.
  • Use short form: This option will use the Short Form template defined in the Footnote Templates panel.

Note: The option to include the Volume field only applies to the Book and Book Section reference types. It does not apply to all reference types.

If the Same Source Repeats in Consecutive Citations

This setting does not apply to the identical reference that repeats in consecutive footnotes, but rather if any of the source data repeats in two consecutive citations in multiple citation format. For example, if two different references happen to be from the same journal, these settings would apply to the journal name, volume, and issue (or whatever portion of that source information is identical).

  • Replace repeated data with: This option will replace the repeated data with "Ibid" (or text of your choice). If you choose this option, you may also limit the replacement to only the Secondary Title field (this includes the journal, magazine, or newspaper name, or the title of a book for a book section).
  • No special handling: This option will use the Short Form template defined in the Footnote Templates panel.

Note: We realize that many of these detailed settings for the style can be confusing. We have done our best to configure the styles for you so that you will not need to edit them and work through these details on your own. However, if you find that you need to modify these parts of your styles, consult your style guide for more detailed descriptions and examples of handling repeated citations in footnotes.

Related Topics

Additional Style Formatting Options

Modifying Style Templates