Unexpected citation duplication in bibliography

caitifty

Hi, I'm having a problem with numerical styles (eg Vancouver) where if I cite a reference in a document, then cite exactly the same reference again later in the document, sometimes it'll use the same footnote number, and sometimes it will give a new footnote number (and duplicate the citation in the bibliography). Eg:

Jones says fish can fly[1] but Smith says they can't[2]. ... As described earlier, Jones thinks fish can fly[3] but Smith says they can't[2].

[1] Jones et al 2010 'Fish can fly!'
[2] Smith et al 2011 'Jones is an idiot'
[3] Jones et al 2010 'Fish can fly!'

What I'd expect is once you cite a reference, it is assigned a footnote number which stays the same throughout the document when re-cited. I have tried changing the citation style and clicking the 'refresh citations' button. I am using zotero 4.0.25.2 in firefox and libreoffice 4.2.7.2 on linux, if that makes any difference.

Any suggestions to get the desired behavior (or at least consistent behavior) would be much appreciated.

Pete

adamsmith

So let's start with a specific citations style -- which are you using exactly?

Then hover over citation 1 and 3 in your example. You'll see something like:
"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/2433/items/E34P4758"]
(among other things) in the bubble that comes up. Are the uris the same for the two items that you think should have the same number?

caitifty

The specific citation style I've been using is American Journal of Public Health. However I've also saved a copy of the document and changed the style in the copy to Vancover and refreshed that as a check.

However, the uri's *are* different. I've double-checked my zotero library and there's no duplicates there. However I notice the format of the url in the uri is also different - the first instance begins with zotero.org/groups/.. and the second instance begins with zotero.org/users/..

adamsmith

yup, that would do it. You inserted one of them from a group library. It's possible that you since left the group or deleted the item there, but if what seems like the same item to you gets inserted into a document from two different libraries (i.e. in your case your personal and a group library), Zotero treats this like two different items. You'll just have to re-insert your item [1], making sure to insert it from your library.

caitifty

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks for your help!