one reference appears two times in the library

My problem is that one reference appears two times with two different numbers in the library but in the text one of these number don't appear. Even when i remove this reference from the Zotero box, it is still in the library of my text. So the next numbers'references are not good.
What can i do in this case?
  • Sorry, I don't follow. Could you provide an example and describe exactly what you did and where, e.g., you removed the reference?
  • I think maybe i have removed the zotero field code, so the update function don't work any more because it's irreversible once we remove the code?
  • sorry for my bad english. in the bibliography of my text, one reference appears two times with two numbers. Even when i removed this reference in the Zotero bibliography, this reference is still there. I think maybe the update function of Zotero for this reference doesn't work.
  • hm, I wish you hadn't deleted the item in Zotero. See if it's still in your Zotero trash. If it is, restore it, then select the two identical items, right-click and merge duplicates. That should fix the issue. If you don't have the item in your Zotero trash anymore this will be significantly more complicated, though still fixable.
  • the item is still in zotero trash. i have restored it. Now the problem is, for exemple this item have the number 44 in the bibliography and the next item normally must be the number 45. But the number 45 doesn't appear in the text neither in the Bibliography. And the next item have the number beginning by 46.
  • edited August 15, 2014
    the number 45 is always exist even it isn't appeared in the text neither in the bibliography
  • then it's in a hidden field somewhere that didn't get deleted properly. If you're in Word, press alt+F9 on your keyboard to show Zotero field codes. My guess is that you'll see something between number 44 and 46.
    Alternatively, try deleting and re-inserting references 44 and 46 in the document.
  • Now 44 and 45 are the same and in the bibliography. 44 is in the text but not 45. The next item begins by 46
  • have you merged the two duplicate items in Zotero as I suggest above?
  • i don't find the merge function after right click
  • make sure both items are selected. It's the 6th option from the top in the context menu.

    Note that this is in Zotero itself, not in the Word document of Zotero's Word plugin
  • but in zotero itself i don't see the two identical items
  • i have tried to merge the two items in the text. this message have been appeared ''Error! No bookmark name given''
    Right-click > edit field > MergeField > Format:none or upper case or lower case...?
  • I'm still not quite clear what you're doing, but stay away from merging anything in the Word document.

    If you don't have the item twice in Zotero, you can ignore my advice to merge.

    When you say you " i remove this reference from the Zotero box"
    what _exactly_ do you mean. Go step by step, please.
  • i'm sorry if i do sth wrong.
    ok, i have remove the item from zotero itself to know if the number 45 is still in the bibliography. It was still there.
    After i have restored the item from zotero trast
  • Could you copy your bibliography from 43 to 46 here?
  • [43] G. Vitányi, É. Bihátsi‐Karsai, J. Lefler, et L. Lelik, « Application of High Performance Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry with Thermospray Ionization to the Detection of Quassinoids Extracted from Quassia amara L. », Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom., vol. 11, no 6, p. 691‑693, avr. 1997.
    [44] E. P. Clark, « Quassin. I. The preparation and purification of quassin and neoquassin, with information concerning their molecular formulas », J. Am. Chem. Soc., vol. 59, no 5, p. 927–931, 1937.
    [45] E. P. Clark, « Quassin. I. The preparation and purification of quassin and neoquassin, with information concerning their molecular formulas », J. Am. Chem. Soc., vol. 59, no 5, p. 927–931, 1937.
    [46] London E, Robertson A, et Worthington H, « Quassin and Neoquassin. Part I », J. Chem. Soc., p. 3431‑3440, 1950.
  • do you still there?
  • won't have time to look at this until the weekend.
  • What happens when you cut out the entire section of the document from [43] to [46] and the delete and re-insert the bibliography. You can do this in a copy of a document or after copying the document over to a new file, it's for testing purposes.
  • edited August 20, 2014
    I deleted the entire section from 43 to 46. After i re-inserted this section and re-inserted the bibliography and it worked well. The number from 47 to the end have been automatically updated.
    What is the problem with zotero? How can i do to prevent this problem for the next time?

    Thank you very much
  • As I said before, there was a reference that likely didn't get fully deleted in Word and staid hidden in the document. This is pretty rare, best recommendation I have to avoid is, is to have your Word set up to always highlight fields and to make sure to catch the whole reference when deleting it.
  • Thank you very much
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