First name/initials added to in-line citations

tangri
Zotero is adding the first name or initials of some authors in my inline citations. I have gone through my entire database to ensure that each author is cited only one way (Lastname, Firstname, MI.) and that the first names are properly entered in the Firstname field. I've refreshed within the Word plugin. I've deleted all citations in the document and re-entered them. I have re-started Word and Zotero (which has sometimes worked in the past). The problem persists and I have no idea what to do.

Example:
(Terrence M. Quinn et al., 1993; T M Quinn et al., 1998) should be (Quinn et al., 1993; Quinn et al., 1998).


  • adamsmith
    Terrence M. Quinn et al., 1993; T M Quinn et al.,

    suggests quite strongly they're actually looking different in the data. If you create a new document with just those two citations, do they still come out like that?
  • tangri
    Thanks for the quick response! In a new document, they work ok.
  • tangri
    Interestingly, in the new document, if I cite them together, I get (Quinn et al., 1993, 1998), which I believe is incorrect because the co-authors are different. But frankly, I can live with that.
  • bwiernik
    Whether they should be collapsed depends on the citation style. What style are you using?
  • tangri
    AGU, which is pretty close to APA but not identical:
    https://publications.agu.org/brief-guide-agu-style-grammar/#reference

    But again, collapsing is a secondary concern. Mostly, I want to figure out how to remove the first name/initials.
  • adamsmith
    Something went wrong in this step in your original troubleshooting:
    I've deleted all citations in the document and re-entered them.
    My guess is that you re-entered the citation from under "Cited Items" and not under "My Library", thus re-using what is likely an orphaned references with incomplete first names.
  • tangri
    That was it! I deleted the citations and re-entered them, being careful to use ones from "My Library."

    Thank you.
  • Henrik Norholt
    Dear Adam Smith, I am having the same issue of unwanted initials in the references within the Word document. My style is APA. I have done all the steps described in the above, with no joy. Also checked that I inserted refs from my library, and not from "cited". When inserting the refs I have issues with in a new document, I have no problems with initials. Only in the large document.
  • adamsmith
    Have you looked at the bibliography? This is most definitely due to disambiguation and the bibliography may provide clues -- if the names look identical in APA, try with Chicago Manual, which prints full names.
  • rutyggi
    Adam,

    I have two articles by the same authors and Zotero it's doing this.

    At first one of the two articles have a different first name for the author, now the names are identical.

    I am adding from "My Library" and not from "Cited".

    Zotero is adding the first name in both citations
  • adamsmith
    See my answers above for troubleshooting, i.e. try the same items in a new document and look at the bibliography.
  • rutyggi
    edited May 11, 2021
    Thanks Adam

    In a new document it works correctly. The first name is NOT inserted and the two entries in the bibliographies are right.
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