Bibliography does not match with citation style

I have edited an existing citation style and saved it with another name (changed the Style name and ID). I changed it so that in the bibliography first 6 authors are shown and if there were more than 6 authors then the authors list is followed by "et al". When I look at in Zotero style preview, the bibliography looks exactly as it should be, like this:

Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports MODIFIED

1.
Strath SJ, Kaminsky LA, Ainsworth BE, Ekelund U, Freedson PS, Gary RA, et al. Guide to the assessment of physical activity: Clinical and research applications: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation 2013;128:2259–2279.

However, in the Word document, in which I choose this style from "Preferences", this citation looks like this in the Bibliography:

1. Strath S, Kaminsky L, Swartz A. Guide to the Assessment of Physical Activity: Clinical and Research Applications A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation 2013;128:2259–2279.

So why in the Word there is only 3 first authors?

  • You change the citation style under "Document Preferences" in the Zotero Word add-on, not in the Zotero preferences
  • Thank you for the guidance. I chose the same style in Word (from "Document Preferences") and refreshed it, but it did not help.
  • Test in a new document -- does the style look right there? If not, something isn't right with the install; hard to say with a custom style.
  • The style looks right in a new document.
  • Try switching back and forth styles in the existing doc then -- that should almost certainly work.
    If it doesn't, either you used edit bibliography in the doc and need to reset it, or you are looking at items with very broken metadata
  • I remember that some months ago I did some manual edits because of this problem (not showing as many authors as it should). However, when I go to "Add/edit bibliography" the choice "revert all" is not allowed (cannot click it).

  • So did you try switching to a (completely) different style, check that the changes take effect, then change back?
  • Yes, I switched back and forth between different styles and then back to the style I want to use, but that did not help. Some references are shown correctly in the bibliography (first 6 authors shown) but some are not. I also checked in Zotero that there is no missing info in the author list of the journal article, but there is not.
  • Some references are shown correctly in the bibliography (first 6 authors shown) but some are not.
    Sorry, that's not clear -- do those items in the bibliography never change at all, regardless of which style you change to (again, make a more dramatic change then just styles with different et all settings -- e.g. change to APA or Chicago Manual and back).
    Can you replicate this with a style other than your custom style?

    You can try deleting and re-inserting the bibliography, although I don't have very high hopes for that.
  • Yes, there are some small changes in those items in the bibliography when I change to for instance APA (journal name changes to italics), but the number of authors shown does not change at all when I test all styles.

    I have done that deleting and re-inserting quite many times, but as you expected it did not help.

    I have had this same problem for quite a long time. In my last paper, I ended up manually correcting those items (editing the bibliography) that were shown incorrectly in the bibliography but it was burdensome.
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