Dear Zotero Support Team,

I am experiencing an issue with citation numbering in Word using the Zotero plugin.
Although I only have 4 unique references in my Zotero library, Word generates citation numbers from 1 to 5.

Here is what happens:

My bibliography lists the same source twice (e.g., the S3 guideline appears as #2 and again as #4).

When I insert a new citation, Zotero assigns it number 5, even though there are only 4 unique references.

In my Zotero library, the reference exists only once. The duplication seems to be created inside the Word document.

Steps I have already tried:

Checked “Duplicate Items” in Zotero (nothing shows).

Deleted and reinserted the citation.

Refreshed the document and recreated the bibliography.

Unfortunately, the duplicate entry persists.

Could you please advise how I can remove this “phantom citation” from the Word document so that the numbering is correct (1–4 only)?

Thank you very much for your help!

Best regards,