Frequently Asked Questions


Frequently Asked Questions
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CWYW 17: I'm getting a dialog box that says "EndNote Select Matching Reference". What does this mean and how do I resolve this?

Answer: The "Select Matching Reference" window comes up when text between the temporary citation delimiters (usually the {} or [] characters) which does not match up with the author, year and reference number in the currently opened library. Reasons this can happen include:

When formatting a document that was formatted using an earlier version of EndNote, this can come up if the library that was used for that document initially is not open.
If the author’s name, the year, or the reference number has been corrected or changed in the library, after it was already inserted into the paper this message will appear.

To resolve this, look at what EndNote is searching for in the text box between the "Find:" label and the "Search" button. Then do the following:

If it is an author, year and a number, like "Smith, 2004 #23", then this is something that EndNote cannot locate in the currently opened libraries. Make sure that the library used to insert this reference is open.
Check the reference in the EndNote library. Does the record number exist, or is it a different number? Is the name spelled identically? Does the year match? If the author or year for this particular reference has been changed in the library, use the Find box in the Select Matching Reference window to enter the correct information, and then click on the "Search". Any matches will appear below, under the Author, Year and Title columns. If the correct citation is found, highlight it and click the "Insert" button.
If the text in the box is not an author, year and reference number (or just a number if your Temporary Citation settings use just the RefID), then this may simply be text that was entered between the temporary citation delimiter characters and is unrelated to EndNote. In this case, click on the "Ignore" button.

NOTE: While going through the process matching correct references using this dialog, do not click on the "Cancel" button. Clicking "Cancel" will cancel any changes, and any references inserted in this select matching reference session will be lost. To stop for now, click the "Ignore All" button, which will skip past all the rest of the unmatched citations and format the ones that have been inserted. Skipped citations will remain in their unformatted form.

This page was last modified on: January 30, 2008

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