"Some citations could not be found..." issue

[daiyi]

I seem to recall this was raised earlier but can't find the thread.

Currently I'm running BE 10.5.4 and OS 10.5.7. Just as I'm finishing up a dissertation manuscript, I started getting this error: "Some citations could not be found in the reference database. The bibliography may be incomplete."

Mind you, I'm doing this on a test version file using Mellel and BE. With hundreds of citations in the dissertation, things could get messy very fast.

I verified the database, which is fine. Will it be necessary to rebuild it?

Thanks in advance.

[Jon]

Hi,

That probably won't help. What are you using to create the temp citations? Make sure it is *not* a journal format. Use one of the defaults we provide (by content, or author, date, unique ID).

Jon
Sonny Software

[daiyi]

Jon, thanks for the prompt reply. You're amazing!

I'm using author's names for the temp citations. My work flow is thus: ~author name~ or ~title~; Convert to text citations; Scan

Strange that before when testing out different ways of doing the temporary citations, I used the same authors and titles and all went smoothly. Now I get this message and an "unmatched" citations window at the end of the process. I would hate to have to add a lot of titles by hand to the bibliography.

As an aside, I may go back and make the temp citations more specific, as in unique key words of the titles. This way the choice of references when scanning will be limited. Is there any problem with that?

I have to admit, that I have not spent enough time getting to know BE, just learning the basics for my needs.

So, many thanks for your help.

Finally, I'm so glad to have switched to Mellel and Bookends for this project.

[Jon]

Hi,

Remember that Bookends matches text when it scans. So if the author is in the db as

Smith, John Doe

and in the formatted "citation" it is

JD Smith

Bookends won't find it. That's why it is safest to use one of our default temp citation styles. If you want to create your own (which is fine), you must ensure that the citation only contains words that will be found in the reference.

A quick check you can make is to Find (by whole word) the temp citation in Bookends. If it's not found that way, it probably won't be during a scan, either. (There is one notable exception: Bookends will accept an "et al." in a temp citation during a scan, even if those words don't appear in the reference -- a standard Find from within the database won't).

There is no problem with using individual words from any field (including title). But you'd have to enter those by hand -- the Bookends temp citation generator won't do that for you.

I'm glad you like the Bookends/Mellel combination.

Jon
Sonny Software

[daiyi]

Thanks Jon.

During the scan, I can resolve ambiguous citations, no problem. A "find" is also showing up the references just fine. But the "unmatched citation" window keeps popping up after the warning message. Unless I'm really doing something wrong, I don't know what else to do.

Should I just enter them manually?

[Jon]

No, please zip and send me a small Mellel document and a small database that shows the problem. I'll let you know what I find.

Jon
Sonny Software

[daiyi]

It should not matter, but I noticed the problematic references all seem to include volume series information.

Well, I'll send you the files.

Thanks.

[daiyi]

I created a Mellel file and test DB. Did one scan and the same problem occurred. Again, it seems more prevalent with series titles or more complex references. But if BE is simply looking for limited terms and resolving them while undertaking the scan, I don't understand why the bibliography is such an issue (unmatched citations).

OK, I edited one title (Shih, Shu-mei, Lure of the Modern), getting rid of the series name. That seemed to do the trick. Any explanation why? The reference is on the file and in the DB I sent, too.

[Jon]

For those following this thread, the problem was that a journal format (Chicago) was being used to create the temporary citation. This should never be done, because it will almost always result in citations that can't be resolved. You should use one of the default options (cite by content or author, date, unique id) unless you are confident that you can create a citation format that doesn't generate ambiguous or unmatching citations.

Jon
Sonny Software

[daiyi]

This was clearly my misunderstanding, yet Jon helped me promptly and was patient throughout the process.

It's great when a developer listens to his user base, responds to reasonable feature requests, offers generous support, and creates an outstanding product. Thanks again, Jon.