Recite Help: In-text Issues

Problem:

Explanation:

• A reference for the specified author(s) or year wasn't found in your reference list.
• Similarly spelt authors were also checked, with nothing found.
• This is therefore likely to be a missing reference list entry, or as in the example above, a year mentioned in text which doesn't need citing.

Problem:

Explanation:

• There are references for this year but none of them matched these authors.
• Similarly spelt authors were also checked, with nothing found.
• This is likely to be a missing reference list entry.
• It's worth highlighting that our example here illustrates an important feature: Recite won't display warnings (in this case a missing comma after "Wallace") unless it can find an exact match for the citation.

Problem:

Explanation:

• Missing author (eg. only 3 authors mentioned, when there are 4) OR
• Misspelled author (typo in one or the other meaning they don't match) OR
• Misspelled by difference in an accented character (diacritic) (Duperre vs. Duperré) OR
• An acronym (for a group author) appears to be used before it's defined in text (and therefore can't be a match) OR
• A title used in place of authors, then abbreviated in the citation (for APA this is OK, but Recite points it out as it's a non-exact match).

Problem:

Explanation:

• Recite found what looks like an author before the first author match, so maybe a missed author (from reference).
• We've automatically skipped common conjunctive adverbs to prevent false positives for things like (Similarly, Beale & Jones, 2020).

Problem:

Explanation:

• Single author and year in citation, which doesn't exactly match a reference list entry.
• An entry was found that had 3+ authors, with the same lead author and year, so it would match if it were an "et al."
• Likely that this was meant to be an et al.
• This is also triggered when the author uses "... and colleagues" or similar et al. alternative.
• Note: The above example refers to multiple citations, so they are numbered for ease of readability. We can therefore see that our error relates the second year (2).

Problem:

Explanation:

• Year doesn't agree between citation and reference list (typo or possibly missed reference).
• Suggestion(s) show possible matches.

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: pp. 261-278 (sections 8.10–8.36)
• Example: Dates in a citation [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: pp. 174-180 (sections 6.11–6.21)

Problem:

Explanation:

• There is a single entry in your reference list for this year, but not for the same or similar authors.
• Probably missing a reference list entry.
• The suggestion(s) are unlikely to be a match, unless there's a major typo.

Problem:

Explanation:

• Found a match where the author(s) partially match, but the year doesn't.
• The incorrect author, or in this case the missing author, is highlighted in red.

Problem:

Explanation:

• Original works (2014/2018) type citations (republished/reprinted works).
• For works with dual dates in the citation, the reference list entry should have a single date for the year, but contain a note referring to the original work.
• Generally, with this warning, Recite has detected that the reference list contains no mention of the original date (therefore it can't be an exact match).

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 265 (section 8.15); pp. 301-302 (sections 9.39-9.41)
• Example: Chapter in an edited book, reprinted from another book [APA Style].
• Example: Republished book, with editor [APA Style] (and "Book published with new foreword by another author" directly below it).

Problem:

Explanation:

• Et al. used which could refer to multiple entries in reference list - disambiguate with additional authors, (eg. Smith, Jones, et al.).

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 267 (section 8.18)
• Example: Citing Multiple Works With Three or More Authors and the Same Date [APA Style].
• Example (APA 6th Edition): The Proper Use of Et Al. in APA Style [APA Style].

Problem:

Explanation:

• Citation exactly matches more than one reference list entry, but Recite has detected that this is due to a duplicate entry in the reference list.
• Recite will also highlight the duplicate entries in the reference list.
• Removing the duplicate should fix this issue.

Problem:

Explanation:

• More than one exact match for author(s) and year, so needs disambiguating (using 2013a style).
• This warning only appears for "reference twins" - all authors and year must match.
• Could point to a near-duplicate reference in the reference list.

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 267 (section 8.19); p. 305 (section 9.47)
• Example: Citing Works With the Same Author and Date [APA Style].
• Example (APA 6th Edition): Reference Twins: Or, How to Cite Articles With the Same Authors and Same Year [APA Style].

Problem:

Explanation:

• This author and year combination matches multiple entries in the reference list.
• Disambiguate with author initials (within the citation).

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 267 (section 8.20); p. 306 (section 9.48)
• Example: Citing Authors With the Same Surname [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 176 (section 6.14)

Problem:

Explanation:

• More than one item in the reference list, is an exact match for this citation - needs disambiguating.

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 266 (section 8.17), p. 267 (section 8.18)
• Example: Author–Date Citation System [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 177 (table 6.1)

Problem:

Explanation:

• Found a match for the lead author and year, but can't be the actual match, as it's not valid as an et al. (too few authors).
• OR (as in the screenshot above) we've found a match with the authors specified, but there aren't enough remaining authors to satisfy the requirement that "et al." is plural. For example, if you specify 3 authors et al., then the reference it relates to would need 5+ as "et al." means "and others" (plural).

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 266 (section 8.17)
• Example: Number of authors to include in in-text citations [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 177 (table 6.1)

Problem:

Explanation:

• Found a page number in parentheses, but the sentence doesn't seem to contain a year to help match it up - therefore needs checking.

Problem:

Explanation:

• Citation is something like (2009, as cited in Bond et al., 2017) [for APA].
• This is sometimes accompanied by an additional style warning, indicating a formatting issue (missing comma etc.).
• Where an additional style warning isn't shown the "looks like a secondary source" warning is just to double check that you actually wanted to use a secondary source here.

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 258 (section 8.6)
• Example: Secondary Sources [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 178 (section 6.17)

Problem:

Explanation:

• Citation says it's a personal communication but a corresponding reference has been found in the reference list.
• Personal communications (as they aren't a retrievable source) shouldn't appear in the reference list, so should be removed.

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 260 (section 8.9)
• Example: Personal Communications [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 179 (section 6.20)

Problem:

Explanation:

• When you have multiple citations within the same parentheses, the citations should be ordered alphabetically (by the same rules as the reference list).

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 263 (section 8.12)
• Example: Citing Multiple Works [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 177 (section 6.16)

Problem:

Explanation:

• When you have multiple citations within the same parentheses, by the same displayed authors, you mention the author names once then the years in chronological order.
• In the case of an "et al.", where the "et al." actually relates to different authors, this rule still applies (hence "displayed authors" in the above).

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 263 (section 8.12)
• Example: Citing Multiple Works [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 177 (section 6.16)

Problem:

Explanation:

• The last two authors in a parenthetical citation should be separated by an ampersand (&) character (with a space either side).
• In the example above, Recite additionally says "(and no extra characters)", as this example has only 2 authors. For 3+ authors that additional message is omitted.

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 266 (section 8.17), p. 267 (section 8.18)
• Example: Author–Date Citation System [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 177 (table 6.1)

Problem:

Explanation:

• Where a reference has 3 or more authors, use the lead authors surname and "et al.".
• It may be necessary to include more than one author surname before the "et al.", if using "et al." makes the citation ambiguous.
• For APA 6th Edition, the first citation (for 3+ authors) should include the authors in full, then subsequent citations should use "et al.".
• For APA 7th Edition, "et al." is used for all citations (with 3+ authors).

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 266 (section 8.17), p. 267 (section 8.18)
• Example: Author–Date Citation System [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 175 (section 6.12)
• Example (APA 6th Edition): The Proper Use of Et Al. in APA Style [APA Style].

Problem:

Explanation:

• For APA 6th Edition, the first citation (for 3+ authors) should include the authors in full, then subsequent citations should use "et al.".

Further reading:

• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 175 (section 6.12)
• Example: The Proper Use of Et Al. in APA Style [APA Style].

Problem:

Explanation:

• Typo with "et al." (probably missed trailing dot, or included one on et).

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 266 (section 8.17)
• Example: Author–Date Citation System [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 175 (section 6.12)
• Example (APA 6th Edition): The Proper Use of Et Al. in APA Style [APA Style].

Problem:

Explanation:

• When you have multiple citations in the same parenthetical, they should be separated by a semi-colon, followed by a space.

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 263 (section 8.12)
• Example: Citing Multiple Works [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 177 (section 6.16)

Problem:

Explanation:

• Within a parenthetical citation, where you have one of more authors, followed by a year, ensure you have a comma (and space) after the authors, before the year.

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 262 (section 8.11)
• Example: Author–Date Citation System [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 177 (table 6.1)

Problem:

Explanation:

• For citations NOT in parentheses (narrative citation), APA rules say to use "and" not ampersand.

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 266 (section 8.17)
• Example: Author–Date Citation System [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 175 (section 6.12)

Problem:

Explanation:

• When you have multiple citations within the same parentheses, by the same displayed authors, contract to (Author, 2012, 2013), rather than repeating author(s).
• This rule even applies in the case of "et al." citations, where the expanded "et al." refer to different authors.

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 263 (section 8.12)
• Example: Citing Multiple Works [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 177 (section 6.16)

Problem:

Explanation:

• Recite has detected some page numbers, but they don't appear to formatted correctly. APA uses "p." or "pp." notation for page numbers.

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 270 (section 8.25)
• Example: Direct Quotation of Material With Page Numbers [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 170 (section 6.03)

Problem:

Explanation:

• Recite has detected a citation that looks like a secondary source (Jones, 2010, as cited in Smith et al., 2020), but the formatting looks incorrect.
• Use "as cited in" (as above), which is the correct APA format for secondary sources.

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 258 (section 8.6)
• Example: Secondary Sources [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 178 (section 6.17)

Problem:

Explanation:

• An abbreviation of the Latin word ibidem, Ibid literally means "in the same place".
• Some reference styles use "ibid." notation, to mean a citation is exactly the same as the one that precedes it.
• APA does not use this notation.

Problem:

Explanation:

• In APA style, author names in a parenthetical citation, should all have a comma (,) after them.
• This includes the one before the ampersand (&) - (Smith, Jones, & Davis, 2010).

Further reading:

• See examples here: The Proper Use of Et Al. in APA Style [APA Style].

Problem:

Explanation:

• You appear to be citing the same authors again, for a different year, but the syntax looks incorrect.
• Use (Smith, 2012, 2013).

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 263 (section 8.12)
• Example: Citing Multiple Works [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 177 (section 6.16)

Problem:

Explanation:

• You appear to be citing the same authors again, for a different year, but the syntax looks incorrect.
• This is very similar to the APA example above, but Harvard generally uses a semi-colon instead of a comma.
• Most Harvard styles would use (Smith, 2012; 2013).

Problem:

Explanation:

• For valid APA, the format for a single author et al. should be (Smith et al., 2012).
• Generally, this issue is triggered for an extra comma after the author name.

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 266 (section 8.17)
• Example: Citing Authors With the Same Surname [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 175 (section 6.12)
• Example (APA 6th Edition): The Proper Use of Et Al. in APA Style [APA Style].

Problem:

Explanation:

• Where you have more than one reference entry where the lead author shares the same surname (and different initials), APA rules state you should use the author's initials before the surname in all citations, to avoid confusion.
• This applies even if the references have different additional authors and/or have different years.
• Use initials before the author's surname to assist the reader, for example the above should be (e.g. G. Brown & Harris, 1978; Hare, 1956)
• As the warning states - it's important that you double check that your reference list is accurate before amending the citation. You may have more than one reference that actually has the same leading author, but you've been inconsistent with their initials, such that they appear to be different. Don't change an author's initials just to make them consistent though - it's more important they are correct.

Further reading:

• APA 7th Edition Manual: p. 267 (section 8.20); p. 306 (section 9.48)
• Example: Citing Authors With the Same Surname [APA Style].
• APA 6th Edition Manual: p. 176 (section 6.14)