Word 2011 Citation Problem

I am having a problem with the way a few of my citations appear in the body of my paper. Rather than just the last name of the first author and the year, which is the way the majority of the citations appear, a few show initials as well. As far as I can tell, I have entered them all the same--and I have checked and double-checked--for example: Basu, R., L. Gavin, D. Pearson, K. Ebisu, and B. Malig shows up as (R.L. Basu 2017). I realize that just the last name and year may not be the typical style for citations, but for the purposes on my paper, this is what I need.

I'm using Word Version 14.7.3 and running macOS High Sierra, Version 10.13.3.


Any help on why this might be happening and how to fix it would be greatly appreciated!!

Welcome to our forums.

You're a bit behind in updates to MS Office 2011. The latest is 14.7.7 which probably will not make a difference in your citations. Did you select "Document Elements" on the Ribbon and then go to "Citations and References". You need to check those options to see if any will help. Also, the style makes a difference on how the citations are presented.

Thank you for your response. I didn’t realize I was behind on updates, so I appreciate the info.

I have the style set to Chicago, and that has been consistent, so I don’t think that is the problem. I will definitely check out the options you suggested to see if I can find the problem there. Thanks again.