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Missing Text Source

xml
A <cs:text> element does not specify any source for the text it should render.

Q-9-11 — Missing Text Source

A <cs:text> element does not specify any source for the text it should render.

What this means

The CSL <cs:text> element renders text drawn from one of four sources, selected by exactly one of these attributes: variable (a citation field like title or author), macro (the name of another macro), term (a CSL localized term), or value (a literal string). The element must specify exactly one. This error fires when it specifies none.

Why this happens

Common causes:

  • A hand-edited <cs:text> where the source attribute was deleted but the element itself was kept.
  • A typo in the attribute name — varaible="..." instead of variable="..." — so the parser sees the attribute as unknown and the element as without a source.

How to fix

Add one of the four source attributes. Pick the one that matches what the text should render: a field from the citation (variable), the result of another macro (macro), a localized term (term), or a literal string (value).