# Duplicated entries: which comparison mode do you use?

**URL:** <https://discourse.jabref.org/t/duplicated-entries-which-comparison-mode-do-you-use/114>\
**Category:** Features\
**Created:** [August 9, 2016, 8:13am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/duplicated-entries-which-comparison-mode-do-you-use/114 "2016-08-09T08:13:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mlep](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/mlep/32/387_2.png) [@mlep](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/mlep)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2016, 8:13am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/duplicated-entries-which-comparison-mode-do-you-use/114/1 "2016-08-09T08:13:09Z")

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When importing references, or when using Tools -\> Find duplicates, JabRef displays side-by-side potential duplicated references. It is then up to you to keep one of them, or to merge these references.

To help you in this task, JabRef currently offer 5 comparison modes.  
Which one do you use?

_Poll ([view on site](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/duplicated-entries-which-comparison-mode-do-you-use/114/1))_

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**Author:** ![jethrobelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5ac83/32.png) [@jethrobelle](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/jethrobelle)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 2:36am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/duplicated-entries-which-comparison-mode-do-you-use/114/2 "2016-08-10T02:36:21Z")

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More important to me is that my latest version Win7 instal from what I can work out JabRef checks on `year,journal,author` (not `bibtexkey`) and if any of these are different it doesn’t detect the duplicate!!! This is a real issue given that many web sites provide the BibLaTeX `date` and `journaltitle` fields meaning they are NEVER detected by JabRey.

Also Web importing from Google into JabRef is much more consistent at detecting duplicates than direct Searching on `author year title` in JabRef! IMHO the search/duplicate functionality requires improving and making able to deal with typos (cut and paste from OCR pdfs) like Google appears able to with exactly the same `author year title` ie: a fuzzy search option.

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**Author:** ![tmorrell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@tmorrell](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/tmorrell)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 9:10pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/duplicated-entries-which-comparison-mode-do-you-use/114/3 "2016-08-16T21:10:56Z")

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Where are the comparison modes set? My impression is that the current comparison version is hardcoded as discussed in [More control on the Duplicate Finder](http://discourse.jabref.org/t/more-control-on-the-duplicate-finder/120)

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**Author:** ![mlep](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/mlep/32/387_2.png) [@mlep](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/mlep)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2016, 6:24am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/duplicated-entries-which-comparison-mode-do-you-use/114/4 "2016-08-17T06:24:55Z")

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The comparison mode can be set by the drop-down menu located at the upper right-hand corner of the duplicate window:

 ![](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/jabref/original/1X/71b3fd6786b23f7ef25bfb01fa87a166a5096b77.png)

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**Author:** ![tmorrell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@tmorrell](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/tmorrell)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2016, 3:47pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/duplicated-entries-which-comparison-mode-do-you-use/114/5 "2016-08-17T15:47:27Z")

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Ah, I see. This is the option for how differences are displayed, not how JabRef decides whether entries are duplicates.