I should have mentioned that there's a similar problem with refcommand=authoryear (my previous post concerned refcommand=authoryears). Using Mk IV, the first citation is preceded with a new line. Mk II behaves appropriately. And all citations other than the first one are formatted correctly by Mk IV. This is quite similar to the problem I reported with refcommand=authoryears. In both cases, only the first citation is wrong and the error in both cases involves a line break. Perhaps they have a related cause. Happy hunting! mjg Samples are attached. This is LuaTeX, Version beta-0.46.0-2009112820 \write18 enabled. (bib-test-2.tex ConTeXt ver: 2009.12.01 17:09 MKIV fmt: 2009.12.1 int: english/ english