In the approach taken by CSL implementations, and by biblatex autocite, when dealing with note styles, you have two kinds of citations in notes:
1. what we might call "automatically footnoted"; citations in the running text that get converted on export to footnotes (or endnotes) 2. citations within footnotes, that get output as is, without any footnote wrapping. With this input: --------------- Body text with a citation: [cite:@mcneill2011]. Footnote: [fn:1] #+print_bibliography: * Footnotes [fn:1] A commentary, and then a citation: [cite:@low2001]. ----------------- ... the citation within the footnote now generates an additional footnote. ---------------- [3] A commentary, and then a citation:[4]. [4] Low, “The Edge and the Center: Gated Communities and the Discourse of Urban Fear.” ----------------- It should not; output should be: ---------------- [3] A commentary, and then a citation: Low, “The Edge and the Center: Gated Communities and the Discourse of Urban Fear.” ----------------- Bruce