diff --git a/tei2imxml.py b/tei2imxml.py
index abb6a27..a77c94c 100755
--- a/tei2imxml.py
+++ b/tei2imxml.py
@@ -226,6 +226,17 @@ def make_publication_cfg(info_dict, translation_file):
 # def make_publication_cfg ends here
 
 
+def sanitize_data_string(text_string):
+    """Remove line breaks and multiple spaces"""
+
+    text_string = text_string.replace('\r', '').replace('\n', '')
+
+    return_string = re.sub("\s\s+" , " ", text_string)
+
+    return return_string.strip()
+# def sanitize_data_string ends here
+
+
 def check_bibliography(xml_tree):
     """Check TEI header for bibliography data, return relevant data as dictionary."""
 
@@ -599,8 +610,10 @@ def handle_refs_hyperimage(ref):
                 logging.error("Citekey %s was not found in the references. Exiting." % citekey)
                 sys.exit(1)
 
-        citation.text = formatted_citation
-        citation.set("data-title", formatted_citation)
+        sanitized_citation_string = sanitize_data_string(formatted_citation)
+
+        citation.text = sanitized_citation_string
+        citation.set("data-title", sanitized_citation_string)
         citation.set("data-content", cited_data[citekey][2])
 
     #############