diff --git a/ckanext/odsh/templates/package/snippets/package_basic_fields.html b/ckanext/odsh/templates/package/snippets/package_basic_fields.html
index 01211864287b155e246cc95fe075adb471ecc521..7b1354747ac099d5b6cb3267797b3b9ce0492365 100644
--- a/ckanext/odsh/templates/package/snippets/package_basic_fields.html
+++ b/ckanext/odsh/templates/package/snippets/package_basic_fields.html
@@ -325,5 +325,5 @@ dataset_is_draft)) %}
 {# field reference #}
 {% set field = 'reference' %}
 {% set error_reference = h.odsh_extract_error(field, errors) %}
-{% set value = h.odsh_extract_value_from_extras(data.extras,field) %}
+{% set value = h.odsh_extract_value_from_extras(data.extras,field) or '' %}
 {{ form.select_autocomplete(field, label=_('Musterdatensatz'), selected=value, options=h.odsh_load_mdk_sample_dataset(), error=error_reference, is_required=False, classes=['control-full', 'field-reference'])}}