Alphabetizing citations means sorting your reference list or bibliography by the first meaningful word in each entry, which is usually the author’s last name. Every major citation style requires this, and the core rules are the same whether you’re writing in APA, MLA, or Chicago format. Here’s how to do it correctly, including the tricky edge cases that trip up most students and researchers.
The Basic Rule
Look at the first element of each citation entry. In most cases, that’s the author’s surname. Sort every entry A to Z based on that surname, comparing letter by letter. If two authors share the same last name, sort by first name or initial. The Chicago Manual of Style describes this as “letter-by-letter alphabetical order according to the first word in each entry, be that the author’s name or the title of the piece.”
Ignore formatting like italics, quotation marks, or punctuation when you’re deciding where an entry falls. Focus only on the letters themselves. A few examples in correct order:
- Adams, R. (2021).
- Chen, L. (2019).
- Garcia, M. (2020).
- Nakamura, T. (2022).
When There’s No Author
If a source has no named author, the entry starts with the title instead. Alphabetize it by the first significant word of the title. That means you skip “A,” “An,” and “The” at the beginning and sort by whatever word comes next. A source titled “The State of Modern Agriculture” would be filed under “S” for “State,” not “T” for “The.” The entry still begins with the full title on the page, but its position in your list is determined by that first meaningful word.
This rule catches a lot of people off guard. If you have a newspaper article called “A New Study on Sleep” and another source by an author named Nelson, the newspaper article goes first because “New” (ignoring the “A”) comes before “Nelson” alphabetically.
Organization and Group Authors
Sources authored by organizations, government agencies, or institutions are alphabetized by the organization’s name, again skipping “The” at the start. APA Style specifies that “The Smithsonian Institution” is alphabetized under “S” for “Smithsonian,” not under “T.” Write out the full name rather than using an acronym. The National Institutes of Health goes under “N,” the World Health Organization under “W.”
Multiple Works by the Same Author
When your reference list includes more than one work by the same person, sort those entries by publication year, earliest first. So a 2018 article comes before a 2023 article by the same author.
If the same author published two or more works in the same year, you need to distinguish them. APA handles this by adding a lowercase letter after the year: 2020a, 2020b, 2020c. The letters are assigned alphabetically by the title of each work. So if one article is called “Climate Trends” and the other is “Renewable Energy,” the first becomes 2020a (because “Climate” comes before “Renewable”) and the second becomes 2020b. You use these year-letter combinations in both your in-text citations and the reference list, so readers can match them up.
Names with Prefixes
Surnames that include prefixes like “de,” “van,” “von,” “Mac,” or “al-” can be confusing. The general practice is to alphabetize based on how the author themselves writes their name. If the author lists their surname as “de Vries,” you’d typically file it under “D.” If they write it as “DeVries” (one word), it still goes under “D” but is treated as a single unit. When in doubt, look at how the name appears in the source and keep your approach consistent across your entire list.
Letter-by-Letter Sorting
Compare entries one character at a time. This matters when names look similar. “MacDonald” comes before “MacElroy” because the fourth letter (“D”) comes before the fourth letter (“E”). Spaces and hyphens can also affect order. “De Marco” (two words) would come before “DeMarcus” (one word) in strict letter-by-letter sorting because the space in “De Marco” is treated as coming before any letter.
Numbers in titles are alphabetized as though they were spelled out. A title beginning with “12 Ways” would be sorted as if it started with “Twelve.”
Sorting Automatically in Word Processors
You don’t have to sort a long reference list by hand. Microsoft Word has a built-in sorting tool that works on both Windows and Mac.
In Microsoft Word (Windows):
- Select your entire reference list.
- Go to Home, then click Sort.
- Set “Sort by” to Paragraphs and “Type” to Text.
- Choose Ascending (A to Z).
- Click OK.
In Microsoft Word (Mac):
- Select your reference list.
- On the Home tab, click Sort.
- Under “Sort by,” select Paragraphs, and next to “Type,” select Text.
- Choose Ascending.
- Click OK.
Google Docs does not have a native sort feature for regular text. Your best workaround is to copy your list into a spreadsheet (Google Sheets), paste each entry into its own row, use Data > Sort sheet A to Z, and then paste the sorted list back into your document.
One important caveat with any automated sorting: the tool sorts by the literal first character, so it won’t know to skip “The” at the start of a title or to treat “de la Cruz” differently from “DeLaCruz.” After running the sort, scan through the results and manually fix any entries that the tool misplaced.
Quick Reference Checklist
- Standard entries: Sort by author’s last name, letter by letter, A to Z.
- No author: Sort by the title, skipping A, An, or The.
- Organization authors: Sort by the organization name, skipping The.
- Same author, different years: Earliest publication year first.
- Same author, same year: Add lowercase letters (a, b, c) after the year, assigned by title alphabetically.
- Numbers in titles: Alphabetize as if the number were spelled out.
These rules apply across APA, MLA, and Chicago with only minor variations. If you handle the edge cases above, your reference list will be in proper order for any of the major styles.