Bibliography Alphabetizer
How it works
A bibliography lists all sources cited in or consulted for a research paper, book, or thesis. Most citation styles (APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard) require bibliography entries sorted alphabetically by the first author's last name. When you have 20–50 sources assembled over weeks of research, manual alphabetisation is error-prone. The Bibliography Alphabetizer sorts citation lists correctly and handles edge cases.
**Alphabetisation rules** For APA and MLA: sort by author's last name, letter by letter (ignoring spaces and punctuation). If no author: sort by title (ignoring "A", "An", "The"). Multiple works by the same author: sort chronologically (oldest first in APA; alphabetically by title in MLA). Same author, same year (APA): append letters — Smith, 2023a; Smith, 2023b.
**Edge cases** Hyphenated surnames: sort on the first element (Martínez-López sorts under M, not L). Organisational authors: sort by the first significant word (American Psychological Association → A). Names with "van", "de", "von": varies by convention — Dutch names sort by surname (van Gogh → G in English usage, but V in Dutch); German names sort by "von" particle (Von Bülow → V).
**Multi-author entries** APA 7th: list up to 20 authors before "et al.". For alphabetisation, only the first author's surname matters. If two entries share the same first author, compare the second author, then the third, etc.
**Output formats** The tool preserves your original citation formatting while reordering entries, making it compatible with APA, MLA, Chicago, and any other style where you've already formatted the individual citations.
Privacy: all processing runs in the browser. No citation data is transmitted.
Frequently Asked Questions
- In standard academic bibliography formats (APA, MLA, Chicago): always alphabetise by the author's last name (surname), never the first name. Smith, John comes before Taylor, Mary. For 'de', 'van', 'von' particles: English-language convention typically sorts by the main surname element (van Gogh → G; de Beauvoir → B). But Dutch personal names sort by van/de (it's part of the surname). When in doubt for a specific person, check how their works are catalogued in your library database — that's the authoritative source for that individual.
- Ignore leading articles ('The', 'A', 'An') when alphabetising by title. File under the first significant word. 'The Great Gatsby' sorts under G; 'A Tale of Two Cities' sorts under T. In MLA and Chicago references, you still write the title as it appears ('The Great Gatsby') but sort as if the article weren't there. APA follows the same convention. In library catalogues, this is called 'article-stripping' — the computer ignores initial articles for sorting purposes. The same rule applies to foreign-language articles: 'Le Monde' files under M; 'Los Angeles' files under L (the English preposition, not an article).
- APA: sort by year (oldest first). Smith (2018) before Smith (2022). Same author, same year: add letters — Smith (2022a) for the earlier-cited work, (2022b) for the next. Same lead author with different co-authors: sort alphabetically by second author's last name. MLA: sort alphabetically by title (ignoring articles). Chicago/Turabian: sort by year (similar to APA). When the same entity is both a solo author and lead author of group works: solo works come first (APA convention).
- No — alphabetisation is case-insensitive. 'smith' and 'Smith' are treated identically. Hyphens, apostrophes, and other punctuation are typically ignored in library alphabetisation ('O'Brien' sorts as 'OBrien' between 'O' and 'P'). Diacritical marks: English alphabetisation typically ignores them (Müller sorts as Muller, between Mu- and My-). International standards (DIN 5007 in German, NF Z44-001 in French) treat diacritics differently — Müller may sort after Mutter in German alphabetisation. For academic English-language bibliographies, standard English alphabetisation rules (no diacritic consideration) apply.