APA Referencing Guide: Order of Works

Reference List - Order of Works

 

Works should be listed in alphabetical order by the first word of the entry, according to the following principles:

 

• Arrange entries in alphabetical order by the surname of the first author, followed by the initials of the author's given name(s).

 

• In APA Style, "nothing comes before something". So, for example, Clark, W. comes before Clarkson, A.

 

• When alphabetising names, disregard any spaces or punctuation marks (e.g., apostrophes, hyphens) in two-word surnames.

 

• When alphabetising names,  disregard anything in parentheses (e.g., roles like "Eds.").

 

 

Order of Multiple Works by the Same First Author

 

• When ordering multiple works by the same first author in the reference list, include the author's name in every entry.

 

• One-author entries should be arranged by year of publication, the earliest first. References with no date precede references with dates:

 

Example Jones, A. B. (n.d.). Jones, A. B. (2018). Jones, A. B. (2020a). Jones, A. B. (2020b).

 

One-author entries should precede muItipIe-author entries beginning with the same first author, even if the multipIe-author work was pubIished earlier.

 

Example Jones, A. (2020). Jones, A., & Smith, B. (2015).

 

 MultipIe-author entries in which all authors appear in the same order should be arranged by the year of publication.

 

Example Jones, A., & Smith, B. (2015). Jones, A., & Smith, B. (2020).

 

MultipIe-author entries which have the same first authors and different subsequent authors should be arranged by the surname of the second author, or, if the second authors are also the same, by the surname of the third author, and so on.

 

Example Jones, A., Brown, C., & Smith, B. (2020). Jones, A., & Taylor, F.W. (2015).

 

Order of Works With the Same Author and Same Year of Publication

To differentiate references with the same author and year of publication, put a lowercase letter after the year in both the in-text citation and the reference Iist entry.

 

Example The Ietter format for references with years is "2020a," "2020b." The Ietter format for references with no date is "n.d.-a," "n.d.-b."

 

 

References with only a year, precede those with more specific dates, and specific dates are placed in chronological order.

 

Example Jones, A., & Smith, B. (2018a). Jones, A., & Smith, B. (2018b, March 10). Jones, A., & Smith, B. (2018c April 1).