How do you alphabetize your bibliography in APA style?

In a bibliography, sources are always in alphabetical order. You sort all sources by the author's last name. Usually this is self-explanatory, but there are situations where the standard rules don't apply. What if, for example, you have two sources by the same author, or if no author's name is known? Here we explain to you exactly how to alphabetize the APA-style (7th edition) bibliography.

Basically, the main rule is that you alphabetize a bibliography in APA-style based on the last name of the publication's first author. So, a source from an author with the last name ‘Kleinsma’ comes before a source from an author who’s last name is ‘Columns.’ An author named Klein comes before an author with the surname Kleinsma.

Thereby, with APA style, insertions also count for the last name. That means you put a publication by an author named Van Dijk by the letter V of "Van," not the D of "Dijk." 

How does alphabetizing the APA-style bibliography work if you cite multiple publications by one author? In this case, the following rules apply:

• A publication by only that author comes before a publication by that author in collaboration with other authors. So, a source written by five authors comes after the source written by the first author alone.

• For multiple publications with multiple authors but the same first author, sort the source by the names of the next author. So suppose: you have a source written by Van Dijk, Baardse, and De Vries. This source comes before a source written by Van Dijk and Kleinsma. After all, the B of "Baardse" comes before the K of "Kleinsma" in the alphabet. 

• Are there multiple publications written by only this one author? If so, sort the publications by year. A publication by that author from 2018 comes before a publication from 2022.  

• Are the years the same in sources by the same author(s)? Then, sort themby the first meaningful word in the title (i.e., a word other than "the," "the," or "one"). In this case, put a letter (a, b, c, d, etc.) after the year in the source citation. In this way, when references are made in the text, you can make it clear which of the sources you are referring to.

• Do you cite sources from authors with the same last name but a different initial? Then, determine the order based on the initials. 

• Furthermore, the "Nothing comes before anything" rule applies. A source with one author and nothing else comes before a source by the same author and several co-authors. When the year of publication is only known for one source out of a few written by the same author, the source without a year comes first (with the mention "n.d.", which stands for "no date"). Also, the shortened version of a name comes before its longer version, so the name "Klein" comes before "Kleinsma."

Are the names of one or more authors of the source unknown? Then, you sort the sources based on the first meaningful word in the title. A source titled "Monitor housing market 2022" would be sorted according to the "M" of "Monitor." 

Note that sometimes no author is known, but the organization behind the publication is. In this case, list the organization's name as the author. The name of the organization then determines its place when alphabetizing the APA literature list. So, a Consumer Association source is listed at the "C". 

Does an organization's name start with a number (such as 123inkt.co.uk)? Then, look at how you would pronounce this name. For example, you pronounce 123inkt.nl as "One two three ink dot nl". This starts with the "o" of "one," so you should put this source with the "o" in the bibliography.

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