Suppose I have the following references to literature:
- Miller, H. (1999): … Referred to as: Miller (1999)
- Miller, F., & Smith, J. (2002): … Referred to as: Miller & Smith (2002)
- Miller, A., & Smith, J. (2003): … Referred to as: Miller & Smith (2003)
- Miller, B., Smith, J., & Jones, K. (2001): … Referred to as: Miller et al. (2001)
- Miller, B., Jones, K., & Smith, J. (2004): … Referred to as: Miller et al. (2004)
How to sort those entries?
“Logic” (?) says to first use
- Miller, A., & Smith, J. (2003): … Referred to as: Miller & Smith (2003)
because all authors are “Millers” but Arthur’s given name begins with the first letter of the alphabet.
- Miller, B., Jones, K., & Smith, J. (2004): … Referred to as: Miller et al. (2004)
would follow, because “B” comes after “A” and “Jones” before “Smith”,
- Miller, B., Smith, J., & Jones, K. (2001): … Referred to as: Miller et al. (2001)
- Miller, F., & Smith, J. (2002): … Referred to as: Miller & Smith (2002)
and
- Miller, H. (1999): … Referred to as: Miller (1999)
would follow.
On the other hand, practically would sort as follows:
- Miller, H. (1999): … Referred to as: Miller (1999)
because this is a “one author reference”.
- Miller, F., & Smith, J. (2002): … Referred to as: Miller & Smith (2002)
Before
- Miller, A., & Smith, J. (2003): … Referred to as: Miller & Smith (2003)
Because these are two-author references and “Miller & Smith (2002)” is chronologically before “Miller & Smith (2003)”. From the reference “Miller & Smith” the given names are not known to the reader (before looking in the references), thus sorting after the known year would make sense. Therefore also
- Miller, B., Smith, J., & Jones, K. (2001): … Referred to as: Miller et al. (2001)
would go before
- Miller, B., Jones, K., & Smith, J. (2004): … Referred to as: Miller et al. (2004)
Which sorting order is “better”/more common? Or is there another sort of ordering which makes more sense?!
There is no style guide, required format, standard or something like that for the planned publication.