New special style: Just sort alphabetically

We’ve released a new special style for Thrix: Just sort alphabetically.

This style arranges your references in the correct alphabetical order, while preserving as much of your original formatting as possible. It’s a fast, flexible way to sort a reference list without applying a full citation style.

How to alphabetize a reference list

Reference lists follow common conventions when sorting text alphabetically:

• Initial articles: Titles and organization names beginning with The, A, or An (or the equivalents in other languages) are sorted by the next word (e.g. The Lancet is sorted as ‘Lancet’).
• Numbers: Digits (0-9) are sorted before letters (A-Z).
• Special characters: Punctuation like quotation marks is ignored for sorting.
• Capitalization: Sorting is not case-sensitive (Van der Meer and Van Der Meer are treated the same).
• Spaces: Spaces can be handled in one of two ways:
  • Letter-by-letter: Spaces are ignored, resulting in this example sequence: New Ash Green; Newbury; New York
  • Word-by-Word: Spaces are sorted before other characters, keeping whole words together: New Ash Green; New York; Newbury

References should also follow these specific rules:

• Ties: If two references have the same authors, they should be sorted by date. If both authors and date are identical, they should be sorted by title.
• Missing authors: If a reference doesn’t have authors, it should be sorted by the title.
• Author order: The first author’s family name should be placed before the given name or initials, (e.g. Smith, J.).

Alphabetizing references automatically with Thrix

Built-in sort features in Microsoft Word or Google Docs don’t apply all these alphabetization rules correctly.

Instead of manually fixing the order, you can let Thrix automatically apply these rules to your whole reference list. This makes sure your references are alphabetized consistently and accurately.

How Thrix sorts references

• Thrix moves the surname of the first author before the given name.
• Thrix sorts your reference list using word-by-word sorting (see above).
• In-text citation groups will also be sorted alphabetically (uploaded documents only).
• If references are numbered, they’ll be renumbered to match the new alphabetical order (uploaded documents only).

FAQ: Do all reference styles alphabetize references?

No, not all citation styles alphabetize reference lists.

• Author–date styles: Styles such as APA, where the citations consist of the author name and the date, e.g. ‘(Brown, 2003)’ always require alphabetical sorting.
• Author–page styles: Styles such as MLA, where the citations consist of the author name or title and the page number, e.g. ‘(Jones, 56)’ always require alphabetical sorting.
• Numerical styles: Most numerical reference styles, like AMA and IEEE order references by the sequence of citations in the text, not alphabetically. However, some journals and publishers do use a numbered system with references sorted alphabetically.

Summary

With the Just sort alphabetically style, Thrix gives you a simple, flexible option to quickly tidy up your references, without affecting your original formatting or citation style. But Thrix can do so much more:

• Automatically correct citations and references, from general punctuation and capitalization to specific corrections from Crossref and PubMed metadata
• Apply over 60 editorial styles including APA, MLA, Chicago, and Vancouver
• Add missing details using online databases
• Add DOI and PubMed links/IDs automatically

Ready to get started? Head to the Thrix homepage to paste your references or upload your document, and see how quickly Thrix can improve your reference list.