How to Alphabetize a Harvard Reference List

A Harvard reference list goes in alphabetical order by the first author's surname, or by the organisation's name when an organisation is the author, with every source type in one A to Z list. When one author has several works, they go oldest first. When an author has written alone and with others, the solo works come first. Two works by one author in one year get a letter after the year, 2020a and 2020b. That covers most lists. The rest of this guide covers the entries that do not sort themselves: a source with no author, an organisation called 53two, a title starting with "The," a surname like McArthur or Le Roux, and the places where a citation generator, ours included, puts an entry somewhere a marker might not expect.

The rules below are Cite Them Right Harvard, the version most UK universities set as their house style. Where Australian Harvard or a university's own variant does something different, the guide says so.

The rule for Harvard reference list alphabetical order

Cite Them Right is a book by Richard Pears and Graham Shields (the current print edition is 2022) and a subscription website, Cite Them Right Online, run by Bloomsbury. The online version needs a university login, so the rules here are quoted from university library guides that teach it, each linked at the rule.

Six rules settle the order of almost every list:

1. One list, A to Z by the first author. Books, journal articles, web pages and videos all go into the same list. The University of Wolverhampton's library puts it plainly: "Your reference list should be arranged in alphabetical order by author" (University of Wolverhampton).
2. The organisation counts as the author. If the BBC or the Department for Education wrote it, the organisation's name goes first and is alphabetised like a surname (Solent University).
3. No author means the title goes first. Use the title in italics and file it by its first letters. Do not write "Anon" or "Anonymous."
4. The same author's works go oldest first. Singh 2017 comes before Singh 2018.
5. Solo works come before co-authored works. Then the co-authored works are ordered by the second author's surname.
6. Same author, same year: add a, b, c. The letter goes straight after the year, in the reference list and in every in-text citation.

Two more rules are about what the list is not. Harvard references are never numbered, which is what separates Harvard from numeric styles like Vancouver and IEEE (University of Limerick). And you never reorder the names inside one reference. If the source lists Pereira, Abbott and Zhou, the reference says Pereira, Abbott and Zhou, because author order can reflect seniority or contribution. Only the position of the whole entry in your list is alphabetical.

Here is a short list that uses all six rules. The entries are illustrative and use the current Cite Them Right book format, which no longer requires the place of publication (the change came in summer 2025; some lecturers still want the place, so check, per the University of Birmingham).

53two (2021) Equality, diversity and inclusion policy. Available at: ... Anderson, J. (2009) Title of book. Publisher. Anderson, J. (2017) Title of book. Publisher. Anderson, J., Connor, K. and Bell, T. (2016) Title of book. Publisher. Anderson, J. and Tank, T. (2015) Title of book. Publisher. BBC (2023) Annual report and accounts. Available at: ... Medicine in old age (1985) 2nd edn. British Medical Association. Miller, S. (2006a) The Flemish masters. Phaidon Press. Miller, S. (2006b) Rubens and his art. Killington Press.

The Anderson run and the Miller pair are Wolverhampton's own examples. Notice that Anderson, Connor and Bell (2016) sits above Anderson and Tank (2015) even though it is the later work: once the first author is the same, the second author's surname decides, and C comes before T.

Worked examples

1. Different surnames

Compare surnames letter by letter, and file the entry by the first author only. The second and third authors play no part until two entries share a first author.

Banerjee, A. and Watson, T.F. (2011) ... Barnes, M. and Brannelly, T. (2008) ... Busch, A. (2001) ...

Banerjee and Barnes share "Ba," and the third letter decides: n before r.

2. The same surname, different people

Two different authors called Nguyen are filed by their first initial. North-West University's Harvard guide gives this rule for its own variant, and it is the standard reading in Cite Them Right guides too (North-West University).

Nguyen, D. (2009) ... Nguyen, L. (2009) ...

If the surname and initials are both identical, Wolverhampton's advice is to write each author's full forename in the reference and in the in-text citation, then alphabetise by forename. Patricia comes before Peter:

Richards, Patricia (2018) Getting started. Red Globe Press. Richards, Peter (2018) 101 equations. Springer.

In text, those become (Richards, Patricia, 2018) and (Richards, Peter, 2018).

3. The same author, different years

List them in date order, oldest at the top. This is the most consistent rule across every Harvard variant checked for this guide, from Solent to Ulster to Wollongong in Australia.

Singh, S. (2017) 'Sikh costume', Indian Journal of Design, 22, pp. 47-52. Singh, S. (2018) Religion in India. Scholars Press.

The source type makes no difference. A 2017 article comes before a 2018 book because 2017 is earlier.

4. One author alone and with co-authors

Every solo work by an author comes before every work they co-wrote, whatever the dates. Solent's guide states the rule: "the solo works are listed first followed by any joint works in alphabetical order by subsequent author name" (Solent University).

Okafor, J. (2012) Title of book. Publisher. Okafor, J. (2021) Title of book. Publisher. Okafor, J. and Lindqvist, M. (2008) Title of book. Publisher.

Ulster University's guide applies the same chronological rule to a pair of authors who wrote together more than once: Ryan and McKenna (2012) comes before Ryan and McKenna (2013).

5. The same first author, different co-authors

Once the first author matches, move to the second author's surname, then the third. In the Anderson example above, Connor beats Tank. If two works share the first two authors, the third author decides.

Smith, A., Brown, T. and Hale, R. (2019) ... Smith, A., Brown, T. and Okafor, J. (2016) ...

Hale beats Okafor, so 2019 goes above 2016. The date only decides when every name is the same.

6. The same author in the same year

Add a lower-case letter to the year, with no space: 2006a, 2006b. Use the letter in the reference list and in every in-text citation, so a reader can match (Miller, 2006b) to one entry.

Miller, S. (2006a) The Flemish masters. Phaidon Press. Miller, S. (2006b) Rubens and his art. Killington Press.

The letter applies whatever the source is. Solent's example: if one author published a book, a podcast and a journal article in 2010, they become 2010a, 2010b and 2010c (Solent University).

Which work gets "a" is where guides disagree, and it changes the order of your list. Wolverhampton's reading of Cite Them Right is that the first one you mention in your assignment gets "a" and the second gets "b" (University of Wolverhampton). Australian Harvard guides based on the government Style Manual assign the letters alphabetically by title instead; Southern Cross University's guide says works by the same author in the same year "are listed alphabetically by the title of the work" (Southern Cross University). Under a first-mention rule the letters follow your essay; under a title rule they follow the alphabet. Either way, the "a" entry sits above the "b" entry in the list.

7. An organisation as the author

File the organisation by its name as written on the source, the first word included. Department for Education goes under D, BBC under B.

BBC (2009) Teenage obesity link to future MS. Available at: ... Barnes, M. and Brannelly, T. (2008) ...

Under strict letter-by-letter comparison, "BBC" and "Barnes" are both B, and the second letter decides: capital B and lower-case a are compared as the letters b and a, so Barnes goes first. The example list for MMU Harvard, the house style Manchester Metropolitan University used before it moved to Cite Them Right in 2023, keeps BBC after Barnes for this reason (Manchester Metropolitan University).

Australian Harvard puts the abbreviation first and the full name in brackets after it, for example DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), so the entry files under D for DFAT. The University of Newcastle and Monash University guides both show this format.

8. An author name that starts with a number

Numbers come before letters. Wolverhampton's answer to this exact question is: "Anything with a number should go before anything with a letter, e.g. 3 would come before A." So an organisation called 53two goes at the very top of the list, above every A. The MMU Harvard example list opens with that entry.

This is one place where Harvard differs from MLA, which files a title starting with a number as if the number were spelled out. If you also write in MLA, do not carry the habit across.

Special cases

A source with no author

Put the title in italics where the author would go, then file it by the title's first letters. Cite Them Right guides say not to use "Anon" or "Anonymous" (University of Wolverhampton).

Medicine in old age (1985) 2nd edn. British Medical Association. Palladio's Italian villas (2005) Available at: ... (Accessed: 23 August 2018).

Before you treat a source as authorless, look for an organisation. Most web pages without a named person were written by the body that publishes them, and the University of Westminster's guide tells you to use the organisation name first, then the title, and only use the URL if there is no title either (University of Westminster).

Not every Harvard variant agrees on "Anon." North-West University's version files authorless works under "Anon." as if it were a surname. Cite Them Right uses the title.

A title that starts with "The," "A" or "An"

The University of Newcastle's Australian Harvard guide says to "ignore the initial words of 'A', 'An', and 'The' when alphabetising by title" (University of Newcastle). None of the Cite Them Right guides checked for this post states a rule either way. The defensible choice is to follow your university guide if it has a rule, and otherwise to file by the first significant word, The future of libraries under F, which is how most library catalogues sort. Whichever you pick, do it the same way for every title in the list.

Mc, Mac and M'

Sort them exactly as they are spelled, letter by letter. North-West University's example order is:

Mac Lean, W. Mc Donald, B. McArthur, K.

Two rules are working here. First, "Mac" comes before "Mc" because a comes before c at the second letter. Second, "nothing before something": a space ends a word, so "Mac Lean" and "Mc Donald," with their spaces, come before names that run on without one. Some older filing systems treat Mc as if it were spelled Mac. Cite Them Right guides do not ask for that, so sort by the spelling.

Surnames with particles: Le Roux, de Vries, van der Berg

This is the least settled rule in Harvard. North-West University's guide gives one clear example: "A surname such as Le Roux is placed before Leaky." That files the particle as part of the surname, under L, and applies "nothing before something" to the space. Other guides file Dutch and German particles (de, van, von) under the main part of the name: de Vries under V. Cite Them Right guides checked for this post do not settle it.

The practical rule: write the name the way the author writes it on the source, file it the way your university guide says, and if the guide is silent, file under the first letter of the surname as printed, particle included. A marker can check that against the page in front of them.

Websites from the same organisation in the same year

Several pages from one organisation dated the same year are separate items if each has its own URL. Give them separate entries with letters: (NHS, 2024a), (NHS, 2024b). Wolverhampton's same-year FAQ covers this case directly.

A reference list or a bibliography

A reference list holds only the sources you cited. A bibliography also includes background reading you did not cite. Limerick and Solent both draw this line, and some departments ask for both, in two separate A to Z lists. The ordering rules are the same in each.

Checking what a citation generator gives you

We ran a test list through the Cite Them Right Harvard style file that our generator uses, the open-source CSL style that reference managers such as Zotero also use, and compared the order it produced with the rules above.

Correct in our output:

• Surnames compared letter by letter, with an organisation name filed like a surname.
• 53two filed above every letter.
• MacLean before McArthur.
• Solo works before co-authored works, then co-authored works ordered by the second author: Smith (2015), Smith (2020a), Smith (2020b), Smith and Adams (2022), Smith and Brown (2010).
• A no-author web page filed by its title.

Worth checking by hand, in our output and in any tool:

• Same-year letters are assigned by title. Our test gave Apple orchards 2020a and Zebra studies 2020b regardless of which one the essay cited first. That matches the Australian rule. If your university follows Wolverhampton's first-mention reading of Cite Them Right, swap the letters (in the list and in the text) so the first one you cite is "a."
• A no-author title starting with "The" was filed under T. Move it when your guide ignores articles.
• A name entered with its particle in a separate field was filed under the main surname: Le Roux under R, de Vries under V, printed with the particle in front. That is the opposite of North-West University's Le Roux rule. Entered as one surname, "Le Roux" filed under L.

If you sort the list yourself in Microsoft Word, select the entries, click the A-Z button on the Home tab, and sort by paragraphs and text. Word sorts by the raw characters, so it puts numbers first and files "The" titles under T, and knows nothing about solo-before-co-authored or same-year letters. Check the same-author runs by eye afterwards, then reapply the hanging indent if it moved. Our guides to the hanging indent in Microsoft Word and in Google Docs have the menu paths.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

Sorting each author's works by date before checking co-authors. Students often put Anderson and Tank (2015) above Anderson, Connor and Bell (2016) because 2015 is earlier. Once the first author matches, the second author decides, and the date only breaks a tie when every name matches.

Splitting the list by source type. A Books heading, then Journals, then Websites is a habit from school projects. Cite Them Right uses one list. A department that wants a separate list for, say, primary sources will say so in the handbook.

Numbering the entries or using bullets. Harvard is an author-date style, and numbers make a marker look for a numeric style. North-West University's guide rules out bullets too.

Using "Anon." Cite Them Right puts the title first. "Anon." belongs to a few other Harvard variants only.

Alphabetising the names inside an entry. Keep the authors in the order the source gives them. Only the entry's position in the list is alphabetical.

Letters that do not match. If the list says Miller (2006a) and the text cites Miller (2006) with no letter, the reader cannot tell which Miller you mean. Search your essay for every citation of that author and year after you assign the letters.

Mixing two Harvard variants. Cite Them Right, Leeds Harvard and Australian Harvard differ in small ways that show up in the list, such as brackets round the year and how organisations are written. Our comparison of Leeds Harvard and Cite Them Right lists the differences. Pick the one your module handbook names and use it for every entry.

Quick-reference table