Ordering items in a bibliography...

poirmw

Is searched this question, and based on what I have read, I think that I may know the answer, though my problem may be simpler than the question that was raised earlier by someone else. So here goes. Is it possible to produce a bibliography in which the entries are sorted by date, with the most recent dated item appearing at the top of the list and the earlier items below in proper date order?

I thought that this would be rather easy because one can organise the central panel in this manner, and I felt that the bibliography would be created according to the ordering of the central panel. But apparently this is not so. The programme appears to have its own logic, no matter how the central panel is ordered.

If I am right about this, would it not be a good idea to order bibliographies to reflect the exigencies set for the central panel?

Or am I missing an obvious solution to my problem?

adamsmith

bibliographies are sorted according to the sorting parameters coded into each citation style - and that's how they should be sorted. It's relatively easy to change that for any given style
http://www.zotero.org/support/dev/citation_styles/style_editing_step-by-step
(you would want to have the sort section for the bibliography as
<sort>
<key variable="issued"/>
</sort>
but since this is not the way bibliographies are usually sorted, such a style doesn't currently exist.

However, if you use a numeric style like Vancouver, you'll probably get the items in the order you have them in the central panel (because those bibliographies are sorted by order of appearance)

poirmw

Thank you.

There is only one thing wrong with the assumption here. It is that all bibliographies are prepared for publication. But that is not always so. Some, and perhaps even many, are called for by university administrators who want the entries presented in a particular order that has absolutely nothing to do with whether a particular style finds that order acceptable or not. This sort of request was easily handled in the past by many of the old DOS bibliography programmes like Library Master, Papyrus, etc., and I suspect by many of the current Windows programmes as well, although I am not as familiar with these.

adamsmith

It's not like Zotero can't do this.
I provide you with two options to get chronological bibliographies. In fact, once you start slightly modifying styles you can go beyond that, e.g. also sorting by item type to make the typical CV distinction between Book, Articles, and book chapters etc.

But when you tell Zotero to create a bibliography with the "Chicago Manual of Style" citation style, it should be ordered according to that citation style.