In-text Reference Citation Issue

Hello all,

I am having an issue with the in-text citation feature of Microsoft Word. I am currently on a Mac (version 10.14.1), using Zotero 5.0.58, and using Word version 16.16.4.

The in-text reference feature only alphabetizes my citations when I press "Keep Sorted"; it does not sort the citations chronologically (which most journals in my discipline do) regardless of the reference style. I have tried multiple styles from the style repository but it only changes certain features of the reference like "et al" number of authors in the citation, etc. Has anyone else run into this problem?

According to the "Citations with multiple cited items" part of this link: https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_usage
The word plug-in is supposed to automatically update the citation based on the style (either alphabetically or chronologically) but it is not working.

Does anyone have a bug patch for this problem or am I doing something wrong?

Thank you,


  • What style are you using?
  • Currently American Political Science Association

    Have also tried Harvard; British Journal of Political Science; West European Politics; American Psychological Association 6th Edition; American Anthropological Association and Chicago.

    Everything is working well except the chronological ordering of in-text citations.
  • APSA, APA, and BJPS sort by author, then by date; that's in line with the respective style guides. What makes you think citations should be chronological?

    E.g. APSA's style guide:
    "Parenthetical author-date citations remain a short means of
    reference, rather than a way of listing works in time, and should be
    given in alphabetical order, e.g. Hare 1965, Singer 1963 rather than the reverse"

    BJPS:
    "Multiple references should be ordered alphabetically and separated by semicolons,"
    etc.

    or are you saying citations by the same author aren't chronological? because that should be the case for all three styles.
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