Sort collection by date but grouping same author together?

djross3 · July 21, 2021

Just a suggestion for the interface, it would be convenient to be able to view all references in a collection/search/library by date, but with any articles written by the same author grouped together even if they were written later than others in the chronological sort.

I realize that doesn't follow normal sort logic and it could be awkward in the UI, but since this is a typical way I would sort through references for a literature review, it seems useful.

In other words, the sort order would follow this pattern:

Jones, A. 1950
Brown, B. 1962
Brown, B. 1985
Smith, C. 1971
Smith, C. 1990
Lee, D. 2000

(I'm suggesting this for the Zotero interface, although I suppose it could be a useful sort order for in-text cites as well. I realize users probably would not need to sort a bibliography like this, though.)

qqbb · July 21, 2021

You could try adapting your Secondary Sort settings:
https://www.zotero.org/support/sorting

There's also BBT's citekey column:
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/83188/sort-by-first-creator-year-for-the-middle-panel

djross3 · July 21, 2021

I don't think secondary sort can apply here: the "secondary" author would need to override the "primary" year, if and only if author is the same. Unless I'm missing something.

Ah, I see that a citekey might help as a workaround.

qqbb · July 21, 2021

(Actually, your example is a bit odd. The authors are not in alphabetical order.)

djross3 · July 21, 2021

That's intentional (but sorry if I did not phrase it clearly).

For a literature review, I would like to look at publications in order of publication (primary sort by date), but also consider all works by the same author together. So in the example above, I would first consider Jones, then the two works by Brown, then the two by Smith, and finally Lee. The Brown and Smith works overlap, but I'd prefer to cite and/or discuss them grouped by author rather than jumping back and forth.