Custom bibliography that includes 'Order of Appearance'

Thanks for the additional explanation.  Unfortunately, and as you’ve already discovered, there is no option for building a sort order that includes “order of appearance” as a supplemental field to the sort string.  But here’s an idea…

The Bibliography Sort Order does allow using a “Custom” field in the sort string  So if you modify the assorted reference type templates (e.g., Journal Article, Edited Book, etc.) to include a custom field to allow assigning a number corresponding to the order of appearance, then you could include this custom field in composing the sort term: Author + Original Publication + Year + Custom.  (You could rename “Custom” to suit your needs.)

Once you’ve modified the reference type templates then you’ll need to locate the affected references (e.g., Smith 2007a, Smith 2007b, Smith 2007c). Then enter a numeric number (1, 2, or 3) corresponding to their order of appearnce.  So for example, if Smith 2007a is displayed first, then enter “1” in the custom field.  Then if Smith 2007c appears second, enter “2”; and if Smith 2007b appears third, enter “3”.  The idea is to assign a numeric code corresponding to the order of appearance. Updated 4/6/2017: For all other remaining records, insert the number “1” in the custom field.

Now the coding identifying the order of appearance is in place so the bibliographic references should be sorted in the order of: Author + Original Publication + Year + Custom (aka numerical code corresponding to order of appearance).

If this idea is feasible the process would be:

  1. Modify the reference type templates to include a (renamed) Custom field (e.g., Order of Appearance, SubSort, etc.).

  2. Modify the references within your library by entering a numeric code in the custom field corresponding to the reference’s order of appearnce. ( For all other remaining records, insert the number “1” in the custom field.)

  3. Create a new sort order in the output style’s Bibliography Sort Order that includes the custom field.

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