Q. I am editing a thesis, and for the bibliography I have arranged titles by the same author in alphabetical order. Librarians at the university have told me that these titles should be in chronological order. Is there an error in the Chicago Manual of Style Online?
A. Chicago style for ordering titles in bibliographies is alphabetical. However, if you are in fact editing a reference list instead of a bibliography, the order would be chronological. (See CMOS 14.2 or our Quick Guide to determine which you are editing.) Please note too that most universities have rules and guidelines for formatting citations, and not all follow CMOS.