Author - Title vs Title - Author when referring to a work Is there a convention on whether to place the title of a work or the author of a work first when referring to the work? I'm thinking mostly for titling notes/files on the work, or for categorizing music files. For example, more correct to write "Alexandre Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo" or "The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas"? Similarly for audio files, "Tame Impala - Mind Mischief" or "Mind Mischief - Tame Impala"? Maybe `-` is not the right delimiter, others might use `,`, `/`, `;`, etc. I understand that this is probably is a lot of personal preference, and might vary by domain, but I would be interested in existing conventions or patterns.

There are numerous possible bibliographic styles (conventions) for referring to works. These become important when you write or edit with the intent to publish. They basically all begin their references with the author's name. Some commonly used ones in the field of literature studies would be (this is not meant as a complete list):

* Chicago Style
* MLA (Modern Language Association) Style
* MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association) Style



For a guide concerning styles according to academic disciplines see, for example: <

As long as you are just thinking about organising your own notes or files there is no one "correct" way. Whatever meets your needs for referencing and documentation will do.