How are titles considered when alphabetizing and assigning units for filing order?

When organizing files, particularly in health administration settings, it is critical to have a standardized approach for reference materials, which includes how titles are treated during the alphabetizing process. The accepted practice is that the titles of works are considered a separate unit at the end of the filing order.

This means that when sorting files, the primary focus is often on the author’s name, but when no author is present or in the case of certain organizational contexts, titles take precedence but are placed after all entries that have an author listed. This ensures that all works are consistently arranged and easily accessible, avoiding confusion for anyone looking to retrieve a specific file. In practice, this method enhances efficiency and clarity in the filing system, as it allows for a clear distinction between authored works and those not directly attributed to an individual.

In the other choices, combining titles with the author's name would disrupt the integrity of both the author's contribution and the subsequent filing of non-author materials. Similarly, placing the title at the beginning disregards the common organizational structure and may inhibit the retrieval process, making it less systematic. Alphabetizing solely by the title, while it has its use in specific contexts, can also complicate the retrieval of records since it may separate related works from their authors