How to name an algorithm in a paper In a paper, I should refer to an existing algorithm in different parts of the paper. There is no name for this algorithm. For the firs time I wrote "the Algorithm proposed by (Xia, et al. 2008) .....", but I don't think it is a good way to use this method any time I want to refer to it. I may name it Algirhtm A, or Algorithm 1 or Algorithm Xia, Algorithm base ... 

What do you suggest for referring to this algorithm for several times?
When you first refer to it say something like "the Algorithm proposed by (Xia, et al. 2008) which we refer to as XAB" where you replace XAB with the first letters of the authors' last names in the order that they appear in the bibliography. So if the authors are Xia, Alpha, Beta, you would use XAB. If the authors are Xia, Yen, Ping, you would use XYP. I wouldn't use more than about the first 3 or 4 author's last names, however.

This way if you are referring to multiple algorithms, you can give a clear reference to each. If it turns out that multiple algorithms you are referencing would have the same name given this scheme, you can also throw in the last two digits of the year. So you would have XAB08 and XAB09.