diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/builder/SearchSourceBuilder.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/builder/SearchSourceBuilder.java
index 1bd8171ffa8..94dc17b6117 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/builder/SearchSourceBuilder.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/builder/SearchSourceBuilder.java
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.builder.XContentBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.xcontent.XContentQueryBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.facets.AbstractFacetBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.highlight.HighlightBuilder;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.query.SortParseElement;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
@@ -147,7 +148,7 @@ public class SearchSourceBuilder implements ToXContent {
      */
     public SearchSourceBuilder sort(String name, Order order) {
         boolean reverse = false;
-        if (name.equals("score")) {
+        if (name.equals(SortParseElement.SCORE_FIELD_NAME)) {
             if (order == Order.ASC) {
                 reverse = true;
             }
diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/query/SortParseElement.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/query/SortParseElement.java
index e8328c37a75..ea0ceec2bc1 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/query/SortParseElement.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/query/SortParseElement.java
@@ -41,6 +41,9 @@ public class SortParseElement implements SearchParseElement {
     private static final SortField SORT_DOC = new SortField(null, SortField.DOC);
     private static final SortField SORT_DOC_REVERSE = new SortField(null, SortField.DOC, true);
 
+    public static final String SCORE_FIELD_NAME = "_score";
+    public static final String DOC_FIELD_NAME = "_doc";
+
     public SortParseElement() {
     }
 
@@ -74,9 +77,9 @@ public class SortParseElement implements SearchParseElement {
                 if (token == XContentParser.Token.VALUE_STRING) {
                     String direction = parser.text();
                     if (direction.equals("asc")) {
-                        reverse = "score".equals(fieldName);
+                        reverse = SCORE_FIELD_NAME.equals(fieldName);
                     } else if (direction.equals("desc")) {
-                        reverse = !"score".equals(fieldName);
+                        reverse = !SCORE_FIELD_NAME.equals(fieldName);
                     }
                 } else {
                     while ((token = parser.nextToken()) != XContentParser.Token.END_OBJECT) {
@@ -95,13 +98,13 @@ public class SortParseElement implements SearchParseElement {
     }
 
     private void addSortField(SearchContext context, List<SortField> sortFields, String fieldName, boolean reverse) {
-        if ("score".equals(fieldName)) {
+        if (SCORE_FIELD_NAME.equals(fieldName)) {
             if (reverse) {
                 sortFields.add(SORT_SCORE_REVERSE);
             } else {
                 sortFields.add(SORT_SCORE);
             }
-        } else if ("doc".equals(fieldName)) {
+        } else if (DOC_FIELD_NAME.equals(fieldName)) {
             if (reverse) {
                 sortFields.add(SORT_DOC_REVERSE);
             } else {