How Many Authors To Use Et Al
Et al is an abbreviation for the latin phrase et alia which means and others.
How many authors to use et al. For a work with up to 20 authors include all of the names in the reference. If there are at least six authors then you may use et al from the first mention. Apa format requires that you cite all of the authors at the first mention if there are three four or five and use et al afterward. When should i use et al in apa in text citations. Only include the first author s last name followed by et al a comma and the year of publication for example taylor et al 2018.
Use an ampersand before the last author s name. The term al is an abbreviation of alii and the entire phrase et al always follows at least one person s name job position or title. According to lai and sookochoff 2018 in apa 7 for a work with three or more authors list the first author and et al for all citations including the first citation unless doing so would create ambiguity. After the first author. Mla uses et al for works with three or more authors while chicago calls for using it with four or more authors.
Here s how it works. For an in text citation. Any time you have more than two authors the potential for using et al. In all cases you should use the last name of the first author followed by et al in your in text citation. However it is not used in reference lists.
Cite only the first author followed by et al. Cairns et al 2009 or cairns et al. It is also acceptable to use et al after the first author if the work has three authors. As such the first citation should spell out all their names and any subsequent citation can include et al. For works with 3 or more authors.
When the work has 21 or more authors include only the first 19 names an ellipsis and the final name see this guideline in the fifth and sixth bullets in section 9 8 of the publication manual and example 4 in chapter 10. The seventh edition guideline is as follows. To continue the previous example you would write the names of the two authors as potter harry and luna lovegood 3 use the abbreviation et al. For sources with three to five authors list all the authors the first time and use et al only in subsequent citations. If the work has four or more authors editors the abbreviation et al should be used after the first author s name.