According to the APA Style Manual 7th Edi on (Sec ons 8.10-8.36), whenever you’re referring to a work with three or more authors, you should always use et al., even in the first cita on. This is a departure from previous edi ons of APA.
The phrase "et al." is used in APA in-text citations for sources with 3 or more authors. Different rules apply for reference list entries with multiple authors.
The following rules for handling works by a single author or multiple authors apply to all APA-style references in your reference list, regardless of the type of work (book, article, electronic resource, etc.). Note: Because the information on this page pertains to virtually all citations, we've highlighted a few important differences between APA 6 and APA 7 with underlined notes written in ...
This is a guide to using the APA7 referencing style from the American Psychological Association. It is based on the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.
If you are citing a source with three or more authors, you need to use "et al." in your citations. In APA 6, a work with between three and five authors would be listed the first time, with the use of "et al." each subsequent time the in-text citation was used. In APA 7, any in-text citation with three or more authors will use "et al.".
Learn APA style et al guidelines for citing multiple authors, including rules for in-text citations, reference lists, and formatting for academic papers, research studies, and scholarly articles.
Sometimes multiple works with three or more authors and the same publication year shorten to the same in-text citation form, which creates ambiguity. To avoid ambiguity, when the in-text citations of multiple works with three or more authors shorten to the same form, write out as many names as needed to distinguish the references, and abbreviate the rest of the names to “et al.” in every ...
Guide to APA citation style using the 7th Edition of the APA Style Manual.
In APA 7, when citing a work with three or more authors, include the first author’s surname followed by “et al.” "Et al." is Latin for "and others." Do this every time you cite the source, including the first instance. For example, a parenthetical citation for a work by three authors (Rasmussen, Hopkins, and Fitzpatrick) with a publication date of 2004 would look like this: In research ...
It is used in academic citations when referring to a source with multiple authors. Example: Using “et al.” Hulme et al. (2019) argue that … Different citation styles have different rules for when to use “et al.” Below, we explain the rules for APA, MLA, and Chicago style.
In APA, et al., is only used in in-text citations for works by two authors or more. This guide reviews how to use et al. in APA and provides examples as well.
APA (7th edition) Referencing Style This referencing style sheet is to be used in conjunction with the Library’s general Guide to Citing & Referencing. The information is based on the following publications from the American Psychological Association (APA):
Learn APA citing multiple authors rules, including parenthetical citations, reference lists, and in-text citations for 2-6 authors, et al. uses, and more.
APA follows an author and date of publication model for citing sources in your research paper and are presented as either narrative or parenthetical citations. The formatting does not vary due to format type, however it may deviate from the norm due to factors such as: number of authors, organization instead of individual author, lack of author ...
Sometimes et al. can create confusion if you have multiple sources that could shorten to the same citation. The APA Style website provides guidance on how to handle these special cases.
