APA Citation for Multiple Authors
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0 sourcesAPA Citation Multiple Authors follows two rules in APA 7th edition. In the reference list, name every author for up to 20; for 21 or more, list the first 19, add an ellipsis, then the last author. In text, three or more authors use et al.
How do you cite multiple authors in APA?
APA 7th edition treats the reference list and the in-text citation separately. In the reference list you spell out author names in full, using an ampersand before the last one for up to 20 authors. In text you shorten to et al. once you reach three authors.
- Authors — inverted (Last, Initials), comma between them, ampersand before the final name
- Date — publication year in parentheses, followed by a period
- Title — article title in sentence case, not italicised
- Source — italic journal name and volume, then issue and page range
- DOI — full https link, no period after it
How many authors before you use “et al.”?
Use et al. in text as soon as a work has three or more authors, starting from the very first citation. This is a key APA 7 change: the 6th edition spelled out all names on the first mention of works with three to five authors, but the 7th does not.
- One author: name only —
(Okafor, 2019) - Two authors: name both every time —
(Okafor & Ruiz, 2019) - Three or more authors: first author + et al. every time —
(Okafor et al., 2019)
Note that et al. is never used in the reference list itself, except in the specific 21-or-more case described below (where it is actually an ellipsis, not et al.).
How do you list 2 to 20 authors in the reference list?
List every author up to and including 20, in the order they appear on the work. Invert each name to Last, Initials, separate the names with commas, and place an ampersand (&) before the final author. A comma still precedes the ampersand.
Two authorsGrafton, B., & MacLeod, C. (2016). Engaging with the wrong people: The basis of selective attention to negative faces in anxiety. Clinical Psychological Science, 4(5), 793–804. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702615616344
Three authorsRamirez, J., Chen, L., & Whitfield, P. (2020). Peer feedback and revision quality in first-year writing. Assessing Writing, 45, 100471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asw.2020.100471
Five authorsDelgado, M. R., Frank, R. H., Nystrom, L. E., Cohen, J. D., & Phelps, E. A. (2005). Understanding overbidding: Using the neural circuitry of reward to design economic auctions. Science, 321(5897), 1849–1852. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1158860
How do you cite 21 or more authors in APA?
For 21 or more authors, list the first 19 authors, insert an ellipsis (three spaced dots), then add the final author’s name. Do not use an ampersand before the last author, and do not add et al. The ellipsis stands in for authors 20 through the second-to-last.
| Number of authors | Reference list | In-text |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | All (one name) | Author |
| 2 | Both, with & | Both, with & |
| 3–20 | All names, & before last | First author + et al. |
| 21+ | First 19 … final author | First author + et al. |
21+ authors (structure)Author, A. A., Author, B. B., Author, C. C., [authors 4–19] … Author, Z. Z. (2018). Title of the large-collaboration article. Journal Name, 12(3), 45–67. https://doi.org/xxxx
What do multiple-author in-text citations look like?
In-text citations come in two forms. A parenthetical citation puts everything in brackets and uses an ampersand for two authors. A narrative citation weaves the author names into your sentence and spells out “and” instead of the ampersand.
| Authors | Parenthetical | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| Two | (Grafton & MacLeod, 2016) | Grafton and MacLeod (2016) |
| Three+ | (Ramirez et al., 2020) | Ramirez et al. (2020) |
| 21+ | (Delgado et al., 2018) | Delgado et al. (2018) |
The ampersand appears only inside parentheses. In running text, write the word “and”: Grafton and MacLeod (2016) found… Note that et al. takes a period after “al” (it abbreviates the Latin et alia), and there is no comma before et al. when only one name precedes it.
What if two works shorten to the same “et al.”?
Sometimes different references share a first author and year, so both would collapse to the same et al. form. APA 7 solves this by naming as many authors as needed to tell them apart, then adding et al. for the remaining names.
Suppose you cite two 2019 works both led by Kapoor. If one team is Kapoor, Silva, and Tan, and the other is Kapoor, Andersson, and Roy, cite them as:
(Kapoor, Silva, et al., 2019)(Kapoor, Andersson, et al., 2019)
Keep adding names until the citations become unique. For genuinely identical author lists published the same year, disambiguate with lowercase letters on the year instead: (Kapoor et al., 2019a) and (Kapoor et al., 2019b).
How accurate is this, and what are the limits?
These rules reflect APA 7th edition, the current standard since October 2019. They are accurate for typical published sources with clearly listed authors. A few situations need judgement that no rule fully covers.
- Group authors: An organisation (e.g., World Health Organization) counts as a single author and is not shortened with et al.
- Missing edition: If your instructor requires APA 6, the thresholds differ — 6th edition used et al. only after listing all authors on the first three-to-five-author mention.
- Author order: Never alphabetise authors within a single reference; keep the exact order shown on the source, as it reflects contribution.
When you are unsure, confirm against the official manual or your institution’s style sheet. A generator handles the punctuation and the 19-author cutoff for you, but you must still verify the author list matches the original source.
Frequently asked questions
How do you cite three authors in APA in-text?
Use the first author’s surname followed by et al. from the very first citation: (Ramirez et al., 2020) or narratively, Ramirez et al. (2020). You do not spell out all three names in text.
Do you use “and” or “&” for multiple authors in APA?
Use the ampersand (&) inside parenthetical citations and in the reference list before the final author. Use the word “and” when the authors’ names are part of your running sentence.
How many authors do you list in an APA reference?
List every author up to 20. For 21 or more authors, list the first 19, add an ellipsis, then the final author’s name — never et al. in the reference list itself.
When do you use et al. in APA 7?
Use et al. in text for any work with three or more authors, starting from the first citation. Two-author works always name both authors every time.
Is there a comma before et al. in APA?
No comma appears when a single surname precedes et al. — write (Ramirez et al., 2020). A comma is only added when you list extra names to disambiguate, e.g. (Kapoor, Silva, et al., 2019).
How do you handle two sources with the same et al. form?
Add as many author surnames as needed to distinguish the works, then et al. If the author lists are identical, append a lowercase letter to the year instead: 2019a, 2019b.