APA Citation Cheat-sheet: Citing Multiple Authors At Once

Your paper is due pretty soon and you’ve mysteriously ended up here. Good job. You’re in the right place.

Photo by Johan Godínez on Unsplash — No seriously.

If you’re writing a research paper that requires APA citation, there are many little hidden rules to consider. Your best bet is to buy the latest edition Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. However, the majority of us will be utilizing what we see on the web.

Before we get started, some things to note:

• You can use APA citation sites, such as Citation Machine: A Chegg Resource and Purdue Owl.
• However, be careful with these citation generators.
• Sometimes, our professors might be picky when it comes to marking and may have their own internal rules on the citation that is not followed by the official citation machines.

Anyways, you’re here. I have insights.

This is what you do at the end of the sentence…

…if there are 3 authors or more:

1. (Barnaby, Maxton, & Jason, 2010).
2. (Barnaby et al., 2010).

….if there are 5 authors or more:

Proceed to Step 2 immediately.

…if there are 7 authors or more:

Proceed to Step 2 immediately, but, your references will be formatted differently, with only 7 authors listed and an ellipsis between the 6th name and the last author’s name. Everyone else is cut.

Jameson, A. K., Masterson, L., Lim, K., Dang, H. K., Petersen, O., Rodney, L., … Kun, D. (2010). Understanding neuroplasticity. Journal of Neuroscience, 1(2), 1–69. doi:10.19855860550101234567899.

How about the other ways of in-line citation?

3 authors or more:

1. As Barnaby, Maxton, and Jason (2010) reported…..
2. Thus, Barnaby et al. (2010), believed that….

5 authors or more:

1. As Jameson et al. (2010) reported….

As you can see, the periods and commas are critical here. Your prof can take out an entire 1% because your comma is missing.

To summarize:

• For 3 authors or more: After citing all authors the first time, all subsequent citations will contain the phrase “et al”…..
• For 5 authors or more: You go straight into “et al” territory.
• For 7 authors or more: Nothing has literally changed except for how you cite the academic journal on the References page.

Anyways, I wish you the best of luck on your research paper.