APA 7 In-Text Citations With Multiple Authors: 2, 3, or More

APA 7th edition in-text citations change according to the number of authors. For a source with two authors, write both surnames every time: (Garcia & Kim, 2024). For three or more authors, write the first surname followed by et al.: (Garcia et al., 2024). This shortened form applies even to the first citation, with a special exception when two sources would otherwise be confused.

These examples are hypothetical, but the rules are from the American Psychological Association's author–date citation system. The rest of this guide shows how to apply them in sentences, quotations, and more complicated reference lists.

APA 7 Multiple-Author Rules: Quick Reference

Names and dates in this table are formatting examples only. For all ordinary citations, use the author names as they appear on the actual publication, including its original author order. Do not alphabetize surnames within an in-text citation.

Notice that the number of authors changes the author element; the basic APA author–date principle remains the same. The year still identifies the publication, and additional locator information is added where appropriate for a quotation.

How to Cite a Source With Two Authors

For a two-author source, both authors receive credit every time the source is cited. APA distinguishes a parenthetical citation (which sits inside parentheses) from a narrative citation (which is woven into the sentence).

Two authors in parentheses: use &

If the source appears after a claim or quotation, join the surnames with an ampersand:

The fictional case study highlights differing student experiences (Garcia & Kim, 2024).

Write a comma between the final surname and year. Don't add the authors' initials or first names to an ordinary citation. A correctly formed two-author parenthetical citation looks like (Surname & Surname, Year), regardless of where it appears in a paragraph.

Two authors in the sentence: use and

If the authors become part of the grammar of your sentence, spell out and:

Garcia and Kim (2024) describe the fictional program as collaborative.

This is the narrative format: Surname and Surname (Year). The distinction is not optional preference. APA's official parenthetical/narrative rules explicitly use the ampersand inside parentheses and and within running prose.

What happens when you cite those two authors again?

Nothing changes. The first, second and fifth references to the same work must all retain both authors. Do not shorten a two-author study to Garcia et al. later in the paper. Et al. stands for and others, so it is not appropriate when only one coauthor would be omitted.

APA In-Text Citations for Three or More Authors

If a publication credits at least three authors, cite only the first surname and then et al. under the normal APA 7 rule.

Imagine the author list printed on a fictional article is Garcia, Kim, and Patel (2024):

• Parenthetical citation: (Garcia et al., 2024)
• Narrative citation: Garcia et al. (2024)
• Citation for a direct quote on page 18: (Garcia et al., 2024, p. 18)

You do not write (Garcia, Kim, & Patel, 2024) on the first citation and shorten it later. That approach resembles outdated advice associated with earlier editions; APA 7 normally starts with the shortened form. The same treatment covers four, six, 12 or 25 authors. See Purdue OWL's guidance for three or more authors.

The right spelling and punctuation of et al.

The abbreviation is written et al., with a space after et and a period after al. There is no period after et, and ordinary citations do not italicize it. There is also no & or and immediately before et al..

Correct: Lee et al. (2022).

Incorrect: Lee et. al (2022), Lee & et al. (2022), or Lee, et al. (2022) in an ordinary citation.

Why is there usually no comma after Lee? Because et al. directly replaces the additional author names; the comma is needed after the author element before the year in parenthetical citations, as in (Lee et al., 2022).

Parenthetical vs. Narrative Citations in Complete Sentences

A single source can be cited in either form. Choose the one that creates a clearer sentence.

These are punctuation models, not real research claims. When you apply them, ensure the sentence genuinely summarizes a source you have read. A citation format alone does not make an unsupported statement reliable.

You may mention authors in the sentence and then avoid repeating their names in trailing parentheses. For example, write Garcia and Kim (2024) argue ... rather than Garcia and Kim argue ... (Garcia & Kim, 2024) unless a different sentence structure requires clarity.

How to Cite a Direct Quote by Multiple Authors

A direct quotation needs more precise location information than an ordinary paraphrase. For a source with stable page numbers, include the page:

“Example quotation used for formatting only” (Garcia & Kim, 2024, p. 35).

For a three-author work:

“Example quotation used for formatting only” (Garcia et al., 2024, p. 35).

These quotations are invented placeholders and must never be presented as quotes from actual books or articles. Replace the text and page number with a genuine quotation and its verified location. For multiple pages, APA commonly uses pp. rather than p., such as (Garcia et al., 2024, pp. 35–36).

For a webpage without page numbers, do not invent a page. APA permits other ways to locate a passage, such as a paragraph number or a section heading when appropriate. The author count rule is unchanged, but a reader still needs enough information to find the quoted words.

Do paraphrases need page numbers?

APA generally requires author and year for paraphrases, not a page number. However, a page number can help for long or complex works when it will make the passage easier to find. Follow any additional guidance from your institution or instructor.

What If Two Different Sources Become the Same Et Al. Citation?

This is the most important exception to the “first author plus et al.” shortcut. Suppose your paper cites two fictional 2020 sources with the following author lists:

• Work A: Jones, Smith, Liu, Huang, and Kim.
• Work B: Jones, Smith, Ruiz, Wang, and Stanton.

Both would normally shorten to (Jones et al., 2020). That would make it impossible for the reader to tell which source supports the statement. APA therefore requires you to write enough surnames to distinguish the works.

The solution is:

• Work A: (Jones, Smith, Liu, et al., 2020)
• Work B: (Jones, Smith, Ruiz, et al., 2020)

These exact author arrangements are also used as a formatting illustration in Purdue OWL's multiple-author guidance. This exception is uncommon but matters when a research area features the same principal investigators on several collaborative papers.

Don't leave et al. representing just one name

When adding extra surnames to distinguish works, et al. should represent at least two omitted authors. If you need to spell out so many surnames that only one other author remains, list that last surname instead. This prevents odd forms in which “and others” hides a single person.

A related but different issue occurs when the same author has two publications in the same year. APA may require suffixes such as 2024a and 2024b, tied to the reference-list ordering. Do not append letters simply because two sources happen to mention the same topic.

Two Authors vs. Group Authors: A Frequent Mix-Up

A group author is an organisation, such as a professional association or a government agency. It is not a long list of people. Group names follow their own abbreviation rules, even if the organisation has hundreds of members.

For example, an APA-provided pattern for a group with a recognizable abbreviation is:

• First citation: (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2020)
• Later citation: (NIMH, 2020)

That is not the same as applying et al. to three individual researchers. The citation uses the organization's actual author name rather than guessing which employees wrote the material. Check the source's byline carefully before choosing a format.

Multiple Sources in One Set of Parentheses

A sentence may synthesize findings from several different papers. In APA, multiple works in one parenthetical citation are generally organized alphabetically by first author and separated with semicolons.

Example using fictional source information:

Several approaches have been proposed (Adams & Brown, 2022; Garcia et al., 2024; Patel, 2021).

Each individual citation still obeys its author-count rule. This is not the same as a publication with three authors; the semicolons separate three different sources.

If several sources have identical first authors and potentially confusing forms, check the special ordering and disambiguation rules before finalizing the paragraph. A citation manager can help with repeated citations, but it cannot always identify incorrect imported author metadata.

Does the APA Reference List Also Use Et Al.?

No, not as a replacement for author names in a standard APA 7 reference entry. The reference list follows separate author-count rules. For a publication with up to 20 authors, APA normally lists them all. For 21 or more, it lists the first 19, an ellipsis, and the final author. That reference-list abbreviation convention is different from the in-text et al. rule.

This is why a paper with five authors can appear as (Garcia et al., 2024) in the body while the full five names appear on the References page. Readers need that extra detail to identify the source accurately.

The reference page also includes titles, publication details and DOI or URL where appropriate. For the mechanics of arranging that page, consult APA's official reference-list setup.

Errors to Catch Before You Submit

A final five-minute check can prevent most author-count errors:

1. Count the source authors, not the people mentioned in the article or website ownership statement.
2. For two, retain both surnames every time.
3. For three or more, use first surname + et al. from the first citation, unless that would create ambiguity.
4. Choose & inside parentheses and and for two authors named in a sentence.
5. Include page or equivalent locator for a direct quotation; don't invent it if the source is unpaginated.
6. Confirm that in-text author/year information points to one clear entry on your reference page.

The most serious citation mistake is not usually a missing comma. It's a citation that points to the wrong work or a source the writer never consulted. Format your sources carefully, then verify them against the originals.

Conclusion

APA 7 makes multi-author citations simpler than many older guides suggest. Write both surnames when a source has two authors, and shorten a source with three or more to the first surname plus et al. from the very first citation. Remember the difference between parenthetical & and narrative and, and add additional surnames if two shortened citations would otherwise be indistinguishable. Once the in-text form is correct, check the matching entry on your reference page so a reader can retrieve the right work.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I list all three authors the first time I cite a source in APA 7?

Normally no. APA 7 uses the first author's surname followed by et al. for works with three or more authors, even at their first in-text appearance. For a hypothetical source by Clark, Jones, and Ali (2023), write (Clark et al., 2023) or Clark et al. (2023). Add extra names only when necessary to distinguish it from another abbreviated citation.

Is it two authors or three authors when I start using et al.?

Three or more. A two-author source keeps both surnames in every citation. With three authors, use the first surname and et al.. This is an in-text rule, not the rule for listing authors on the reference page.

Should I use “and” or “&” with two authors in APA?

Use and when the authors appear in the sentence: Chen and Rao (2022). Use & when they appear together inside parentheses: (Chen & Rao, 2022). The names and year here are illustrative. APA's official author–date guide gives the same distinction.

Do I italicize et al. in APA citations?

No. Type et al. in ordinary roman text, with the period after al. and a space between the words. The expression is derived from Latin, but APA does not require italics for its routine use in an in-text citation.

How do I cite two papers by the same three authors in the same year?

If they have an identical author sequence and publication year, you usually distinguish them with year letters such as (Chen et al., 2023a) and (Chen et al., 2023b), assigned according to reference-list ordering. If the coauthor lists differ but both shorten identically, instead check APA's additional-surname rule. Don't assume the two cases require the same fix.