How to Cite Multiple Authors

All of the 4 popular citation styles have slightly different rules for citing multiple authors. In order to reference these sources properly, you’ll need to know how to cite them in bibliographies (also called Works Cited or reference lists), as well as parenthetical in-text citations or footnotes. Once you’ve reviewed the guidelines created by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the American Psychological Association (APA), the editors of the Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago), or the American Medical Association (AMA), you’ll be ready to create citations using whichever style you need.

Method 1
Method 1 of 4:

Following Modern Language Association (MLA) Guidelines

  1. Image titled Cite a Research Paper Step 11
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    Separate more than 1 author with commas and the word “and.” In the entries for your Works Cited, you’ll need to list the authors’ names, the title (italicized for books or in quotation marks for articles), the publisher, and the publication date. You should not invert the second author’s name.
    • For example: “Cannella, Gaile S., and Radhika Viruru. Childhood and Post colonization: Power, Education, and Contemporary Practice. RoutledgeFalmer, 2004.”
    • Unlike most other citation styles, MLA doesn’t require that you include the publisher’s location for books published after 1900.[1]
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    2
    Represent 3 or more authors with “et al” in the Works Cited. If there are more than 3 authors listed on the title page, you’ll only type out the first listed author. After that, add a comma and type out “et al.”[2]
    • For example: Cottrol, Robert J., et al. Brown v. Board of Education: Caste, Culture, and the Constitution. University Press of Kansas, 2003.
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    Use “and” to separate authors’ last names in in-text citations. Type out the first listed author’s last name, then “and.” Next, write the second author’s last name and the pages you’re referencing. Put the whole in-text citation in parentheses. This citation should appear before the period at the end of the sentence where you quote, paraphrase, or refer to the authors’ work.[3]
    • For example: “(Cannella and Viruru 111).”
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    Type out “et al” in in-text citations for 3 or more authors. Just like in the Works Cited, you only need to write out the name of the first author that’s listed on the title page. After that, type “et al.” End with the page numbers you’re referencing.[4]
    • For example: “(Cottrol et al. 50).”
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Method 2
Method 2 of 4:

Using the American Psychological Associate (APA) Format

  1. Image titled Cite Multiple Authors in APA Step 3
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    Separate 2-7 authors with commas and “&” in the reference list. Start with the first listed author’s last name, then type out the initials of their first and middle name. Next, add a comma and the “&” symbol, and then type the next author’s last name and initials. Write out the year of publication in parentheses. After this, type the italicized book title, capitalizing only the first words of the title and subtitle. End with the location, a colon, and the publisher.[5]
    • For example: “Cannella, G. S., & Viruru, R. (2004). Childhood and postcolonization: Power, education, and contemporary practice. New York: RoutledgeFalmer.”
    • All of the authors’ names should be inverted.
    • Always capitalize proper nouns in titles and subtitles.[6]
  2. Image titled Cite Multiple Authors in APA Step 8
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    Represent 8 or more authors with ellipses in the reference list. For these sources, you’ll write out the last names and initials of the first 6 authors listed on the title page. After that, include an ellipsis (...) followed by the last name and initials of the last author listed on the title page.[7]
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    Use the “&” symbol for 2-5 authors in the first in-text citation. List the authors’ last names in the order they appear on the title page. If there are just 2, separate them with “&.” If there are between 3 and 5, separate all of the last names with commas and add “&” before the final author’s last name. After you do this in 1 citation, you can replace all but the first author’s last name with “et al.” in the rest of your citations.[8]
    • For example, the in-text citation for Childhood and postcolonization: Power, education, and contemporary practice would look like: “(Cannella & Viruru, 2004)” for the first citation and: “(Cannella et al., 2004)” for every subsequent citation.
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    Use “et al” in in-text citations for more than 6 authors. While you should list up to 7 authors’ names in your reference list, you can represent all but the first author’s name by “et al.” in all of your in-text citations (not just the first one) when there are 6 or more authors.[9]
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Method 3
Method 3 of 4:

Referencing the Chicago Manual of Style

  1. Image titled Cite a Research Paper Step 6
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    Separate 2-3 authors with commas and “and” before the last author. For sources with more than 1 author, include the first listed author’s name (first name first, last name second) and a comma. Next, add the second and third authors’ names and the italicized book title. (Don’t italicize article titles; these appear in quotation marks.) Finally, type out the publication location, publisher, and date of publication in parentheses.[10]
    • For example: “Robert J. Cottrol, Raymond T. Diamond, and Leland B. Ware, Brown v. Board of Education: Caste, Culture, and the Constitution (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003).”
    • If you’re citing particular page numbers, these will go at the end of the citation. Add a comma after the parentheses, type out the page numbers, and then close the citation with a period.
    • For Chicago style, you’ll use footnotes instead of in-text citations. These are full bibliographic citations that appear at the bottom of the page where you’ve referenced a text.[11]
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    Replace authors’ names with “et al” in the footnote if there are 4-10. Type out only the first author that’s listed on the title page. After that, add a comma and “et al.” In the bibliography, you’ll still write out all of the authors’ names.[12]
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    Make small changes to your footnotes for the bibliography. Since footnotes are full bibliographic citations, all the information you need is already there! Just invert the first and last name of the first listed author. Next, add a comma and type out the next author’s name, first name first, last name second. Separate different elements of the bibliographic entry with periods. Finally, eliminate the parentheses surrounding the publication information.[13]
    • For example: “Cottrol, Robert J., Raymond T. Diamond, and Leland B. Ware. Brown v. Board of Education: Caste, Culture, and the Constitution. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003.”
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    Replace more than 10 authors’ names with “et al” in the bibliography. You’ll still type out the first 7 authors’ names listed on the title page. After that, replace any subsequent authors listed with “et al.”[14]
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Method 4
Method 4 of 4:

Citing According to American Medical Association Guidelines

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    Start by citing a book with 2-6 authors to learn basic AMA format. It’s pretty simple to cite a book with under 6 authors. Type the authors’ names with their last name first and the first letter of their first and middle names second. Next, provide the book title in italics. Finally, write out the location and name of publisher, along with the date of publication.[15]
    • For example: “Cottrol, RJ, Diamond, RT, and Ware, LB. Brown v. Board of Education: Caste, Culture, and the Constitution. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas; 2003.”
    • The author and title should both be followed by periods. The publication location needs to include the city and state (or city and country if it’s outside the U.S.), and it should be followed by a colon. Use a semicolon to separate the publisher’s name and the date of publication.
    • Article titles aren’t italicized, and they don’t appear within quotation marks. Only the first word should be capitalized.
  2. Image titled Cite an Edited Book Step 23
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    Replace authors’ names with “et al” when there are 7 or more. If there are 7 or more authors, type out only the first 3 that are listed on the title page. Then add a comma and write out “et al.”[16]
    • For example: Fauci, AS, Braunwald, E, Kasper, DL, et al., eds. Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. 17th ed. New York, NY: McGraw Hill; 2008.
    • The rules are the same for authors and editors, except that a list of editors is followed by the abbreviation “eds.”
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    Use numerical in-text citations to connect to your reference list. In AMA style, just include an Arabic numeral superscript (a small number that goes above the line of text) to cite sources in your paper. These numbers are connected to the full citations you’ve typed out in your reference list.[17]
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References

  1. ↑ http://uri.libguides.com/cite/mla8th
  2. ↑ https://utica.libguides.com/c.php?g=703243&p=4991645
  3. ↑ https://libanswers.snhu.edu/faq/102973
  4. ↑ https://guides.library.unr.edu/mlacitation/in-textcite
  5. ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_author_authors.html
  6. ↑ http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2012/03/how-to-capitalize-and-format-reference-titles-in-apa-style.html
  7. ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_author_authors.html
  8. ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/in_text_citations_author_authors.html
  9. ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/in_text_citations_author_authors.html
  1. ↑ http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html
  2. ↑ https://politics.ucsc.edu/undergraduate/chicago%20style%20guide.pdf
  3. ↑ http://libguides.uleth.ca/chicagostyle/books/multiple
  4. ↑ http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html
  5. ↑ http://libguides.uleth.ca/chicagostyle/books/multiple
  6. ↑ https://library.tamu.edu/help/help-yourself/citing-sources/files/Using-the-AMA-Style.pdf
  7. ↑ https://library.tamu.edu/help/help-yourself/citing-sources/files/Using-the-AMA-Style.pdf
  8. ↑ http://guides.lib.uw.edu/c.php?g=99161&p=642357

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Updated: March 4, 2023
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Article SummaryX

To cite multiple authors using the MLA format, separate two authors with a comma and the word “and,” and do not invert the second author’s name. For the APA format, separate 2 to 7 authors with commas and “&,” listing their last names and the initials of their first and middle names. To reference 2 to 3 authors for the Chicago Manual of Style, list the authors first and last names, separate with commas, and type “and” before the last author. For more guidance, including how to properly list in-text citations, keep reading!

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