Referencing Tool - School of Health Sciences - The University of Nottingham

Citations - Multiple Authors

Where there are more than two authors, including all authors can detract from the sense of the writing, yet all authors need to be acknowledged.

Using 3 Authors:

The first time the citation is used, all three authors need to be identified, then subsequently list only the first author and use the abbreviation ‘et al.’ meaning ‘and others’. Please ensure you include the full stop after ‘et al.’

1st time of use:

Lister, Hofland and Grafton (2020) explore a wide range of clinical nursing procedures.

A wide range of clinical nursing procedures are explored (Lister, Hofland and Grafton, 2020).

2nd and subsequent uses:

Lister et al. (2020) explore a wide range of clinical nursing procedures.

A wide range of clinical nursing procedures are explored (Lister et al., 2020).

Using 4 or more Authors:

Where-ever the citation is used (including the first time), use the ‘et al.’

1st and subsequent uses:

Drover et al. (2019) discusses the risk of chest infections in wind instrument musicians.

Reference List:

In both cases, the reference list would need to include all authors eg.

Drover, H., Douglas, E., Harvey-Dunstan, T.C., Gates, S. and Hyndes, K. (2019) Are wind instruments musicians at greater risk of developing a chest infection when compared to the general UK population? Thorax, 12(74) suppl 2, A166-A167.