School of Health Sciences
Referencing Tool
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.
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.’
Lister, Hofland and Grafton (2020) explore a wide range of clinical nursing procedures.
OR
A wide range of clinical nursing procedures is explored (Lister, Hofland and Grafton, 2020).
Lister et al. (2020) explore a wide range of clinical nursing procedures.
OR
A wide range of clinical nursing procedures is explored (Lister et al., 2020).
Where-ever the citation is used (including the first time), use the ‘et al.’
Drover et al. (2019) discusses the risk of chest infections in wind instrument musicians.
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) P139 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.