The phrase et al. is Latin for and others. For articles with long lists of authors, it can help make both the in-text citations a bit less complicated.
Here's when to use it:
References page
In-text citations
Number of authors | First in-text citation | Subsequent in-text citation |
---|---|---|
One or two | Palmer & Roy, 2008 | Palmer & Roy, 2008 |
Three, four, or five | Sharp, Aarons, Wittenberg, & Gittens, 2007 | Sharp et al., 2007 |
Six or more | Mendelsohn et al., 2010 | Mendelsohn et al., 2010 |
Note that there is no comma BEFORE the et al., but there is one after the period to separate it from the date.
(The chart is from the APA Style blog.)
DSM-5
References page
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
In-text citations
(American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
If your quote is more than 40 words, format it using a block quote. Here's how:
For example,
For over a century, the American public has debated what it means to be insane. The question appears throughout our history, including in the famous case of Charles Guiteau who shot President James Garfield in 1881. The United States based its definition on a rule from the British courts, yet the public found little solace in that decision:
The M'Naghten Rule, while quickly adopted in the United States as well as in England, did little to improve the reputation of the insanity defense. In America, it became known as the "insanity dodge," the refuge not of the mad but of the guilty. Celebrity cases only made matters worse. In 1859, Congressman Daniel Edgar Sickles was found guilty by reason of temporary insanity after shooting to death Philip Barton Key, the son of Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Thirteen years later, Edward Stokes, the man who murdered James Fisk used the same defense and spent only four years in prison. (Millard, 2011, p. 174)