A majority of researchers wonder how to use et al. in a research paper. Et al. is one of the most commonly used Latin abbreviations, just like as, etc., versus, circa, ibid. and id., and often crops up in academic writing. While the English phrases of all these above mentioned words are acceptable, researchers use Latin abbreviations as they take less time and fewer characters to write. Yet it’s not always easy to get these right.
In this article, we focus on one such abbreviation – et al. by explaining what does et al. mean and how to use et al. in a research paper correctly
The number of co-authors in an academic publication is, in principle, unlimited. Imagine having to write the names of all the authors in your bibliography. This is where et al. comes into play to indicate other authors in an academic work.
Et al. is the abbreviated form of et alia (or et alii or et aliae, the masculine and feminine plural, respectively). According to the Cambridge Dictionary,1 the synonyms for et al. are “also,” “extra,” and “in addition.” Et al. is mostly used to indicate more than two people; it can also simplify subsequent references to groups of co-authors already cited in full. For example, when citing the same group of authors multiple times in your paper, using et al. can simplify the citations.
The number of authors to be listed before et al. can vary depending on the style guides. A few guidelines on the proper use of et al. in citations and references are given below.2
Parenthetical: (Smith et al., 2020)
Nonparenthetical: Smith et al. (2020)
Parenthetical: …(James et al. 157-65).
Nonparenthetical: James et al. (157-65)
(Bay et al. 2017, 465)
Doornbos et al. (5) agree that only one solution is viable.
Incorrect: Smith et al. (2015) states that …
Correct: Smith et al. (2015) state that …
Also, “et al.” is plural and indicates at least two people. So, you cannot use et al. to substitute for only one author. For example, if you are dealing with three authors and have typed out two names, the last author cannot be replaced with et al.
Correct: In Smith et al.s’ study.
Correct: In Smith et al.’s study.
But, it’s best to avoid possessive phrasing when using et al. Instead, change it “Smith et al. (2015) found that . . .” or “In a study by Smith et al.”
Finally, remember that when you think of the meaning of et al. in research, it is a word used to indicate other authors in the list. It is not intended to highlight the first author’s contribution as more important than the others, but simply to save space and time.
References
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