You’re staring at a paper with five authors and you’ve forgotten whether APA 7 says to list all of them or use “et al.” after the first one.

It’s one of the most common formatting headaches students face. The rules change depending on how many authors you’re citing, whether it’s your first citation or a repeat one, and whether you’re writing an in-text citation or building a reference list entry. Get it wrong, and your professor notices. Get it right, and nobody says a word — which is exactly how formatting should work.

Understanding APA 7th Edition Author Rules

APA 7th edition significantly simplified the author citation rules compared to APA 6th. The biggest change? Every source with up to three authors now has a single rule for in-text citations — no more flipping between first and subsequent citations. The revised rules are cleaner, more consistent, and easier to memorize.

The core principle is straightforward: the in-text citation format changes based on the number of authors, while the reference list entry includes every author regardless of count. But the details matter, and the “et al.” threshold is where most mistakes happen.

In-Text Citations by Author Count

APA 7th edition defines four author-count scenarios for in-text citations. Each has a specific rule that applies to every citation — first and subsequent alike.

Author Count	Citation Format	Example
1 author	Author surname + year	(Smith, 2020)
2 authors	Both surnames + “and” + year	(Smith & Jones, 2020)
3+ authors	First author + “et al.” + year	(Smith et al., 2020)
Group author	Organization name + year	(American Psychological Association, 2020)

One Author

Simple and unchanged. List the author’s surname followed by the year. In a narrative citation, integrate the author name into your sentence: Smith (2020) argued that formatting rules are underappreciated. In a parenthetical citation, place both inside parentheses: The evidence supports this claim (Smith, 2020).

Two Authors

List both authors every time you cite the source. Use “and” between names in narrative citations and the ampersand (&) in parenthetical citations. This applies to every citation — no shortcut for two-author sources.

Narrative: Smith and Jones (2020) found significant improvement in the experimental group.
Parenthetical: The experimental group showed significant improvement (Smith & Jones, 2020).

Three or More Authors

Here is the big change from APA 6th. Under APA 7, you use “et al.” from the very first citation for any source with three or more authors. No more listing all authors on the first citation and switching to “et al.” on subsequent ones.

Narrative: Chen et al. (2021) demonstrated that rule-based formatting reduces error rates.
Parenthetical: Rule-based formatting significantly reduces error rates (Chen et al., 2021).

Reference List Formatting by Author Count

The reference list follows consistent rules regardless of how many authors a source has. The key difference from in-text citations: you must include every author in the reference list entry, up to and including the twentieth author.

Author Count	Reference List Rule
1–20 authors	List every author. Use an ampersand (&) before the last author.
21+ authors	List the first 19 authors, insert an ellipsis (…), then list the final author.

One to Twenty Authors

Write each author’s surname first, followed by their initials. Separate authors with commas and place an ampersand before the final author. Do not use “et al.” in the reference list — ever.

Example (3 authors): Chen, L., Smith, R., & Jones, P. (2021). Title of the article. Journal Name, 14(3), 45–67. https://doi.org/xxxx

Twenty-One or More Authors

This rule applies to large collaborative projects with extensive author lists. List the first 19 authors, insert an ellipsis, then list the final author. No ampersand before the final author when using the ellipsis format.

Example (30 authors): Patel, A., Kim, S., Garcia, M., Thompson, R., Williams, D., Brown, J., Davis, K., Miller, L., Wilson, T., Moore, C., Taylor, B., Anderson, N., Thomas, J., Jackson, P., White, S., Harris, L., Martin, E., Lee, H., Clark, K., … Nguyen, V. (2022).

Special Cases and Edge Scenarios

Same Author, Multiple Works in Different Years

Arrange the citations chronologically from oldest to newest. Use the same author format for each one.

Example: Several studies have confirmed this pattern (Williams, 2018, 2020, 2022).

Same Author, Multiple Works in the Same Year

Add lowercase letters after the year to differentiate works by the same author published in the same year. The first reference alphabetically by title gets “a,” the second gets “b,” and so on.

Example: (Davis, 2021a, 2021b)

Two Different Sources by Different Authors with the Same Surname

Include the first initial to distinguish them, even if they published in different years.

Example: (K. Miller, 2019; J. Miller, 2021)

Multiple Works in the Same Parenthetical Citation

List multiple sources alphabetically by author surname, separated by semicolons.

Example: (Garcia, 2020; Lee & Park, 2021; Thompson et al., 2022)

Common Mistakes with Author Citations

Even experienced writers slip up on author citation rules. Here are the most frequent errors we see:

• Using “et al.” in the reference list. The reference list is the only place you should never abbreviate author names. Every author must appear in full up to the 20-author limit.
• Applying APA 6th rules to APA 7th. In APA 6, three-to-five-author sources required listing all authors on the first citation. APA 7 scrapped this — three or more authors always use “et al.” from the start.
• Forgetting the period after “al.” “Et al.” is an abbreviation and needs the trailing period. Omitting it is a typographical error that graders pick up on.
• Using “and” instead of & in parenthetical citations. The ampersand is required inside parentheses; “and” is only correct in narrative citations.
• Wrong order for multiple citations. When citing multiple sources in one parenthetical, arrange them alphabetically by the first author’s surname, not chronologically.

Most of these mistakes happen because you’re focused on your argument, not on formatting minutiae. That is exactly why automated formatting exists — to let you focus on content while the rules are handled in the background.

If you want to see how author citations work in a complete APA paper, check out the full APA reference list guide for detailed examples of multi-author reference entries. And for a broader look at all the in-text citation rules across styles, the in-text citation guide for APA, MLA, and Chicago covers every format.

Simplify Author Citations with Formatly

Memorizing author count rules is not why you went to graduate school. You have a thesis to write, research to analyze, and arguments to construct. Formatting rules should support your work, not consume your time.

Formatly handles author citations automatically. Upload your document, select APA 7th edition, and every in-text citation and reference list entry will follow the correct author-count rules — one author, two authors, or twenty. No manual counting, no guesswork, no “is this the first citation or the fifth?”

Ready to stop memorizing author count rules? Upload your document and format it in 30 seconds.