Introduction
Et al. is short for “et alii”, a Latin phrase meaning “and others.” It’s often used in references at the end of a list of authors to save space. For example, instead of writing “Smith et al.,” an author might use “Smith et al.” or even just “et al.” If you’re citing a multi-author collaboration with three or more authors, then it’s okay to use et al. for your citations throughout the paper (and not just in parenthetical citations).
Citation with et al
In academic writing, it is common to cite sources that have been used as part of a larger group. For example, let’s say you are writing about the rise of the internet and all of its associated technologies. You might want to include a quote from an article written by a team of researchers, rather than just one person. When you do this, you need to make sure that your reference to the source reflects the research team‘s collaboration as well as your own.
The first thing you’ll need to do is add in an “et al.” at the end of your citation. This stands for “and others,” and indicates that there were additional authors involved in the project.
Next, you’ll want to put a comma after the last name of each individual author listed on your reference page before adding in “et al.” This ensures that the reader knows they are still reading about those same authors.
Conclusion
Et al. is a shortened, abbreviated version of the Latin phrase “et alii,” which means “and others.” It’s typically used as a footnote citation or in-text citation when there are many authors in an article or book, but you don’t want to list them all individually (for example, when there are three or more). You can also use et al. when listing multiple works by one author, but this is less common and not recommended by some style guides.