In APA, authors' family names come first. In an in-text citation, you will normally only need to give an author's family name. In your list of references you also need to include the initials of the author's first or given name(s).
If there are multiple authors, you should list them in the order that they appear on the source.
Click on the relevant tab above to see examples of formatting different types of authors.
If a source has been written by two authors, include both of their names in every in-text citation. Use an ampersand (&) between their names inside brackets. If you integrate the authors' names into your sentence, use the word 'and' between their names.
Include both authors in your list of references entry. Use an ampersand (&) to separate their names. Note that even when there are only two authors, you should still include a comma after the first author's name, before the ampersand.
If a source has three or more authors, give just the first author's name in in-text citations, followed by 'et al.'.
'Et al.' is short for a Latin phrase, which means 'and others'.
Note that if you have integrated the first author's name into your sentence, you should still use a plural reporting verb after 'et al.' (i.e. 'Tortora et al. (2018) argue' rather than 'argues').
Sometimes there will not be a person named as the author of a work. In this case, use the name of the company or organisation as the author. This is called a 'corporate author'.
If the organisation has a common abbreviation (e.g. NMC) and you will be referring to it more than once, you should write the organisation's full name out the first time with the abbreviation in brackets. For subsequent in-text citations you may then just use the abbreviation:
Write out the organisation's name in full in your list of references, followed by a full stop.
Sometimes each chapter of a book will be written by a different author. The job of an editor is to bring together all of these chapters into one book. Normally the editor's name will be on the front cover.
For your in-text citation, you should reference the author of the chapter. The chapter within an edited collection section will tell you how to write an entry in your list of references.
If you are referring to sources written by two different authors with the same last name, include the initials of their first name in your in-text citations. The initials should come first.
Entries in your list of references should be the same as normal, with the initials after the surname.
If you are referencing more than one source written by the same author(s) which were published in different years, reference them as normal. The date in your in-text citation and reference will make it clear which source you are referring to.
If the sources were published in the same year, follow the instructions below.
Add a letter after the year to differentiate between two different sources written by the same author and published in the same year.
Include the letters after the year in your list of references. This allows readers to trace which source you have referred to in each in-text citation.
If you have questions not answered in this guide: