APA7 Guide

Information prominent citations are where the focus is on the information from your source.

Template: (Author, Year, p. x) or (Author, Year, pp. x-x)

You give prominence to the information by placing the entire citation in brackets.

For one author, cite the author and the year, and the page number where necessary.

(Zepke, 2017, p. 55)

For two authors, cite both authors and the year, and the page number where necessary.

(Fredricks & McCloskey, 2012, p. 779)

For three or more authors, use the first author’s name followed by et al. and the year, and the page number where necessary.

(Carpenter et al., 2015, p. 290)

For more information that is across more than one page, cite the author and the year, and the page numbers where necessary.

(Zepke, 2017, pp. 55-56)

Referencing with et al.

“Et al.” is short for the Latin term “et alia,” meaning “and others.” It is used in academic citations when referring to a source with multiple authors (in APA7 it used when there are three or more authors).

The “al” in “et al.” is always followed by a full stop. This is because the term is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase, and the full stop indicates that it is an abbreviation.

“Et al.” may be directly followed by other punctuation where necessary, but the full stop is always used before other punctuation symbols.

Different citation styles have different rules for when to use “et al.”

An author prominent citation is where the focus is on the author(s) of your source.

Template: Author (Year, p. x) or Author (Year, pp. x-x)

You give prominence to the author by using their name as an element of your sentence by incorporating it into the sentence structure. After the name, the date is provided in brackets.

For one author, list the year (and where necessary the page number) in an author prominent citation:
 

Zepke (2017, p. 55)
 

For two authors, list both authors within the sentence, and then list the year (and the page number where necessary) within the citation.
 

Fredricks and McCloskey (2012, p. 764)

When there are three or more authors, cite the first author followed by “et al.”

Carpenter et al. (2015, p. 290)

OR

(Carpenter et al., 2015, p. 290)