Citing Two Authors in APA (7th Edition): In-Text and Reference List

When you are citing two authors in APA 7, the APA format citation two authors rule says to name both of them in every citation. There's no shortening and no “et al.” for a pair. The rule comes from the APA Style page on the author-date citation system, which gives (Salas & D'Agostino, 2020) as the parenthetical form and Salas and D'Agostino (2020) as the narrative form.

Ampersand or “and”?

Inside parentheses, use an ampersand (&). In your own sentence, spell out “and.” That one contrast causes most of the errors in citing two authors in APA, so check it first in any APA format citation two authors question when you proofread. The same split applies to the reference list: write “&” before the last author's name.

Where the tool helps

Paste a source into the citation tool above, or use the free APA Citation Machine, and it builds the reference entry and both in-text forms from the author names. Our tool follows the APA format citation two authors rule for you. You still decide whether each sentence needs the narrative or the parenthetical form. For the page layout around your citations, see our APA format guidelines.

The APA format citation two authors pattern has only two versions. A parenthetical citation puts the names and year in parentheses after the idea: (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). A narrative citation makes the names part of the sentence and puts only the year in parentheses: Roediger and Karpicke (2006) found that…

Use both forms in the same paper

Mixing the two forms when citing two authors in APA keeps your writing varied. Use the narrative form when the authors matter to your point, and the parenthetical form when the idea matters more.

Don't change the order of the names

List the authors in the order they appear on the source. Keep that order in every citation and in the reference entry, so readers can match them.

Keep the ampersand in parentheses

Avoid writing “Kahneman & Tversky” in running text. The ampersand belongs inside parentheses and in reference entries, not in your own sentences.

For three or more authors, APA 7 is simpler than the older editions. Include the first author's surname plus “et al.” in every citation, starting with the first. The author-date page shows (Martin et al., 2020) and Martin et al. (2020). Deciding APA format when to use et al. comes down to a count: three or more authors.

Punctuation of et al.

In “et al.,” only “al.” takes a period. The abbreviation follows the first author's surname with no comma before it, then a comma and the year: (Dunlosky et al., 2013).

When two sources shorten the same way

If two different sources would both shorten to the same form, Purdue OWL's author guidance says to name more authors, as in (Jones, Smith, Liu, et al., 2020) and (Jones, Smith, Ruiz, et al., 2020). It also says to use “et al.” only when it replaces more than one name.

Reference list entries still list authors

“Et al.” belongs in your sentences; APA format when to use et al. stops at the reference list. The reference list spells out the authors, up to 20, as the next section explains.

The question of APA format when to use et al. is in-text only. Reference entries don't use “et al.” the way in-text citations do. APA's blog on more than 20 authors says that for up to 20 authors you include all the names, and for 21 or more you include only the first 19 names, an ellipsis and the final name.

Format of each name

According to APA's page on elements of reference list entries, each name is written surname first, then a comma and the initials, with one space between initials. Use a comma after each author's initials, even with two authors, and put an ampersand before the final author: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B.

The 21+ pattern

With 21 or more authors, there's no ampersand. Write the first 19 authors, then a comma, an ellipsis (. . .) and the last author. APA's own example, an invented article, begins Wiskunde, B., Arslan, M., Fischer, P., … and ends . . . Kovács, A. (2019).

A note on order

Keep the authors in the order printed on the source. Don't reorder them alphabetically, even in a long list of names.

An APA citation for a journal article with multiple authors follows the same template as one with a single author; only the author element grows. The pattern is Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the article in sentence case. Journal Name in Title Case, volume(issue), pages. DOI link.

Here is an APA citation for a journal article with multiple authors, a five-author article rendered by our citation engine from real publication details:

Sentence case, italics and the DOI

Only the first word of the article title (and of any subtitle, plus proper names) is capitalized. The journal name and volume number are italic, the issue number sits in parentheses without italics, and the DOI is a full https://doi.org/ link. For more about citing sources in APA, read our APA table format guide when your data lives in a table, or the guide on how to cite a quote in APA when you quote.

One entry, two citations

The five-author reference lists every name, while the in-text citation shortens to Dunlosky et al. That difference between the reference list and the text is the heart of any APA citation for a journal article with multiple authors.

Sometimes an organization is the author. APA's author-date page treats a group author like any other name. With no abbreviation, write (Stanford University, 2020) or Stanford University (2020).

Defining an abbreviation once

If the group has a well-known abbreviation, give the full name with the abbreviation in the first citation: (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2020) or National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH, 2020). Use the abbreviation alone after that: (NIMH, 2020) or NIMH (2020). APA says to define the abbreviation only once in the text.

The reference list never abbreviates

In the entry itself, the elements page says to spell out the full group name followed by a period, and not to include an abbreviation. For a webpage on an agency's site, the agency is the author unless the page says otherwise; if several agency layers appear, use the most specific one.

When you need an APA format no author reference, APA's missing reference information page gives two paths, and the choice depends on one word.

Signed “Anonymous”

Use “Anonymous” as the author only when the work itself is signed that way. Then both the reference and the citation use it: Anonymous. (2017). Stories from my time as a spy. Bond Publishers. The in-text forms are (Anonymous, 2017) and Anonymous (2017).

APA Format No Author Reference When the Work Isn't Signed

For every other work, don't write “Anonymous.” Move the title to the start of the reference in the author position, with the template Title. (Date). Source. This is the whole APA format no author reference rule: title first, then the date. The in-text citation is (Title, year) or Title (year).

Formatting the title in the text

Purdue OWL's in-text title rules put titles of articles, chapters and web pages in quotation marks and italicize titles of books and reports, using title case in the text. A shortened title is fine, as in (“Using Citations,” 2001).

No author and no date

Use “n.d.” and keep the title first: Title. (n.d.). Source.

Two situations trip people up when citing two authors in APA, even when the author count is clear.

Two works by the same author in one year

APA's page on works with the same author and date says to add a lowercase letter after the year. Assign the letters in the order the entries appear in the reference list, which is alphabetical by title, and use the year-letter pair in both places: (Bandura, 1977a) and (Bandura, 1977b). For undated works, write n.d.-a and n.d.-b.

Authors who share a surname

When first authors share a surname but have different initials, APA's same-surname page says to include their initials in every in-text citation, even when the years differ: (J. M. Taylor & Neimeyer, 2015; T. Taylor, 2014). If the initials are the same, use the standard form without initials.

One reference, two authors with one surname

When co-authors in a single reference share a surname, omit initials, as in (Chen & Chen, 2019).

A correct list is alphabetical. APA's reference list setup page says to alphabetize by the first word of each entry, usually the first author's last name, or by the title if there's no author. The same page asks for a 0.5-inch hanging indent, double spacing and no extra space between entries.

Leading articles are ignored

APA's alphabetizing guidance says to ignore “a,” “an” and “the” at the start. A group called The Smithsonian Institution goes under S, and a no-author web page titled “The Beatles” goes under B.

Same first author

For entries by the same first author, Purdue OWL's reference list guidance orders them by the second author's surname, then the third if needed. One-author works come first, in chronological order, with undated entries first.

Sorting a long list

Paste your entries into the free alphabetizer to sort them.

These slips cost points when citing two authors in APA, using et al. or writing an APA format no author reference:

• “and” inside parentheses. Write (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979), not (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979).
• “&” in a sentence. Write Kahneman and Tversky (1979) in running text.
• Using “et al.” for two authors. Name both authors every time.
• Listing all authors on later citations. With three or more authors, shorten to et al. from the first citation.
• Cutting the reference entry to “et al.” Entries list up to 20 authors.
• Writing “Anonymous” for an unsigned work. Use the title instead.
• Forgetting a, b after the year. Same author and same year need letters.

Final check

In an APA citation for a journal article with multiple authors, as in every other source, compare every in-text citation with a reference entry, and the reverse. A quick pass with the APA citation generator catches many format slips. For more APA, MLA and Chicago help, browse the student guides hub, or see how to cite multiple authors in MLA if your class uses both styles.