Citing a quote with multiple authors depends on your citation style and how many authors the source has. The core question is always the same: do you list every author’s name, or shorten it with “et al.”? Each major style (APA, MLA, and Chicago) draws that line at a different point. Here’s exactly how to format your citations in each system.
APA Style (7th Edition)
APA draws its dividing line at three authors. For a source with two authors, name both every time you cite it. For three or more, use only the first author’s last name followed by “et al.” from the very first citation onward.
Two Authors
When the authors are part of your sentence (a narrative citation), connect their names with “and.” When they appear inside parentheses, use an ampersand instead.
- Narrative: Wegener and Petty (1994) found that “direct quotation here” (p. 45).
- Parenthetical: The study confirmed that “direct quotation here” (Wegener & Petty, 1994, p. 45).
Notice the page number follows the year after a comma. For a direct quote in APA, you always need a page number (or paragraph number if pages aren’t available).
Three or More Authors
List only the first author’s last name, then “et al.” This applies every time, including the first mention.
- Narrative: Kernis et al. (1993) argued that “direct quotation here” (p. 12).
- Parenthetical: “Direct quotation here” (Kernis et al., 1993, p. 12).
A quick formatting note: in “et al.,” only “al” gets a period. Don’t put a period after “et.” If shortening two different sources to “et al.” would make them look identical (same first author, same year), write out additional author names until the citations are distinguishable.
Where the Citation Goes Around a Quote
For short quotes (under 40 words), place the parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence, after the closing quotation mark but before the period:
Effective teams can be difficult to describe because “high performance along one domain does not translate to high performance along another” (Ervin et al., 2018, p. 470).
For block quotes (40 words or more), the rules flip. Indent the entire passage without quotation marks, place the final punctuation at the end of the quote, then add the parenthetical citation after that period. No additional period follows the closing parenthesis.
MLA Style (9th Edition)
MLA also splits its rules at the three-author mark, but the formatting looks different because MLA uses author-page citations with no year.
Two Authors
List both last names connected by “and,” both in running text and inside parentheses. MLA doesn’t use the ampersand.
- Narrative: Best and Marcus argue that surface reading looks at what is “evident, perceptible, apprehensible in texts” (9).
- Parenthetical: The authors claim that surface reading looks at what is “evident, perceptible, apprehensible in texts” (Best and Marcus 9).
Note there’s no comma between the authors’ names and the page number in MLA. The page number sits right after the last name with just a space.
Three or More Authors
Use only the first author’s last name followed by “et al.”
- Narrative: According to Franck et al., “Current agricultural policies in the U.S. are contributing to the poor health of Americans” (327).
- Parenthetical: “Current agricultural policies in the U.S. are contributing to the poor health of Americans” (Franck et al. 327).
Chicago Style
Chicago offers two systems. The author-date system works similarly to APA and is common in the sciences. The notes-bibliography system, popular in the humanities, uses footnotes or endnotes instead of parenthetical citations.
Author-Date System
For two authors, list both names in your text citation. For three or more authors, list only the first author followed by “et al.” in the text. Your reference list at the end of the paper is more generous: you can include up to six authors there before shortening.
- Two authors: (Alderson-Day and Fernyhough 2015, 957)
- Three or more: (Johnson et al. 2020, 34)
Notes-Bibliography System
When citing a quote in a footnote, list all authors for sources with up to three authors. For four or more authors, list only the first author followed by “et al.” in the footnote. The full bibliography entry should include all authors.
Formatting the Quote Itself
Regardless of citation style, a few universal rules apply when you’re quoting text from a multi-author source.
Short quotes get woven into your sentence inside quotation marks. The parenthetical citation comes after the closing quotation mark, and the sentence’s final period comes after the closing parenthesis. This holds true in both APA and MLA.
Long quotes get set off as block quotations. In APA, that threshold is 40 words. In MLA, it’s more than four lines of prose (or more than three lines of verse). In Chicago, the general guideline is 100 words or more, though shorter passages can be blocked for emphasis. Block quotes are indented, presented without quotation marks, and follow style-specific rules for where the citation lands relative to the final period.
When you introduce the quote with the authors’ names in your sentence, you only need to put the remaining citation details (year, page number) in parentheses. For example, in APA: Smith and Jones (2021) noted that “direct quotation here” (p. 88). You don’t repeat the names inside the parentheses.
Quick Reference by Author Count
- Two authors, APA: Name both every time. Use “and” in text, “&” in parentheses. Include year and page.
- Two authors, MLA: Name both every time with “and.” Include page number only.
- Two authors, Chicago author-date: Name both every time. Include year and page.
- Three or more, APA: First author + et al., every citation. Include year and page.
- Three or more, MLA: First author + et al. Include page number only.
- Three or more, Chicago author-date: First author + et al. in text. Include year and page.
Your reference list or works cited page at the end of the paper follows different rules. APA lists up to 20 authors before using an ellipsis. MLA lists the first author, then uses “et al.” for three or more. Chicago’s author-date system lists up to six before shortening. Always check your style guide’s reference list rules separately from the in-text rules, since the thresholds don’t match.