In most academic referencing styles, “et al. " must be followed by a comma if it is inside the parenthetical in-text citation, as shown in the last example. You generally do not need a comma before "et al." because the term is usually used after a single noun. However, there are two situations in which a comma is required before: Examples in the text Give the author's name and the year of publication. author is mentioned in the sentence, always place the year in parentheses immediately after the name Clark, 2019. Clark's 2019 study shows the two names separated by the word and when you include the names in. , If you wish to cite a special issue of a journal rather than a regular article, the names of the editors and the title of the issue appear in place of that of the author's name and title of the article: APA format. Last name, initials Ed. or Eds. Year Title of issue Special issue. Journal name, volume, general format of the issue. Paraphrase of in-text citation: Author name et al. Year NOTE: The in-text citation for works with three or more authors is abbreviated to the name of the first author, followed by et al. and the year. In-text citation: Author name et al. Year, page numberAuthor Name et al. Year NOTE: The in-text citation for works with three or more authors is abbreviated to the name of the first author followed by et al. and the year. In-text citation Direct citation: Author name et al. Year, page number References: Author's name, first initial. Second initial. Author's last name, first initial. A lesser known use of “et al.” » is an abbreviation of “et alibi”. “Et alibi” translates to “and elsewhere”. It is used in academic writing to indicate locations that do not appear in a list. For example, one could write "Magpies of the genus Pica are found in temperate regions of Europe, Asia, and alibi." Reference in the text. Format. Author Last Name, Author Last Name, Author Last Name et al. Year Author Name, Author Name, Author Name et al. Year Include the last name of the first author and as many last names of subsequent authors to distinguish them. For other authors, replace with et al. If only the name of the final author,