The meaning of “et al.” and how to use it

The term et al. means and “others”, “extra” or “in addition”; is the abbreviated form of the Latin expression  et alia  (or  et alii  or  et aliae , which is the masculine and feminine plural, respectively). This term is used in texts of certain disciplines; It is not used on a daily basis or in spoken language, so it is not a term that is widely known.

The abbreviation  et al. it normally appears in academic papers and is used in notes and citations. For example, it is used when a book or an article has several authors; et al . it can be added after the name of the first author to indicate that there are more authors who participated in the work, without having to include the complete list of authors.

How to use et al.

The term et al . can be used to refer to more than two authors of a text. A period must be included at the end to indicate that it is an abbreviation, and must be placed at the end of the line of text. It is important to mention that in the case of texts in English, given its prevalence in that language, it is not necessary from an editorial point of view to put italics in citations, although some publications require it.

According to the APA (American Psychological Association for its acronym in English) it should only be used when there are two or more authors; in the case of three to five authors all names must appear in the first citation of the text, but subsequent citations may include only the name of the first author and  et al. In the case of six or more authors, the first author and  et al. it can be used at all appointments, even the first one. If you are referencing sources that include several of the same authors, include the names as many times as possible before using et al.., in order to avoid confusion between the different cited works. Publishers often have their own style guide; be sure to consult the corresponding guide in each case.

It is important to mention that since  et al. es plural should be used when it includes at least two people. For example, if there are four authors and the names of three of them have been written, you cannot use  et al. to replace the last one.

The term et al. In general, it has no other application apart from bibliographical citations; while it is not technically incorrect to use it in other situations, it would be strange or overly formal to find it, for example, in an email welcome message to multiple people: “Dear Pancracio et al  . “, For example…

The terms et al.  and etc

The term et al. be similar to another abbreviation that we commonly use: etc. The abbreviation of etcetera, which is written in round and not in italics because it is a Latin word adapted to Spanish , and which means “and the rest” in Latin, refers to a set of objects instead of people. Unlike  et al .,  which usually appears in academic texts etc. it is used both in formal texts and in everyday situations, and can be found in a wide variety of contexts.

Examples of the use of et al.

1. Jolly  et al.  (2017) published a groundbreaking study on the role of the gut microbiome. In this sentence  et al. it does not appear in a reference list and indicates that Jolly developed the study in question together with other authors. 
2. Some large-scale studies have found cats to be the preferred pet (McCann  et al. , 1980), while others found dogs to be the ideal pet (Grisham and Kane, 1981). In this example  et al. it is used in the first citation because there are more than two authors. If it is the first citation in the text, this indicates that there are six or more authors, but if it is a later citation, it could be three or more authors. The term et al. it is not used in the second citation because there are only two authors.
3.  Meditation practiced once a week was found to improve focus by 20% in study participants (Hunter, Kennedy, Russell, & Aarons, 2009), just as meditating once a day was found to increase concentration in 40% among the participants (Hunter  et al. , 2009). In this example, although the citations of the same work are normally not so close in the text, it can be seen that  et al. It is used when citing a work with three to five co-authors. The term et al. it is reserved for all subsequent citations while the first mentions all the authors involved.

The term et alibi

In some situations  et al. stands for  et alibi , which refers to places that will not be listed. For example, in a trip description you could use et alibi  to list the places and hotels you visited so you don’t have to name them all. This term can also be used in a text to refer to the location of places.

Fountain

Royal Spanish Academy and Association of Academies of the Spanish Language. et al . Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Doubts. Santillana, Madrid. 2005.