Author Lists (Bibliography and Footnotes)

The Author Lists panels under the Bibliography and Footnotes headings let you specify exactly how the authors are to appear in the formatted bibliographic references or in your footnotes. You can format author names differently in the footnotes and bibliography, so be sure that you check the Author Lists settings under both the Bibliography and the Footnotes headings to adjust settings. The settings in these panels apply to all reference types formatted with the current style.

Separators Between Author Names

In the "Author Separators" box, enter any punctuation and spaces that separate the individual author names in a bibliographic reference. In references with multiple authors, it is standard to separate the names with a comma and a space.

Normally only the first row in the Author Separators box is used (with the range of authors set at "1 to 100") so that the separators in that row apply to all of the authors cited in a reference. However, there are styles in which two authors are listed as "Smith and Jones" (without a comma), and more than two are listed as "Smith, Jones, and Johnson" (with a comma before the word "and"). In this case, make " and " the "before last" separator when there are only two authors; and enter ", and " when there are 3 or more authors.

Note: Include spaces after commas as well as before and after the word "and".

APA 6th Settings

The APA 6th settings allows you to display the first six authors (or editors) followed by the text (preset to “, ...”) followed by the last author (or editor). Select the radio button that says:

"If eight or more authors, list the first 6 authors, insert , ... and add the last author's name."

When this setting is selected, it overrides whatever settings are in the Author Separators and Editor Separators settings at the top of the panels.

Note: The default value is ", ..." You can, however, change this value - for example, you can set this value to "et al." or whatever style you choose.

Abbreviating the Author List

Some journals require that you abbreviate the list of authors, using "et al." or an equivalent, after a certain number of authors. The Abbreviated Author List section of the Author List panel allows you to specify the number of authors needed to trigger this abbreviation, how many authors to include in the formatted reference, and what the abbreviation should be.

List all author names
Select this option if you do not want to abbreviate the author lists.

If ___ or more authors, list the first ___ author(s)
Select this option and fill in the blanks with the appropriate numbers if you would like the list of authors abbreviated.

and abbreviate with
Enter an abbreviation such as "et al." You can italicize the abbreviation by selecting the "Italic" check box in the dialog.

For Subsequent Works by the Same Author

In some bibliographic styles, if a there is more than one work by an author (or group of authors), the first appearance of that author name is formatted differently from subsequent works. For example, the first reference might list the full author name, while subsequent references display a line of dashes in place of the author name.

You can print the entire author list for each reference, completely leave out the author list for subsequent works, or replace repeated author lists with a text string.

Abbreviated Author List - Short Form (for footnotes only)

List all author names
Select this option if you do not want to abbreviate the author lists.

If ___ or more authors, list the first ___ author(s)
Select this option and fill in the blanks with the appropriate numbers if you would like the list of authors abbreviated.

and abbreviate with
Enter an abbreviation such as  "et al."  You can italicize the abbreviation by selecting the "Italic" check box in the dialog.

When you are finished defining your short form Author Lists footnote styles:

  1. From the File menu, click Save As.

  2. Give your updated settings a name (for example, "My Chicago 15th Author Lists"), and then click Save.

Related Topics

Additional Style Formatting Options

Author Names (Bibliography and Footnotes)

Citation Author Lists

Modifying Style Templates