Can you use et al. in a Bibliography?
In the text, I have, e.g.
"...a major role to play in role-playing (Smith et al., 1990)."
But can I use the same abbreviation in the bibliography?
Smith, K. et al. 1990. Playing major roles in role plays.
Psych. Econ. 44(1): 103–113.
I ask because the bibliopgraphy is now 12,000+ words and the only way I can think to shorten it is to remove those thousands of co-authors. Here it says you can, but it's for books.
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The simple answer is yes!
The purpose of a reference is so that you can find a document where you got the source from.
So unless Smith, K did two pieces with the same name, with different co-authors (on the same pages in the same journal!) then anyone interested is going to be able to find that document.
In APA you can use et al for in-text citations IF the cited work has 6 or more authors.
In fact, don't take my word for it. Read this article from the APA.
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