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Q&A Correct spacing for "Smith et al. (2008)"

That's an annoying construction to punctuate, I agree. You might try: Smith and Johnson's article (2013) investigated blah blah The article from Smith and Johnson (2013) investigated blah ...

posted 7y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:40Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25449
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:46:35Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25449
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T05:46:35Z (over 4 years ago)
That's an annoying construction to punctuate, I agree. You might try:

> Smith and Johnson's article (2013) investigated blah blah
> 
> The article from Smith and Johnson (2013) investigated blah blah
> 
> The paper from Johnson et al. (2013) investigated blah blah

Please note the space between _al._ and _2013._ The _al._ is short for _alia,_ meaning "others."

In any case, I wouldn't put the apostrophe-S after the year in parens. It looks too weird. Reword until you get the year and possessive apart.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-12-05T00:08:46Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 1