I'm writing a paper using R Markdown for the first time. Here are my YAML options
---
title: "My path to the Nobel"
author: "J.E. Alcalá"
lang: english
bibliography: data_analysis.bib
csl: apa.csl
output:
word_document:
reference_docx: apa_template.docx
---
When I cite a paper for the firs time it doesn't show all authors. For example [e.g., @maei2009] should display (e.g., Maei, Zaslavsky, & Wang 2009) the first time I cite that paper, but instead I get (e.g., Maei et al. 2009). Probably is something stupid but I'm really new on R Markdown, so I don't even know where to look for an answer (despite I have tried).
An answer or a reference to how fix this will be very useful.
Thank you!
The CSL style for APA 6th edition follows the APA guidelines for et-al abbreviation (which are discussed here and here), and only uses "et al." for first citations when there are more than 6 authors.
I tried to locate the article for "Maei, Zaslavsky, & Wang 2009" in your example, and the only 2009 article with these three initial authors seems to be "Development and validation of a sensitive entropy-based measure for the water maze" (https://doi.org/10.3389/neuro.07.033.2009), by Maei HR, Zaslavsky K, Wang AH, Yiu AP, Teixeira CM, Josselyn SA, and Frankland PW. That's 7 authors, in which case APA requires et-al abbreviation with just the first author shown. Could this explain the unexpected result?