What to do about a book with 46 authors, only 2 named

nathan.hopson

I'm looking at elementary school textbooks for a current project.

Authorship is, um, problematic?

I want to cite a book with two authors named on the cover and 44 "listed separately."

Is it generally accepted to just list the two authors, to list the two and add an "et al" as a third author, or should I really have all 46 in my database (and therefore source list)?

FYI, the book in question is
978-4487105908
which Zotero doesn't recognize so I can't wave the magic wand.

The National Diet Library doesn't list any authors. Neither do Amazon or even the publisher's website.

But they're there on the cover, so...?

adamsmith

Cataloging and style guides generally use the title page absent explicit cataloging information in the book, so yes, you should be good with listing the two lead authors. (I'd probably be fine to list no authors, too: my sense is that pre-college textbooks -- certainly in the US -- are generally produced by companies, not traditional authors)

nathan.hopson

Thanks, @adamsmith!

Because of the education ministry's approval process, even elementary textbooks are often created (or at least credited to) committees of academics and experts. There's a lot of variation in the way they're credited, though, which is where my question arose.