Most of us have spent time compiling reference lists for papers or longer documents, a task which used to be even more time-consuming before the Internet and TeX came along (all lists had to be typed and sometimes retyped).    With increased international communication as well as pressure by funding agencies to do collaborative work, more multi-author papers are apparently being written now.  For instance, recent VIGRE-supported algebra groups at the University of Georgia have been publishing papers with many authors.    This morning's automatic mailing from arXiv (in subject areas of special interest to me, mostly close to math.RT) brought a prize-winner: <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1009.4134">1009.4134</a>.  Are we looking at the future?

It's the result of an AIM conference, perhaps intended for formal publication but challenging in any event to those who might want to refer to it.    Page 23 of the paper itself consists mostly of an author listing.
Since the list of 28 authors goes from A to Z (Aguiar to Zabrocki), it would seem invidious to refer only to Aguiar et al.  Of course, if electronic-only publishing ever becomes the universal rule in mathematics, placing a link like the one I just posted in a numbered reference list might be enough.   (Provided the link is durable.)   

> Is there a reasonable way to refer to a 23 page article with 28 authors?