diff --git a/pubs/commands/list_cmd.py b/pubs/commands/list_cmd.py
index b615e54..a382544 100644
--- a/pubs/commands/list_cmd.py
+++ b/pubs/commands/list_cmd.py
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ def command(conf, args):
         papers = sorted(papers, key=date_added)
     if len(papers) > 0:
         ui.message('\n'.join(
-            pretty.paper_oneliner(p, citekey_only=args.citekeys)
+            pretty.paper_oneliner(p, citekey_only=args.citekeys, n_authors=conf['main']['n_authors'])
             for p in papers))
 
     rp.close()
diff --git a/pubs/config/spec.py b/pubs/config/spec.py
index 4c50f4c..a31d1b4 100644
--- a/pubs/config/spec.py
+++ b/pubs/config/spec.py
@@ -27,6 +27,9 @@ edit_cmd = string(default='')
 # Which default extension to use when creating a note file.
 note_extension = string(default='txt')
 
+# How many authors to display in
+n_authors = integer(default=3)
+
 # If true debug mode is on which means exceptions are not catched and
 # the full python stack is printed.
 debug = boolean(default=False)
diff --git a/pubs/pretty.py b/pubs/pretty.py
index 0c951e6..369c3e4 100644
--- a/pubs/pretty.py
+++ b/pubs/pretty.py
@@ -23,19 +23,30 @@ def person_repr(p):
         ' '.join(p.lineage(abbr=True))] if s)
 
 
-def short_authors(bibdata):
+def short_authors(bibdata, n_authors=3):
+    """
+    :param n_authors:  number of authors to display completely. Additional authors will be
+                       represented by 'et al.'.
+    """
     try:
         authors = [p for p in bibdata['author']]
-        if len(authors) < 3:
-            return ' and '.join(authors)
+        if 0 < n_authors < len(authors):
+            authors_str = '{} et al.'.format(authors[0])
         else:
-            return authors[0] + (' et al.' if len(authors) > 1 else '')
+            authors_str = ' and '.join(authors)
+
+        # if n_authors > 0:
+        #     authors = authors[:n_authors]
+        # authors_str = ' and '.join(authors)
+        # if 0 < n_authors < len(bibdata['author']):
+        #     authors_str += ' et al.'
+        return authors_str
     except KeyError:  # When no author is defined
         return ''
 
 
-def bib_oneliner(bibdata):
-    authors = short_authors(bibdata)
+def bib_oneliner(bibdata, n_authors=3):
+    authors = short_authors(bibdata, n_authors=n_authors)
     journal = ''
     if 'journal' in bibdata:
         journal = ' ' + bibdata['journal']
@@ -60,11 +71,11 @@ def bib_desc(bib_data):
     return s
 
 
-def paper_oneliner(p, citekey_only=False):
+def paper_oneliner(p, citekey_only=False, n_authors=3):
     if citekey_only:
         return p.citekey
     else:
-        bibdesc = bib_oneliner(p.get_unicode_bibdata())
+        bibdesc = bib_oneliner(p.get_unicode_bibdata(), n_authors=n_authors)
         doc_str = ''
         if p.docpath is not None:
             doc_extension = os.path.splitext(p.docpath)[1]
diff --git a/tests/test_pretty.py b/tests/test_pretty.py
index 0c09211..cc9f4f4 100644
--- a/tests/test_pretty.py
+++ b/tests/test_pretty.py
@@ -28,5 +28,15 @@ class TestPretty(unittest.TestCase):
         line = 'Page, Lawrence et al. "The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web."'
         self.assertEqual(color.undye(pretty.bib_oneliner(bibdata['Page99'])), line)
 
+    def test_oneliner_n_authors(self):
+        decoder = endecoder.EnDecoder()
+        bibdata = decoder.decode_bibdata(bibtex_raw0)
+        for n_authors in [1, 2, 3]:
+            line = 'Page, Lawrence et al. "The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web." (1999)'
+            self.assertEqual(color.undye(pretty.bib_oneliner(bibdata['Page99'], n_authors=n_authors)), line)
+        for n_authors in [-1, 0, 4, 5, 10]:
+            line = 'Page, Lawrence and Brin, Sergey and Motwani, Rajeev and Winograd, Terry "The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web." (1999)'
+            self.assertEqual(color.undye(pretty.bib_oneliner(bibdata['Page99'], n_authors=n_authors)), line)
+
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()
diff --git a/tests/test_usecase.py b/tests/test_usecase.py
index 348366e..5004919 100644
--- a/tests/test_usecase.py
+++ b/tests/test_usecase.py
@@ -1079,7 +1079,8 @@ class TestUsecase(DataCommandTestCase):
                 'pubs add -d data/no-ext data/pagerank.bib',
                 'pubs list',
                ]
-        self.assertEqual(correct, self.execute_cmds(cmds, capture_output=True))
+        actual = self.execute_cmds(cmds, capture_output=True)
+        self.assertEqual(correct, actual)
 
     @mock.patch('pubs.apis.requests.get', side_effect=mock_requests.mock_requests_get)
     def test_readme(self, reqget):