diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index f63bec9..cf49e30 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 # plume (development version)
 
+* `$get_author_list(suffix =)` is now slightly more flexible and will try less hard to sanitise author list suffixes (#90).
+
 * `PlumeQuarto` no longer converts roles to lower case (#88).
 
 * `PlumeQuarto` now supports authors' `degrees` field and the `group` affiliation property (#53).
diff --git a/R/als.R b/R/als.R
index bf3f581..053b714 100644
--- a/R/als.R
+++ b/R/als.R
@@ -38,25 +38,23 @@ als_parse <- function(format) {
 }
 
 als_join <- function(x, marks) {
+  prev_item <- vector("character", 1L)
   out <- map2_vec(x, marks, \(item, mark) {
-    if (is_blank(item) && str_contain(mark, "^")) {
+    if (is_empty(item) && str_contain(mark, "^")) {
       return("^")
     }
-    if (is_blank(item)) {
+    if (is_empty(item)) {
       return(item)
     }
+    if (is_empty(prev_item) && str_contain(mark, ",")) {
+      mark <- stringr::str_remove(mark, fixed(","))
+    }
+    prev_item <<- item
     paste0(mark, item)
   })
   collapse(out)
 }
 
-als_clean <- function(x) {
-  for (pattern in c("(?<=^|\\^),|,$", "\\^{2}")) {
-    x <- str_remove_all(x, pattern)
-  }
-  x
-}
-
 als_make <- function(data, cols, format) {
   rows <- itemise_rows(data, cols)
   marks <- als_parse(format)
@@ -65,5 +63,5 @@ als_make <- function(data, cols, format) {
   }
   out <- map_vec(rows, \(row) als_join(row, marks$heads))
   out <- paste0(out, marks$tail)
-  als_clean(out)
+  als_sanitise(out)
 }
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-get-author-list.R b/tests/testthat/test-get-author-list.R
index 3c2576c..0fa2eaa 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-get-author-list.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-get-author-list.R
@@ -55,15 +55,15 @@ test_that("get_author_list() returns author list", {
     aut$get_author_list("^a,^c"),
     affix_to_authors("^", .a, .seps, "^", .c)
   )
+  expect_equal(
+    aut$get_author_list("c^,a^"),
+    affix_to_authors(.c, "^", .seps, .a, "^")
+  )
 
   expect_equal(
     aut$get_author_list("a,,c"),
     affix_to_authors(.a, .seps, .c)
   )
-  expect_equal(
-    aut$get_author_list(",ac,"),
-    affix_to_authors(.a, .c)
-  )
   expect_equal(
     aut$get_author_list("^^ac^^"),
     affix_to_authors("^", .a, .c, "^")