3rd person

"Hassall & Ganesh (1996) outlines an empirical study of relDEV.EIL that involves a comparative study of the language produced by different groups of English users."

Am I right in thinking that the third person "outlines" is correct there? It is referring to a paper or book written by those authors, right?

I think you are right, but it wouldn't hurt to have some more info about those two - are they partners or co-authors etc.

Co-authors.

Co-authors