Personal communications (interviews, letters, emails)

In-text citation example

Eg.…the evidence was inconclusive (J. Smith, personal communication, March 21, 2019).

Style notes for this reference type

• APA 7 Publication Manual, p.179.
• Examples of personal communications include interviews, private letters, and email correspondence.
• An in-text citation to personal communications should include the initials and full surname of the person and date details. For example: (J. Smith, personal communication, March 21, 2019).
• Privacy settings define if content is referenced as a ‘personal communication’. Restricted content that is not published or findable is referenced as personal communications. Content which is accessible to others cannot be defined as a personal communication, except for content which may be held in an archive, repository, gallery, museum, or library.
• Personal communications are not included in the reference list as they are not published or findable by others. However, if you would like to include a personal interview as part of your APA reference list, a general structure for the reference is to include the interviewee, the date of the interview, and the type of interview. For example: Last name, Initial. (Year, Month date). Interview type [email, phone, personal interview, personal interview with [third party Initial. Last Name].
• If there is any additional contextual information that is significant to this communication, please include it in the citation.