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APA 7th edition - Citations: Personal Communication (emails, etc)

APA 7th edition

Personal Communication

Personal communication is information that cannot be recovered by readers. It is only cited in-text and does not appear in the reference list. 

 

Interviews conducted for your original research should follow specific guidelines. See the Quotations From Research Participants box below.

What is personal communication?

  • emails
  • personal interviews
  • live speeches
  • unrecorded classroom lectures
  • text messages
  • online chats
  • direct messages
  • telephone conversations
  • memos
  • letters
  • online bulletin boards

Quotes from your original research do not get a reference list entry and are not treated as personal communication. Please see box below for more information.

In-text citations

General format

  • (Author initial(s) Surname, personal communication, specific date)
  • Example: (E. A. Livre, personal communication, July 29, 2020)

Paraphrase

  • According to E. A. Livre (personal communication, July 29, 2020) the Library was a fantastic place to get help.

Direct Quote

  • She stated that "librarians are very helpful people" (A. C. Booker, personal communication, May 7, 2020).

Quotations From Research Participants

Quotes from your original research do not get a reference list entry and are not treated as personal communication. 

These quotes should follow the same format as regular quotes. State in the text that the quotations are from participants. See the Formatting your Paper: Quotations section for more details on how to quote in APA. 

Ethical considerations

You must abide by any ethical agreements (confidentiality, anonymity) agreed between you and the participants during the consent process. To disguise participant information, you may need to: 

  • assign pseudonyms to participants,
  • obscure identifying information, and/or
  • present aggregate information.

More information from the APA Style Blog: Quotations from Research Participants.