How to cite an email or personal interview in APA 7

APA treats a source that your reader can’t retrieve as a personal communication. The usual examples are emails, text messages, phone calls and interviews you conducted yourself. They are cited in your text only. They do not go in the reference list.

In-text format

Give the person’s initials and surname, the words “personal communication,” and the most exact date you have.

• Parenthetical: (T. Nguyen, personal communication, February 24, 2020)
• Narrative: T. Nguyen (personal communication, February 24, 2020) explained that…

If the person is already named in your sentence, the parentheses hold only “personal communication” and the date.

What counts

• Emails and text messages
• Phone calls and other private conversations
• Interviews you conducted that no one else can read or hear

What does not count

• Your own research participants. If you are writing up a study, don’t cite what participants said as personal communications. APA treats participant quotations separately: quote them directly in your results.
• A recorded or archived interview. Because someone else can retrieve it, it gets a full reference entry. APA’s guidance for interviews and oral histories held in an archive is to list the interviewee as the author and put the interviewer’s name in the description. See citing a recorded or published interview.
• A source your reader can find, such as a public post, a published interview or a recording on a website. Use the format for that type of source.

Check before you submit

The first two points are tips from us, not APA rules.

• Tip: ask permission. Quoting a private email or an interview in a paper usually needs the person’s agreement. Your instructor or school may have rules about it.
• Be specific about the date. APA asks for the most exact date you can give.
• Tip: keep your own record. Save the email or your interview notes. Your instructor may ask to see them even though the reader of your paper can’t.