Referencing Toolkit

Basic Format to Reference Personal Communications

• Works that cannot be recovered by readers are cited in the text as personal communications.
• Personal Communications include "emails, text messages, online chats or direct messages, personal interviews, telephone conversations, live speeches, unrecorded classroom lectures, memos, letters, messages from nonarchived discussion groups or online bulletin boards, and so on" (APA, Publication Manual, 2020, p. 260). As these sources do not provide recoverable data, Personal Communications are not included in the Reference List.
• Cite Personal Communications in-text only.
• In your in-text citation of a Personal Communication give the initials as well as the surname of the communicator, and provide as exact a date as possible.
• Use your judgment in citing Personal Communications. Remember that what you cite should have scholarly relevance.
• Some forms of Personal Communications are recoverable, and these should be referenced as Archival Materials, see examples in the 'Archival Materials' section below.

Example:

An email (J. W. Ayers, personal communication, July 2, 2018) confirming that results are accurate...

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Citation Examples