APA 7th Citation Guide

General guidelines

Personal communications are works of communication that cannot be recovered by readers on their own. Examples include, and are not limited to, emails, personal interviews, phone conversations, text messages, online chats, letters, memos, messages from nonarchived discussion groups on online bulletin boards, and so on. They also include one-to-many communication forms that are not recorded, like messages from nonarchived discussion groups on online bulletin boards, unrecorded live speeches, and unrecorded classroom lectures. 

Because personal communications cannot be recovered, they are cited in-text only with no entry in the Reference List. 

Format

In-text, provide the initial(s) and last name of the communicator and provide the date.

Narrative in-text citation

A. A. Communicator. (personal communication, Month Day, Year). 

Parenthetical in-text citation

(A. A. Communicator, personal communication, Month Day, Year).

Examples

(T. Weeks, personal communication, February 5, 2020)

P. Hilton (personal communication, April 4, 2016)

For more details and examples on how to cite personal communications, consult the following section in the APA 7th Publication Manual:

Section 8.9 Personal Communications