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APA Style: Personal Communications

"Works that cannot be recovered by readers . . . are cited in the text as personal communications."

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

"Because readers cannot retrieve the information in personal communications, personal communications are not included in the reference list; they are cited in the text only."

"Give the initial(s) and surname of the communicator, and provide as exact a date as possible."

Examples:

E.-M. Paradis (personal communication, August 8, 2019)

(T. Nguyen, personal communication, February 24, 2020)

(Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 2020, p. 260)