APA Citing An Interview | Get The Format Right

Interviews show up in school papers, research projects, and reports more than people expect. The tricky part is that an interview can be “private” (only you have it) or “recoverable” (others can access it). APA treats those two cases in two different ways.

This article clears the fog. You’ll learn how to cite an interview you conducted, how to cite an interview you found in a book or on a site, and how to handle quotes, paraphrases, group interviews, and missing details. You’ll leave with clean templates you can drop into your draft without second-guessing each comma.

What Counts As An Interview In APA Style

In APA style, “interview” is a broad bucket. It can be a face-to-face chat, a phone call, a Zoom call, an email Q&A, or direct messages. What matters most is this question: can your reader retrieve the exact source you used?

Two Buckets That Decide Everything

APA splits interviews into two buckets:

• Private interviews you conducted or obtained that your reader can’t access (most student interviews fall here).
• Published or posted interviews your reader can access (magazine interviews, podcast episodes, YouTube interviews, published transcripts, books with Q&A chapters).

If the reader can’t retrieve it, APA treats it as personal communication. That changes where it appears: it goes in the text, not the reference list. APA explains this rule on its page about personal communications: APA Style personal communications guidance.

Fast Self-Check

Ask yourself two quick questions:

1. If someone reads my paper, can they find the interview without contacting me?
2. Is the interview publicly available in a stable place (a book, a journal, a site, a podcast feed)?

If the answer to both is “no,” treat it as personal communication. If the answer is “yes,” cite it like the source type where it appears.

APA Citing An Interview In APA 7 With Real Examples

This section gives you plug-and-play formats. Keep them as templates, then swap in your interviewee’s initials, last name, and date.

Citing A Private Interview You Conducted

A private interview is not recoverable by your reader. In APA, that means:

• You cite it in the text.
• You do not add a reference list entry.

Parenthetical Citation Template

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

Narrative Citation Template

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

Examples You Can Copy

Parenthetical: (J. K. Rahman, personal communication, October 3, 2025)

Narrative: J. K. Rahman (personal communication, October 3, 2025) shared that the lab switched protocols mid-semester.

What If You Quoted The Interview Word-For-Word

If you use a direct quote from your interview notes or recording, add a locator that points to where the quote lives in your material. Since your reader can’t retrieve it, the locator is still useful for your own transparency and for a supervisor who may review your notes.

Common locator options:

• Timestamp from the recording (00:12:40)
• Transcript page if you typed it up (p. 3)
• Interview note section if you labeled notes (“Field notes, section 2”)

Example with timestamp: “We changed the onboarding flow twice” (L. Chen, personal communication, May 14, 2025, 00:12:40).

Group Interviews And Multiple People

Group interviews can get messy in citations. Here are clean approaches that keep the text readable.

One Speaker, Clear Attribution

If one person said the point you’re using, cite that person.

(S. Niemi, personal communication, September 18, 2025)

Several Speakers, Same Point

If you’re summarizing a shared view from more than one participant, you can cite more than one personal communication in the same parentheses. Put them in the order you used them in your writing process or in a consistent order you stick to across your paper.

(S. Niemi, personal communication, September 18, 2025; M. Laine, personal communication, September 18, 2025)

Organization As The Communicator

Sometimes the “speaker” is an organization account (an official email reply, a press office message). You can treat the organization name like the author in the in-text citation.

(Helsinki City Transport, personal communication, January 9, 2026)

Missing Dates And Other Gaps

If you don’t have the full date, get as close as you can. If you only know the month and year, use those. If you only know the year, use the year. Try to avoid “n.d.” for interviews since you can usually recover the date from your calendar, email header, or recording metadata.

Month and year: (R. Singh, personal communication, March 2025)

Year only: (R. Singh, personal communication, 2025)

When The Interview Is Published Or Posted Online

If your reader can retrieve the interview, you usually add a reference list entry. The exact format depends on where the interview appears. APA doesn’t give one single “interview” reference format for all cases, because an interview can be a podcast episode, a YouTube video, a newspaper Q&A, or a chapter in a book.

So here’s the move: identify the container, then cite the interview as that container type.

Published Interview In A Magazine Or News Site

If it’s a Q&A article on a site, it often reads like an online news article. In that case, cite it as a webpage or online magazine article, depending on the site and how it’s presented.

Your in-text citation will follow the author-date system used in APA. The reference entry will include the author, date, title, site name (if needed), and URL.

Interview Episode On A Podcast

If you used a podcast interview, cite it as a podcast episode. If a guest is the main “voice” you’re using, you still cite the episode using the credited creator/host in the reference entry, since that’s how the episode is cataloged.

Interview Video On YouTube Or A Site

For a YouTube interview, cite it as an online video. Include who uploaded it, the date, the title, the format in brackets (Video), and the URL.

If the video is a posted recording of an interview you conducted and you published it in a stable, public place, it becomes recoverable. At that point, it belongs in the reference list like any other public source.

Interview Transcript In A Book

Books sometimes contain interviews as chapters or sections. Cite the chapter using the chapter author, year, chapter title, the editor (if there is one), the book title, page range, and publisher.

If the book is edited and the interview is a separate chapter, treat it like a chapter. If it’s woven into the book text with no clear chapter author, treat it like a book section and cite the book.

Interview Citation Formats At A Glance

The table below shows common interview situations and what APA expects. Use it as your routing map before you format anything.

Interview Type	Where It Appears	How To Cite In APA
Private interview you conducted	Your notes/recording only	In-text only as personal communication; no reference entry
Email Q&A not publicly posted	Your inbox	In-text only as personal communication; no reference entry
Direct message interview	Private chat thread	In-text only as personal communication; no reference entry
Interview in a magazine/news article	Public webpage	Cite as an online article/webpage; add reference entry with URL
Podcast interview episode	Public podcast feed	Cite as a podcast episode; add reference entry
YouTube interview	Public video page	Cite as an online video; add reference entry with URL
Interview transcript in a book	Book chapter/section	Cite as a book chapter or book section; add reference entry
Press conference Q&A with posted transcript	Public transcript page	Cite as a webpage/transcript source; add reference entry with URL

How To Write Interview In-Text Citations That Don’t Trip You Up

Most formatting slips happen in the in-text citation, not the reference list. Here are the spots that cause the most pain, with clean fixes.

Use Initials In Personal Communications

For personal communications, APA calls for the communicator’s initials plus last name in the citation. That keeps the citation short and still specific.

Right: (A. M. Johnson, personal communication, April 2, 2026)

Off: (Alex Johnson, interview, April 2, 2026)

Keep The Date As Exact As You Can

Use Month Day, Year when you have it. If you only have a rough timeframe, work back through your calendar or saved files and pin down the date. A clean date makes your writing feel trustworthy.

Match The Citation To The Sentence

If the interviewee’s name is in the sentence, use narrative form. If not, use parenthetical form. This keeps the prose flowing.

Narrative: A. M. Johnson (personal communication, April 2, 2026) described the first prototype as “too fragile for daily use.”

Parenthetical: The first prototype was “too fragile for daily use” (A. M. Johnson, personal communication, April 2, 2026).

Keep The Word “Personal Communication” Lowercase

In APA examples, “personal communication” is written in lowercase within the citation. That small detail keeps your formatting aligned with APA’s own models.

How To Handle Ethics And Permissions

Interview citations are not just formatting. You’re using someone’s words. Two quick habits keep you on solid ground:

• Get permission for direct quotes if the interview is private and the person isn’t expecting to be quoted in print.
• Describe edits clearly if you cleaned up speech for readability. Don’t change meaning.

If you promised anonymity, don’t cite the person’s real name. Use the label you agreed on, then stay consistent across your paper. You can still use the personal communication format with your label in the author spot, as long as your instructor or publisher accepts it.

Second Table: A Clean Checklist For Citing Interviews

This checklist is built for last-minute review. It covers private and public interviews without turning your editing session into a scavenger hunt.

What To Check	What To Do	Common Slip
Is the interview retrievable?	If not retrievable, cite in text only as personal communication	Adding a reference list entry for a private interview
Name format for private interviews	Use initials + last name in the citation	Using the full first name in the parentheses
Date detail	Use the most precise date you can document	Leaving the date vague when a calendar/email shows it
Direct quote handling	Add a locator like a timestamp or transcript page	Quoting without any locator in your citation
Public interview container type	Cite it as the source type (webpage, podcast episode, video, book chapter)	Trying to force a “personal communication” citation for a public interview
Consistency across the draft	Use the same format each time you cite the same interview	Switching between narrative and parenthetical with missing pieces
Reference list scope	Include only recoverable interviews in the reference list	Mixing private and public interviews in References

Common Scenarios Students Ask About

Can I Put My Own Interview Transcript In The Reference List

If the transcript is private, keep it out of the reference list and cite it as personal communication. If you published the transcript in a stable, public place that your reader can access, then it becomes recoverable and can appear in the reference list as a webpage or repository item, depending on where it lives.

What If The Interview Is In A Documentary Or TV Episode

That’s still a public source. Cite the documentary or episode as the source type (film, TV episode, streaming video). Your in-text citation points to that source, not to “personal communication.”

What If I Found The Interview Quoted Inside Another Source

Try to track down the original interview. If you can’t, cite the source you actually read. If the quote is a quotation inside a book or article, you are citing that book or article’s content. You’re not claiming you personally accessed the interview.

One Page Wrap-Up You Can Paste Next To Your Draft

Use this mini set of rules while you write:

• If your reader can’t retrieve the interview, cite it in the text as personal communication and stop there.
• Use initials + last name, then “personal communication,” then the date.
• If your reader can retrieve it, cite it as its source type and add a reference entry.
• For quotes from private interviews, add a locator like a timestamp so your notes stay auditable.

If you want one official rule page to double-check your formatting, APA’s personal communications page lays out the exact in-text structure and why the reference list stays blank for private interviews.