How To Cite A Personal Interview In APA | APA 7 Rules

You finished the interview, then the panic hits: “Where does this go in APA?” Good news. A personal interview is one of the cleanest citation cases once you know the rule.

Most interviews you conduct are not retrievable by your reader, so APA treats them as personal communication. You give credit in the text, then you leave the interview out of the reference list.

Below you’ll get decision points, ready-to-use templates, and the small punctuation details that often trip people up.

Interview Situation	What To Do In APA	Reference List Entry?
In-person interview you conducted, notes are private	In-text citation as personal communication with initials, surname, full date	No
Phone or video interview you conducted, not shared	Same in-text format; keep “personal communication” in the citation	No
Email Q&A that only you can access	In-text citation as personal communication using the email date	No
Recorded interview stored privately	Still personal communication; cite the recording date in text	No
Transcript posted online or in a public archive	Cite the posted item as a retrievable source (webpage, report, database record)	Yes
Interview published on TV, radio, podcast, or in print	Cite the container source (episode, article, film) using its APA format	Yes
Class guest talk you attended, not recorded	Treat it as personal communication when readers can’t access it	No
Group interview you ran, notes are private	Cite each speaker you attribute a statement to, with separate citations if needed	No
Interview data from your own research participants	Describe the method; cite as personal communication only when you credit a specific message	Usually no

What A “Personal Interview” Means In APA

APA cares about one thing: can the reader retrieve the source? If your reader can’t access the interview, it counts as personal communication.

That includes face-to-face interviews, calls, private chats, and direct messages. It also includes notes from an unrecorded talk or an unposted webinar when there’s no public link your reader can open.

If a transcript, recording, or written Q&A is posted in a place readers can access, treat that posted item as the source. Then it belongs in the reference list like any other retrievable work.

How To Cite A Personal Interview In APA Step By Step

If you’re stuck on how to cite a personal interview in apa, use this sequence. It keeps you from guessing and keeps your citation consistent across the paper.

Step 1: Collect The Three Pieces You Need

Write down the interviewee’s initials and last name, the exact date of the interview, and the label “personal communication.” Those three pieces power both narrative and parenthetical citations.

Use the most specific date you have. Day matters when you know it. If you only have a month and year, use those. If you only have a year, use the year.

Step 2: Pick Parenthetical Or Narrative Style

In parenthetical style, everything sits inside parentheses at the end of the sentence (or near it). In narrative style, the person’s name sits in the sentence and the rest goes in parentheses right after the name.

Parenthetical Format

(A. A. Surname, personal communication, January 5, 2025)

Narrative Format

A. A. Surname (personal communication, January 5, 2025) noted that ...

Step 3: Put The Period In The Right Spot

When the citation ends the sentence, the period goes after the closing parenthesis. If the citation appears mid-sentence, keep the punctuation that your sentence needs and don’t force extra marks inside the citation.

Step 4: Quote Or Paraphrase Without Overloading The Page

Quotes work best when the wording itself matters. If you quote, copy the wording exactly from your notes or transcript. Personal communication citations do not use page numbers, so your accuracy in the quote is what carries the weight.

If you paraphrase, stay faithful to what the person said, then cite the interview the same way. Paraphrases still need credit, even when you change the wording.

Step 5: Leave The Interview Out Of The Reference List

For non-retrievable interviews, APA does not include a reference list entry. That’s the rule that keeps your reference list from listing items your reader can’t find.

Keep your own records anyway. Save notes, keep the date, and store any permission or consent you received. Your instructor may want proof you conducted the interview, but APA does not require you to publish the record.

Citing A Personal Interview In APA With APA 7 Details

APA 7 spells out the personal communication rule clearly. The official APA Style guidance on personal communications lists personal interviews as a core case and confirms they belong in text, not in the reference list, when the source is not retrievable.

APA also allows two citation styles in your writing, and you can use either with interviews. The APA Style page on parenthetical versus narrative citations shows the difference, so you can choose what fits your sentence.

Write the date as Month Day, Year when you know it, with the month spelled out. This avoids confusion across date styles.

When Your Interview Becomes Retrievable

Sometimes the interview is available to readers even if you conducted it. A posted transcript, a public recording, or an archived oral history is retrievable. In that case, cite the posted item and add it to the reference list using the format that matches the item type.

If you cite an interview published by someone else, cite the source where it appears. If it’s a podcast, cite the episode. If it’s a magazine interview, cite the magazine article. Your in-text citation follows the rules for that source type, not the personal communication format.

Recorded Interviews That Stay Private

A private recording does not change the citation type. If readers can’t access the file, it stays personal communication. Use the recording date, not the date you scheduled the call.

If you edited your notes later, that does not change the date either. The citation date is when the communication happened.

Research Participant Interviews And Privacy

In many research papers, interview responses are treated as part of your own study data. You may describe how you collected the data in a methods section instead of citing every response as a separate source.

If you include participant quotes, follow the privacy rules your instructor or ethics process sets. Writers often use participant codes or pseudonyms in the text. Keep that labeling consistent and keep your raw records private.

Common Interview Citation Errors In APA

These mistakes show up again and again. Fixing them takes minutes, and it can save a grade hit.

Adding A Reference List Entry For A Private Interview

If the reader can’t retrieve it, it doesn’t belong in the reference list. That single rule explains most grading comments on interview citations.

Leaving Out Initials

Personal communication citations need initials and surname. Using only a last name can create ambiguity and it breaks APA’s author style.

Dropping The “Personal Communication” Label

Without that label, the reader has no reason to expect the source is missing from the reference list. Keep the label, keep it lowercase, and keep the commas.

Using The Wrong Date

Use the date the interview took place. If your notes only give month and year, use month and year. If you later learned the exact day, update the citation.

Attributing A Quote To The Wrong Speaker

Group interviews can get messy fast. If you can’t verify who said a line, don’t quote it as a named statement. Paraphrase the shared point and cite the people you can verify.

How To Work Interview Citations Into Your Writing

An interview citation can look clunky if you drop it in without a lead-in. A small setup line makes the paragraph read like normal prose.

Start by naming the speaker once, then keep your wording consistent. You can add their role in the sentence (coach, lab manager, city planner) if it helps the reader track who is who.

Skip honorifics such as Dr. or Mr. in the citation itself. Use initials and surname only, then put titles in the sentence if you need them. If the person uses a two-part surname, keep both parts together in the citation, as the person writes it in notes.

When two people share a surname, add enough context in the sentence to separate them, then keep both citations in the same format.

• Use narrative style when the speaker is the subject of the sentence.
• Use parenthetical style when the interview backs up a point at the end of the sentence.
• If you mention the interview format, keep it plain: “in a phone interview” or “in an email reply.”

This keeps your paper readable while still giving full credit to the person you interviewed.

Copy And Paste Templates For Personal Interview Citations

Use these templates as-is, then swap in the correct initials, surname, and date. Keep the punctuation exactly the same.

Use Case	Narrative Template	Parenthetical Template
Single interview mention	A. A. Surname (personal communication, Month Day, Year)	(A. A. Surname, personal communication, Month Day, Year)
Two interviewees credited in one sentence	A. A. Surname (personal communication, Month Day, Year) and B. B. Surname (personal communication, Month Day, Year)	(A. A. Surname, personal communication, Month Day, Year; B. B. Surname, personal communication, Month Day, Year)
Same person cited twice in one paragraph	A. A. Surname (personal communication, Month Day, Year) ... Surname (personal communication, Month Day, Year)	(A. A. Surname, personal communication, Month Day, Year)
Month and year only known	A. A. Surname (personal communication, Month Year)	(A. A. Surname, personal communication, Month Year)
Year only known	A. A. Surname (personal communication, 2024)	(A. A. Surname, personal communication, 2024)
Quoted statement	A. A. Surname (personal communication, Month Day, Year) said, “...”	“...” (A. A. Surname, personal communication, Month Day, Year)
Methods write-up line	Data were gathered through interviews with A. A. Surname (personal communication, Month Day, Year)	(A. A. Surname, personal communication, Month Day, Year)

Quick Checks Before You Submit

Do a last pass with this checklist. It’s fast, and it catches the most common slip-ups.

• Each interview citation includes initials, surname, “personal communication,” and the best date detail you have.
• Month is written out when you include a month.
• No private interview appears in the reference list.
• Periods go after the closing parenthesis when the citation ends the sentence.
• Quoted wording matches your notes or transcript exactly.
• Names and dates stay consistent across the paper.

If you’re still wondering about how to cite a personal interview in apa, build one citation from the template table, then match that pattern for the rest of your interview mentions.