How you cite a person in APA style depends on whether your reader can track down the source. A published book or recorded interview gets a standard author-date citation with a reference list entry. A private email, phone call, or in-person conversation gets a special “personal communication” citation that appears only in the text, with no reference list entry at all. Here’s how each scenario works under APA 7th edition rules.
Citing a Person as an Author
When you’re referencing a recoverable source like a book, journal article, or website, the person’s name appears as the author in a standard in-text citation. APA uses an author-date system, so you pair the surname with the publication year. There are two styles you can use in any given sentence:
- Parenthetical citation: Place the author’s last name and year in parentheses at the end of the sentence. Example: (Luna, 2020)
- Narrative citation: Work the author’s name into the sentence itself and put only the year in parentheses. Example: Luna (2020) found that…
For two authors, include both names every time you cite the work. Use an ampersand (&) in parenthetical citations and the word “and” in narrative citations: (Salas & D’Agostino, 2020) or Salas and D’Agostino (2020). For three or more authors, list only the first author’s surname followed by “et al.” every time, even the first citation: (Martin et al., 2020).
In the reference list, invert all individual names so the surname comes first, followed by a comma and the author’s initials. Separate initials with a space, and use an ampersand before the final author’s name. For example: Salas, R., & D’Agostino, L. Keep hyphenated surnames and two-part surnames exactly as the author writes them, and preserve the author’s preferred capitalization.
Citing a Personal Communication
Personal communications are private exchanges your reader has no way to look up. This category includes personal emails, phone calls, text messages, private letters, unrecorded interviews, classroom lectures with original content, unrecorded webinars, and intranet sources. Because these aren’t recoverable, they never appear in your reference list. You cite them in the text only.
Include the person’s first initial(s) and surname, the phrase “personal communication,” and the most exact date you can provide. The format differs slightly depending on where you place the citation:
- Parenthetical: (T. Nguyen, personal communication, February 24, 2020)
- Narrative: E.-M. Paradis (personal communication, August 8, 2019) noted that…
Notice that personal communication citations include first initials, unlike standard author-date citations. This helps the reader identify the specific person since there’s no reference list entry to check.
When a Communication Is Not “Personal”
If the interview, lecture, or conversation has been recorded and published somewhere your reader can access it, it’s not a personal communication. A podcast episode, a YouTube interview, a magazine profile, or a transcript posted on a website all count as recoverable sources. Cite these using the standard author-date format and include a full reference list entry matching the source type (audio recording, video, article, etc.).
Similarly, if a communication is recoverable only through an archive, such as letters held in a presidential library, cite it as archival material rather than a personal communication.
One important exception: if you conducted interviews as part of your own original research, do not cite those participants as personal communications. Instead, quote or paraphrase them directly in your text as part of your methodology and results, identifying them however your ethics approval requires (often with pseudonyms or participant numbers).
Citing Indigenous Oral Traditions
APA 7th edition recognizes that Traditional Knowledge and Oral Traditions from Indigenous peoples require additional context. If the material has not been recorded in any published source, you can use a variation of the personal communication format that includes the person’s title, Nation, Country, or language group to provide proper context for the knowledge’s origin.
An in-text example looks like this: (Bundjalung Elder, Aunty Gwen Hickling, personal communication, August 6, 2020). Like other personal communications, this stays in the text only, with no reference list entry.
If the Traditional Knowledge has been recorded in a recoverable format, such as a book or video, cite it in the standard way for that source type and include a reference list entry. You can add the author’s Nation or language group in parentheses next to the author name in the reference. For example: Grant, Stan (Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi). (2017). Talking to my country. Harper Collins.
Before citing Indigenous knowledge, confirm that the information is appropriate to share or publish, and take care to represent it accurately.
Quick Reference for Formatting Names
A few rules apply across all APA citations involving individual people:
- Initials over first names: In both reference list entries and personal communication citations, use initials (J. R.) rather than full first names.
- Spacing: Place one space between initials (J. R., not J.R.).
- Hyphens and multi-part surnames: Keep them exactly as the person writes their own name.
- No professional titles: Drop Dr., Prof., and similar titles from citations and references.
- Suffixes: Generational suffixes like Jr. or III follow the initials.
Getting the name formatting right matters because APA is designed to help readers find the original source. In a standard citation, the surname and date point to the reference list. In a personal communication, the initials, surname, and date give the reader enough detail to understand who provided the information and when, even though the exchange itself isn’t publicly available.