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Personal Interviews

Personal interviews are not included in the reference list because they are not considered recoverable data. You may cite them within the text as a personal communication.

In-text citation:

Eating too much sugar is unhealthy (J. Donahue, personal communication, April 19, 2014). According to J. Donahue (personal communication, April 19, 2014) eating too much sugar is unhealthy.

If you have read or listened to the interview (i.e they are retrievable in audio or print form), use the reference format appropriate for the source.

Interviews you conduct and other communication you receive that other people would not be able to locate are cited with in text citations only. Items that are recoverable, such as letters in an archive or recorded interviews available online, are not cited this way. Like author names, APA requires first names of interviewees be reduced to initials, which are included in the in-text citations since there is no reference list entry. 

Like other in-text citations, the citation can appear at the end of the sentence, or you can work it into the sentence.

Format:

(A. A. Interviewee last name, personal communication, Month Day, Year)

Examples:

End of Sentence:

(J. A. Doe, personal communication, September 12, 2014).

Incorporated into sentence:

In an interview, J.A. Doe (personal communication, September 12, 2014), stated that in her experience....

If you would like to include a personal interview as part of your APA reference list, then include the interviewee, the date of the interview, and the type of interview.

Structure:

Last name, FI. (Year, Month date). Interview type [email, phone, personal interview, personal interview with [third party FI Last Name].

Example: Cloyd, A. (2014, July 29). Personal interview.