APA Interview Citation
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0 sourcesAPA Interview Citation depends on the interview type. A personal interview you conducted is cited in text only as a personal communication and never appears in the reference list. A published interview is cited by its format—article, podcast, or video.
What are the three interview types in APA?
APA sorts interviews into three groups, and each is handled differently. A personal interview you conducted is a personal communication. A published interview in media is cited by format. A research-participant interview is not cited at all, to protect confidentiality.
| Interview type | Reference list? | In-text form |
|---|---|---|
| Personal interview you conducted | No | Personal communication |
| Published (magazine, podcast, TV, video) | Yes | Author & year, by format |
| Research participant / your own data | No | Describe in text; no citation |
How do you cite a personal interview in APA?
A personal interview you conducted is cited only in the text as a personal communication, because readers cannot retrieve it. Give the interviewee’s initials and surname, the words personal communication, and the exact date. Do not add it to the reference list.
Parenthetical(T. Nguyen, personal communication, March 4, 2024)
NarrativeT. Nguyen (personal communication, March 4, 2024) confirmed the hospital’s new triage protocol.
The same personal-communication rule covers emails, phone calls, private letters, and unrecorded conversations. Because there is no reference-list entry, all identifying detail lives inside the in-text citation.
How do you cite a published interview in APA?
A published interview is retrievable, so you cite it by its format, not as an interview. The person credited is the interviewer or the writer, not the person answering. Use the article, podcast-episode, or video template and treat the interviewee as the subject.
MagazineSolomon, D. (2020, February 9). Questions for Greta Thunberg. The New York Times Magazine, 15–17.
PodcastShapiro, A. (Host). (2023, October 18). A climate scientist on hope (No. 412) [Audio podcast episode]. In All Things Considered. NPR. https://www.npr.org/
YouTubeFridman, L. (2022, June 3). Interview with a quantum physicist [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123
What are the parts of a published interview reference?
- Author — the interviewer or writer, surname then initials.
- Date — full publication date in parentheses.
- Title — the article or episode title, sentence case.
- Source — the periodical, show, or platform, italicized.
- URL/DOI — the retrieval link when the interview is online.
The interviewee’s name does not sit in the author position. If the interviewee is not obvious from the title, you may name them in your own sentence: “In an interview with Solomon (2020), Thunberg argued …”.
What are more APA interview citation examples?
Real examples across common formats appear below. Match each to the medium where the interview was actually published, then use the matching in-text citation.
NewspaperFresh, T. (2021, May 12). A novelist reflects on exile. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/
TV segmentCooper, A. (Host). (2019, November 3). Interview with the surgeon general [TV series episode]. In 60 Minutes. CBS.
TranscriptGross, T. (Host). (2018, July 9). Michelle Obama on becoming [Interview transcript]. NPR. https://www.npr.org/
| Where published | APA template to use |
|---|---|
| Magazine / newspaper | Periodical article |
| Podcast | Audio podcast episode |
| YouTube / streaming | Online video |
| Radio / TV | TV or radio series episode |
How do the in-text citations work?
In-text form follows the reference type. For personal interviews, use the personal-communication pattern with a full date. For published interviews, use the standard author-and-year pattern that matches the reference-list entry.
- Personal: (J. Ellison, personal communication, February 2, 2024)
- Published, parenthetical: (Solomon, 2020)
- Published, narrative: Solomon (2020) reported …
- Podcast with timestamp: (Shapiro, 2023, 14:22)
How accurate is this guide, and what are the limits?
Every rule here matches APA 7th edition (2020), the edition used across current college and journal work. The most common error is listing a personal interview in the reference list—APA explicitly excludes it. A second frequent error is crediting the interviewee as author of a published interview; APA credits the interviewer or writer instead.
Edge cases exist. A group’s own webinar, an archived oral-history recording, or a dataset of participant interviews may follow specialized templates, so confirm against your instructor’s rubric or the manual for unusual sources. When you generate a citation with our tool, verify author order, date completeness, and italics against these examples before submitting.
APA interview citation FAQ
Quick answers to the questions students ask most about citing interviews in APA style.