Citing Interviews in APA Style (6th Edition) | Format & Examples
The format of an APA interview citation depends on whether the source is a published interview or an interview you conducted yourself.
Personal interviews that can’t be retrieved by the reader shouldn’t be included in an APA reference list. Instead, cite the interview as a personal communication in the text.
If the interview was published in a retrievable source (e.g. a website, journal, newspaper or book), follow the usual citation format for that type of source.
You can use Scribbr’s free APA Citation Generator to create APA in-text citations and reference list entries for different source types.
Generate accurate APA citations with Scribbr
Table of contents
Citing personal interviews in APA
An unpublished interview that you conducted as part of your research should not be included in the reference list. How you cite them depends on whether you have included the interview as an appendix.
Interviews in appendices
If you have included the interview transcripts as appendices, simply refer to the relevant appendices when mentioning information from the interview.
According to one participant… (Appendix 1).
Interviews not in appendices
If the interview is not included in the appendices, you should follow the format of an APA personal communication. This citation format is used for any source that your reader isn’t able to access for themselves.
To cite interviews as personal communications, include the interviewee’s initials and last name, the words “personal communication,” and the date on which the interview was conducted, all in parentheses next to the relevant information:
Even if you did not create a transcript of the interview, you must reference any information that you got from someone else as a personal communication.
Citing published interviews in APA
If you want to include information from an interview that has been published and can be retrieved by the reader, then you can cite it as you would normally cite that type of source.
The author is the person who wrote the article (usually the interviewer). The name of the person interviewed is not included in the citation or in the reference list.
However, it’s important to make it clear exactly who said what when you quote from an interview conducted by someone else.
Example: quoting with unclear attribution
The citation here implies that this quote is from Davenport – but in fact, it is a quote from Jim Bridenstine, who is interviewed in Davenport’s article.
In this case, you should clearly state the interviewee’s name in the sentence to make it clear who is responsible for the quote.
Example: clearly attributing a quote to the original source
The format of the reference list entry depends on the type of source the interview was published in.
| Format | Author name, initials. (year, day month). Article title. Name of publication (page number if available). Retrieved from URL |
| Reference list | Davenport, C. (2018, June 5). NASA’s new administrator says he’s talking to companies about taking over operations of the International Space Station. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/06/05/nasas-new-administrator-says-hes-talking-to-companies-to-take-over-the-international-space-station |
| In-text citation | NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine confirmed that the United States would like to return their main space operations to US land: “A big objective is to once again launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil” (Davenport, 2018, para. 20). |
You can use our quick citation examples to correctly cite interviews published in other source types.
Sources in this article
We strongly encourage students to use sources in their work. You can cite our article (APA Style) or take a deep dive into the articles below.
This Scribbr articleGahan, C. (June 16, 2022). Citing Interviews in APA Style (6th Edition) | Format & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved October 17, 2022, from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/6th-edition/archived-interview/
