APA classes all source that cannot be obtained by a reader or marker, including intranet documents, internal company documents, unrecorded and unpublished interviews, conversations, emails and notes you make during lectures as 'personal communications'.
APA specifies that no personal communications are included in your reference list; instead, parenthetically cite the communicator's name, the phrase 'personal communication', and the date of the communication in the format Month Day, Year in your main text only.
In-text Citation
The email stated that the company accepted an error had been made (P. Smith, personal communication, August 17, 2019).
However, there may be specific instances where your marker asks you to include them. In this situation, you may find the guidance for specific types of unpublished material here helpful. If you are in any doubt about how to reference something unpublished, please check with either your lecturer or library staff.
Although you must reference anything you use which is not your own work in order to avoid being accused of plagiarism, you will find that many departments at Portsmouth do not allow you to use your lecture or course notes as sources for your essays. It is good academic practice to use the reading list and any slides or notes which your lecturer has given you, and turn to the sources listed in these when writing your essay. If your lecturer has not indicated where they got their information, and you want to use it, ask them for their source.
In a situation where lecture notes or slides contain specific information which is only available from a lecturer, via Moodle, or from someone who took notes during a lecture, you should treat this as a personal communication as the source will not necessarily be accessible to your reader or marker.
Your past assignments are not considered to be a scholarly source. You should not use these as sources in your work unless you have been explicitly asked to do so (e.g. for a reflective assignment).
Instead, even when writing about a similar topic, you should update your research and conclusions from the past assignment, and use new words to express your thoughts rather than referring to or citing your earlier work. Self-plagiarism is specifically mentioned as an example of academic misconduct in the Code of Student Behaviour, and you should be careful to avoid this - the best way to do so is to ensure that you do not use material from one assignment in another.
If you believe you need to refer back to a previous assignment in your work you are advised to check with your lecturer before doing so.
In instances where it is required, you should follow this format:
Parenthetically cite your name, the name of the assessment/assignment, and the date of submission in the format Month Day, Year in your main text only.
In-text Citation
During a later discussion it was accepted that an error had been made (P. Smith, Reflective Essay 1, March 7, 2022).
The previous assignment is NOT included in your Reference List.
If you have created the table or figure yourself, for example if you took the photograph or created the chart from your own research data, you do not need to include an in-text citation within the Note. field.
Follow the guidance for tables or figures, but leave out the line of text starting with the word Note. below the table or figure.
If you have adapted a table or figure from a published source, treat this in the same way as a table or figure, then add the words “Adapted from” in front of the citation.
Note. Adapted from Ulvenblad and Tell, 2019, p. 10.
If you have created a figure or table using data from more than one source, put “Adapted from” after Note. and include all citations for the information used. Full guidance with examples for this can be found here.
APA classes all source that cannot be obtained by a reader or marker, including intranet documents, internal company documents, unrecorded and unpublished interviews, conversations, emails and notes you make during lectures as 'personal communications'.
No personal communications are included in your reference list; instead, parenthetically cite the communicator's name, the phrase 'personal communication', and the date of the communication in the format Month Day, Year in your main text only.
In-text Citation
The email stated that the company accepted an error had been made (P. Smith, personal communication, August 17, 2019).
Occasionally, you may need to keep details about a source confidential, particularly if you have been on placement or you work for the organisation. This may be because the source includes private health information, commercially sensitive information, or because it is not appropriate to name them in the specific context of your assignment.
The APA Manual does not provide guidance on doing this, as the principle is that all sources are fully referenced.
We have provided a way to do this below, but would recommend you talk to your lecturer if you are unsure about confidentiality in your assignment.
Sometimes, it may also be appropriate to add an anonymised extract of the document to an appendix, to provide context to the reader.
As well as the author, you may also need to anonymise some or all of the title. Put any information you have anonymised into square brackets, to make it clear that you have changed it from the original.
Reference
The title in this example included the name of the NHS Trust (e.g. University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire vaccination protocol). The name of the trust has been anonymised and put into square brackets, but the rest of the title has been retained.
NHS Trust. (2021). [NHS Trust] vaccination protocol. [Unpublished confidential document]. NHS England.
In this example, the whole title would have identified the company. Therefore an anonymised description of the document has been used, and the description has been put into square brackets
Company A. (2020). [Document detailing response to the COVID-19 pandemic]. [Unpublished confidential document].
The company name has been anonymised in this example, but the original title of the document does not identify the company in any way. The original title has therefore been included in full.
Placement Company. (2019). Annual strategy 2019-2020. [Unpublished confidential document].
In-text Citation
The new protocol was found to improve patient outcomes (NHS Trust, 2021).
Company A (2020) experienced a loss in profits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The strategy was changed in response to fluctuating market conditions (Placement Company, 2019).