So, you've had a fantastic conversation, gathered some crucial insights from an interview, and now you're staring at your APA-style paper, wondering how to give credit where it's due. It's a common spot to find yourself in, and honestly, it's not as complicated as it might seem at first glance.
Let's break it down, shall we? The key thing to remember with APA is that it distinguishes between interviews you conducted yourself and those you found published somewhere.
Interviews You Conducted Yourself
This is where things get a little different. If you've interviewed someone for your research – perhaps a participant in a study or someone you spoke with informally to gather supporting details – and that interview isn't something your readers can access, it doesn't go into your reference list. Think of it this way: if your reader can't go find it, it doesn't belong in the list of sources they can find.
Instead, you cite these as 'personal communications' directly within your text. It's pretty straightforward: you'll include the interviewee's initials and last name, followed by the phrase "personal communication," and then the date the interview took place. For example, you might write: "The project was still in its early stages, with many details yet to be finalized" (A. B. Smith, personal communication, October 26, 2023).
Now, if you've included full transcripts of these interviews in an appendix to your paper – which is common when you've conducted formal interviews as part of your research methodology – you don't need to cite each individual quote as a personal communication. You can simply mention where the transcripts can be found. For instance, you might say: "One participant noted that the process felt 'surprisingly intuitive' (full interview transcripts are presented in Appendix A)." You only need to make this reference to the appendix once, not every single time you quote from it.
Published Interviews
When you're citing an interview that's already out there in the world – like one you read in a newspaper, saw on YouTube, or heard on a podcast – you treat it like any other published source. The trick here is to follow the standard APA format for whatever type of source it is.
For instance, if you're citing an interview from a newspaper, you'll use the newspaper article format. If it's a podcast, you'll use the podcast episode format. And if it's a YouTube video, you'll use the YouTube video format.
Here's a subtle but important point: in these cases, the author listed in your citation is usually the interviewer, not the person being interviewed. However, when you're quoting directly, it's crucial to make it crystal clear who said what. You don't want your reader to think the interviewer's words are those of the interviewee.
So, instead of just a parenthetical citation that might be ambiguous, it's often best to name the speaker directly in your sentence. For example, if you're quoting NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine from an interview with the Washington Post, you'd phrase it like this: "The United States aims to return its space program to its former glory, as highlighted by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in a recent interview with the Washington Post: 'A big objective is to once again launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil' (Davenport, 2018, para. 20)." See how that clarifies things beautifully?
Ultimately, whether it's a personal chat or a public broadcast, APA wants you to be clear, accurate, and give proper credit. Just remember the distinction between what's accessible to your reader and what's not, and you'll navigate these citations with confidence.
