It is generally accepted that personal communications such as emails, letters and telephone conversations do not need to be included in the final reference list. However, you can refer to them in an assignment and include the full details in your text.
You should get permission to refer to the communication before using it.
Brown (2008) outlined this idea in a telephone call on 10th August.
Lucas (2024) discussed this in a Teams video call on 4th May.
NAME, Year. [Outline of topic discussed] (personal communication, date)
BROWN, J., 2008. [Telephone conversation on study skills] (personal communication, 10 August)
Lucas, G., 2024. [Teams video call conversation on study skills] (personal communication, 4 May)
You may want to include the page number or number range indicating where you found the information you are referring to for some sources. For guidance on how to do this see the ‘Page numbers for in-text references’ section.
Include the details of both authors in the in-text citations and the full reference list.
Only the first author surname is reversed in the full reference list entry.
Vidic and Greene outlined this idea in a telephone call on 10th August 2024.
SURNAME, Initial. and Initial. SURNAME, Year. [Outline of topic discussed] (personal communication, date)
The format for adding two authors to a full reference is shown below.
VIDIC, P. and L. GREENE, 2024. [Add full reference details for the source type after the author following the format above]
You may want to include the page number or number range indicating where you found the information you are referring to for some sources. For guidance on how to do this see the ‘Page numbers for in-text references’ section.
Include the details of all three authors in both the in-text citations and the full reference list.
Only the first author surname is reversed in the full reference list entry.
Rosa, Harris and Weyers outlined this idea in a telephone call on 10th August 2021.
SURNAME, Initial., Initial. SURNAME and Initial. SURNAME, Year. [Outline of topic discussed] (personal communication, date)
The format for adding three authors to a full reference is shown below.
ROSA, L., P. HARRIS and T. WEYERS, 2021. [Add full reference details for the source type after the author following the format above]
You may want to include the page number or number range indicating where you found the information you are referring to for some sources. For guidance on how to do this see the ‘Page numbers for in-text references’ section.
If your source has four or more authors, just include the first author in both the in-text citation and full reference list entry. You will need to add et al. after the first author to indicate there were multiple additional authors.
Svoen et al. outlined this idea in a telephone call on 10th August 2023.
SURNAME, Initial. et al., Year. [Outline of topic discussed] (personal communication, date)
The format for adding four or more authors to a full reference is shown below.
SVOEN, L. et al., 2023. [Add full reference details for the source type after the author following the format above]
You may want to include the page number or number range indicating where you found the information you are referring to for some sources. For guidance on how to do this see the ‘Page numbers for in-text references’ section.
A source may sometimes have a corporate author rather than an individual or several people named as author.
A corporate author is an organisation or company, for example, that created the information source.
Add a corporate author by including the full name both in your in-text citation and in your full reference list.
Southampton Solent University outlined this idea in a telephone call on 10th August 2015.
CORPORATE AUTHOR, Year. [Outline of topic discussed] (personal communication, date)
The format for adding a corporate author to a full reference is shown below.
SOUTHAMPTON SOLENT UNIVERSITY, 2015. [Add full reference details for the source type after the author following the format above]
You may want to include the page number or number range indicating where you found the information you are referring to for some sources. For guidance on how to do this see the ‘Page numbers for in-text references’ section.