How do I cite an interview I conducted myself?

In APA, cite it in the text as a personal communication, in the form (Initials Surname, personal communication, Month Day, Year), with no reference-list entry. In MLA, create a works-cited entry headed by the interviewee's name with the description Interview, followed by your name and the date. In Chicago, cite it in a note. In Harvard, give it a reference-list entry.

Do I cite interviews with my research participants?

No. Quotations from participants in your own study are part of your data. Present them in the text, attribute them to a pseudonym or participant number as your ethics approval requires, and explain how the interviews were collected in your method section. They do not appear in the reference list.

Whose name comes first, the interviewer or the person interviewed?

MLA, Chicago and Harvard list the person interviewed first. APA follows the published format, so a magazine interview is listed under the journalist who wrote it, and you name the interviewee in your sentence.

How do I cite an interview on YouTube or a podcast?

Cite the video or the podcast episode in your style's normal format for that medium. In Chicago, MLA and Harvard, put the interviewee first and add Interview by and the interviewer's name.

Can I cite an interview if the person wants to stay anonymous?

Yes. Describe the source without naming them, for example a senior nurse at a London teaching hospital, and cite it as a personal communication or in a note that says the name is withheld by agreement. Check with your supervisor, since interviewing people for research usually needs ethics approval.

How to Cite an Interview

"Interview" covers three quite different sources, and the right citation depends on which one you have. Most mistakes come from applying the rule for one kind to another.

Step 1: Which Kind of Interview Is It?

Kind	Example	How it is cited
Published	A magazine Q&A, a radio or podcast interview, a recorded interview on YouTube, an oral history in an archive	In the format of the place it was published
Personal (unpublished)	You emailed or spoke to an expert to get information for your paper	APA: in the text only. MLA, Chicago, Harvard: see below
Research participant	Interviews you ran as your study's data collection	Not cited. Reported as data.

Published Interviews

The worked example is a radio interview that the Chicago Manual uses as its own model: Tonya Mosley's interview with computer scientist Joy Buolamwini on NPR's Fresh Air, broadcast on 28 November 2023.

APA (7th Edition)

APA has no separate interview format. Use the template for the medium (magazine article, podcast episode, YouTube video) and introduce the interviewee in your sentence.

Mosley, T. (Host). (2023, November 28). "If you have a face, you have a place in the conversation about AI," expert says [Audio podcast episode]. In Fresh air. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2023/11/28/1215529902/unmasking-ai-facial-recognition-technology-joy-buolamwini

In-text: In an interview with Fresh Air, Buolamwini described ... (Mosley, 2023).

MLA (9th Edition)

Interviewee Last, First. "Title of Interview." Interview by First Last. Container, Day Mon. Year, URL.

Buolamwini, Joy. "'If You Have a Face, You Have a Place in the Conversation about AI,' Expert Says." Interview by Tonya Mosley. Fresh Air, NPR, 28 Nov. 2023, www.npr.org/2023/11/28/1215529902/unmasking-ai-facial-recognition-technology-joy-buolamwini.

In-text: (Buolamwini)

If the interview has no title, use the description "Interview" without quotation marks or italics.

Chicago (18th Edition)

Footnote:

Joy Buolamwini, "'If You Have a Face, You Have a Place in the Conversation About AI,' Expert Says," interview by Tonya Mosley, Fresh Air, NPR, November 28, 2023, audio, 37:58, https://www.npr.org/2023/11/28/1215529902/unmasking-ai-facial-recognition-technology-joy-buolamwini.

Shortened note:

Buolamwini, interview.

Bibliography:

Buolamwini, Joy. "'If You Have a Face, You Have a Place in the Conversation About AI,' Expert Says." Interview by Tonya Mosley. Fresh Air, NPR, November 28, 2023. Audio, 37:58. https://www.npr.org/2023/11/28/1215529902/unmasking-ai-facial-recognition-technology-joy-buolamwini.

Author-date in-text: (Buolamwini 2023)

Harvard (Cite Them Right)

Interviewee Surname, Initial. (Year) 'Title of interview'. Interview with Interviewee Name. Interviewed by Interviewer Name for Title of publication or programme, Day Month. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Buolamwini, J. (2023) '"If you have a face, you have a place in the conversation about AI," expert says'. Interview with Joy Buolamwini. Interviewed by Tonya Mosley for Fresh Air, NPR, 28 November. Available at: https://www.npr.org/2023/11/28/1215529902/unmasking-ai-facial-recognition-technology-joy-buolamwini (Accessed: 21 September 2026).

In-text: (Buolamwini, 2023)

IEEE

The IEEE Reference Guide has no interview format. Cite a published interview in the format of its medium, such as a news article or online video. For a magazine interview:

[1] J. K. Interviewer, "Title of the interview," Title of Magazine, Month Day, Year. [Online]. Available: URL

Interviews You Conducted Yourself

These are unpublished. Your reader cannot look them up, which is why APA and IEEE keep them out of the reference list.

An interview you conducted is private, so there is no real example to point to. The templates below show the parts to fill in, in square brackets, followed by the examples the style authorities publish themselves.

APA (in text only): ([Initials Surname], personal communication, [Month Day, Year])
MLA: [Surname, First name]. Interview. Conducted by [Your name], [Day Mon. Year].
Chicago (note only): 1. [First name Surname] ([role, organization]), interview by the author, [City], [Month Day, Year].
Harvard: [Surname, Initial.] ([Year]) Interview with [Your name], [Day Month].
IEEE: [1] [Initials Surname], private communication, [Abbrev. Month, Year].

Published examples of these forms:

APA Style: (T. Nguyen, personal communication, February 24, 2020)
MLA Style Center: Smith, Helen. E-mail interview. Conducted by Rachel Green, 6 June 2017.
IEEE Reference Guide: A. Harrison, private communication, May 1995.

In MLA, "Conducted by" is followed by your own name. In Chicago, "interview by the author" is the usual wording, and unpublished interviews are normally left out of the bibliography. Harvard guides vary in how they describe an unpublished interview, so check your institution's version. Say in your text how the interview took place (in person, by phone, by email, by video call) if it is relevant.

Keep your recording or notes, and ask the interviewee's permission before quoting them by name. Your instructor may ask for a transcript as an appendix. In that case APA lets you refer to it in the text: (see Appendix B).

Research Participant Interviews

If the interviews are your study's data, every major style says the same thing: do not cite them. A reference points readers to a recoverable source, and confidential research data is not one.

Quote participants in the text and attribute the words to a pseudonym, role or participant number, for example by ending the quotation with (Participant 7).
State in your method section that names are pseudonyms.
Describe recruitment, consent, recording and transcription in your method section.

Other Edge Cases

Interview in an archive or oral history collection. Cite the interviewee, the title or a description, the interviewer, the date, the collection name and the repository, with a URL if it is online. APA labels it [Interview] and names the archive as the publisher.

Interview published as a Q&A in a newspaper or magazine. APA: list the journalist as author and use the article format. MLA, Chicago and Harvard: list the interviewee first with "Interview by" and the journalist's name.

Interview on YouTube. APA credits the channel that uploaded the video as the author. See how to cite online videos.

Email interviews. These are personal communications in APA. The MLA Style Center's example puts the description in the title slot: Smith, Helen. E-mail interview. Conducted by Rachel Green, 6 June 2017.

Common Mistakes

Putting a personal interview in an APA reference list
Citing your own study's participants as if they were sources
Listing the interviewer as author in MLA or Chicago
Forgetting to identify the interviewee in an APA sentence, so the reader sees only the journalist's name
Leaving out the exact date of a personal interview
Quoting a named person from a private conversation without their permission

Sources for These Formats

APA Style, "Personal Communications" and "Quotations From Research Participants" (apastyle.apa.org)
MLA Style Center, "How do I cite an interview conducted by e-mail?" and MLA Handbook, 9th ed. (style.mla.org)
The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th ed., Citation Quick Guide, "Interview" and "Personal Communication" (chicagomanualofstyle.org)
Pears and Shields, Cite Them Right; University College Dublin Library, Harvard style guide, "Email, interviews and personal communication"
IEEE Reference Guide, version 3.28.2025, section S, "Unpublished"

Full style rules: APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE.

Interviews add a voice to your paper, and the published literature gives it context. Wonders searches 320M+ scholarly works and exports what you save in your chosen citation style.