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IEEE - Referencing Guide

Personal Communication

Information

 Personal communications include

  • AI generated text  e.g. ChatGPT
  • conversations
  • electronic bulletin boards
  • emails
  • interviews
  • letters
  • memos
  • messages from discussion lists
  • online chats
  • personal interviews
  • telephone conversations
  • text messages

 Only published works, forthcoming published works, and unpublished materials available to scholars in a library, a depository, or an archive may be cited.

 For interviews or other "non-recoverable" information, no citation number is necessary.

Include the author and date of the communication in the text itself.

Follow the In Text Citation Guidelines for Citing Personal Communication when referring to a personal communication in text.

Examples

Personal communications (in text)

"In a personal interview with Bill Gates on June 28 2006, he suggested that he would soon rule the world."

"In a letter to the author dated September 28 2018, Professor Mueller detailed his experiences with using this data collection software."


See the All Examples page for examples of in-text and reference list entries for specific resources such as articles, books, book chapters, and web pages.