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Vancouver - Referencing Guide

Personal Communications

Information

• Personal communications include

  • conversations
  • electronic bulletin boards
  • emails
  • interviews
  • letters
  • memos
  • messages from discussion lists
  • online chats
  • personal interviews
  • telephone conversations
  • text messages

• Do not include references for personal communications in a reference list, as they are unpublished, and do not contain recoverable data.

• Cite personal communications in the text only.

• Permission should be sought from the source/author of a personal communication if you wish to include quotes in your text.

• Details to include when citing in text are:

  • date of the communication;
  • the name of the person who is the source of communication;
  • whether the communication was in oral or written form;
  • the affiliation of the person might also be included to better establish the relevance and authority of the citation (recommended).

Examples

Conversation

In a conversation with a colleague from the School of Population Health (Jameson LI 2002, oral communication, 7th August)...

E-mail

In text: In an email from Professor Peter Smith (p.smith@hospital.wa.gov.au) in February 2000 (1) ...

Reference List:

1. Smith P. New research projects in gastroenterology [Internet]. E-mail to Matthew Hart (mh@hospital.wa.gov.au) 2000 Feb 5 [cited 2000 Mar 17].

Letter

As stated in a letter from B.J. Samuels, MD, in July 2002...

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