APA provides different reference formats for over 100 source types, including books, articles, and webpages. See examples!

APA provides different reference formats for more than 100 source types. Therefore, it’s essential to first determine what kind of source you’re dealing with. In some cases, this isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Sources can take the form of a webpage or PDF file, but this is just the medium. When digging deeper, you may find that this webpage is actually a newspaper article, blog article, or press release. The PDF file could be a government report, journal article, or brochure.

Choose the most appropriate source type from the list below. Can’t find a suitable one? Check out the

official APA Style website

for even more reference examples.

Source type

Original content

Citing personal communications in APA Style

In APA Style, a personal communication is any source that is not accessible to your readers. Personal communications are cited in the text, but not included in the reference list.

Example
Another researcher stated that the results so far looked “very promising” (A. Smith, personal communication, July 15, 2015).

What is a personal communication?
A personal communication is any source you refer to that the reader will not be able to access—either because it was not recorded, is deliberately kept private for reasons of confidentiality, or is accessible only to a specific group (e.g. members of a particular institution or online community).