An IEEE personal communication citation identifies information received privately, such as an email or an interview that readers cannot retrieve. Check the rules for your destination before choosing its format. We compared IEEE's general reference guide, Concordia's library guidance, and the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication guide. The examples below separate the general numbered pattern from one journal's in-text-only rule.
Can the Reader Retrieve It?
Start with the item you actually used. A private message sent directly to you, an unrecorded conversation, or interview notes kept in your research folder gives readers no public source to open. Record that communication accurately. A mailbox address, video-call invitation, or login screen does not make the statement retrievable.
If you read an interview in a newspaper, cite the published article. If you watched a public recording, cite that recording. A person's name appearing in both a private conversation and a public interview does not make the two sources interchangeable. Check where the particular statement appears before choosing your reference.
For slides and course handouts, first use the lecture-material guide to identify the file and its access conditions. A restricted slide deck is still a document; the instructor's separate explanation in an email is a communication. Keep those source identities distinct when asking which rule applies.
Check the Destination's Rule
The IEEE Reference Guide, V 3.28.2025, places private communications under Unpublished and supplies this reference pattern.
Concordia's IEEE guide reproduces that pattern for email messages and says the information can often be embedded in the prose. For a course that adopts this library guide, check how the assignment asks you to handle that choice.
The IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication guide gives a specific instruction for personal communications and interviews. It excludes them from the reference list and places the attribution in the text, with the person's name and the full communication date. Its examples cover interviews, phone conversations, letters, and email.
For that journal, use its stated in-text treatment. For a course or another publication, read its own instructions and determine whether it uses the general numbered pattern. If the rule remains unclear, ask the instructor or editor which treatment to apply before numbering the reference list. The IEEE rules guide explains numbering once that decision is settled.
Record the Person, Medium, and Date
Keep a small working record while the communication is available. The fields below are our practical record card; they are not six fields that every published citation must display.
| Field | What to retain privately |
|---|---|
| Person | Name as confirmed by the source; initials for the reference if required. |
| Medium | Email, telephone, private video interview, or another actual channel. |
| Communication date | The date of the message or conversation, separate from when you read your notes. |
| Claim and locator | The specific statement, with its message paragraph or note location. |
| Attribution and access | What may be named or quoted, and who may access the retained material. |
| Destination rule | The journal or assignment instructions that determine citation placement. |
For a multi-day email thread, identify the message carrying the statement. A later reply thanking the sender does not change that statement's date. Keep an internal subject line or file identifier if it helps locate the message. The general IEEE pattern above does not turn an email subject into a published article title.
Write the Scoped Citation or In-Text Note
Fictional Email About a Measurement
In the first scenario, Mira Shah emails a student on October 12, 2026. The student asks about a 35 ms figure in a bench-test summary. Shah explains that it measures the interval from power-on to the controller's ready signal in that test. The student records the clarification in paragraph two of the message.
For a destination using the general reference-list pattern, the manuscript could say the following.
The sentence identifies the measured interval and the test context. Rewriting it as a claim that every controller has a 35 ms response would exceed the fictional message. Preserve October 12 in the working record even though this general reference pattern prints only the month and year.
For a submission governed by the Professional Communication journal's guide, put the attribution in the sentence and omit its reference-list entry.
Fictional Private Interview About a Work Practice
In the second scenario, Daniel Ortiz describes his own troubleshooting routine during a private video interview on October 15, 2026. The writer's notes record his practice of checking a cable connection before replacing a sensor. The call has no public recording or transcript.
Using the Professional Communication guide's parenthetical route, a sentence could read as follows.
This supports a statement about Ortiz's reported practice. It supplies no measured failure rate and cannot establish how all technicians work. If a destination instead requests the general numbered treatment, cite the interview in the text with its assigned bracket number and use an entry such as the one below.
Here [2] assumes Shah was already reference [1]. Under the journal's in-text-only treatment, neither communication receives a reference-list number. Assign numbers to the sources that actually belong in the list.
Check the Claim Before Submitting
Confirm the attribution and any quotation with the source before publication. Keep private contact details out of the manuscript. Where a source requests anonymity or limits what may be disclosed, resolve that with the editor and the applicable research procedures; the named examples here do not provide an anonymous-participant format.
Keep the underlying message or interview notes under the agreed access conditions. If an authorized public transcript later becomes the source you cite, check its wording and publication details before changing the reference. A newly available transcript can differ from the notes you originally used.
When moving a communication to an in-text-only note, remove its leftover bracket number and reference-list entry. Recheck the remaining numbered citations so each still points to the intended source.