How to cite using APA in the Health Sciences

If you have conducted interviews or (other forms of communication with) participants for research, this is considered original research and is not treated the same as personal communication. Quotes from research participants also do not require reference list entry. 

For the formatting, follow the same guidelines as for other quotations:

• Present a quotation with less than 40 words in quotation marks within the text.
• Present a quotation with 40 words or more in a block quotation indented below the text.

Make sure you clearly state in the text that the quotations are from participants.

Example

In focus group discussions, the participants described their experiences after the cultural humility training. “Anthony” (33 years old, ER nurse), noted the positive effects of the training: 

Before the training, I admit I had some unconscious biases, but the role-playing exercises really helped me see things from the patient's perspective. Now I make an intentional effort to understand their cultural background and how it might be influencing their experience in the ER.

Most participants agreed, noting that the training in cultural humility allowed them to focus more on the patients and improve their rapport.

It is important that you follow the ethical agreements regarding the confidentiality and/or anonymity of participants that were made during the consent or assent process. Make sure obtain and respect participants’ consent to have their information included in your report. This means that you may need to disguise participant information, by measures including:

• assigning pseudonyms to participants,
• concealing any identifying information, and/or
• presenting aggregate information.

Any confidentiality and/or anonymity agreements may also extend to other sources, such as policy documents from a school, in which case you might need to generalize the school as "an elementary school in Winnipeg", rather than naming it outright.

Information on this page was adapted from "Chapter 8: Works Credited in the Text", in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), as well as the APA webpage, "In-Text Citations".