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Vancouver Referencing Style:  Personal comm

UON Library guide to Vancouver Style for UON students

Personal communication

 

Personal communications may cover the following examples:

  • conversations (whether face-to-face or by telephone)
  • personal interviews not available to the public
  • private letters
  • private contracts
  • wills
  • email or text messages
  • private messages shared through social media and received by the author
  • generative AI content such as the content generated by OpenAI's ChatGPT

Personal communications are usually run into the text only, not as formal end references. Include the nature and source of the cited information, using a term or terms to indicate clearly that no corresponding citation is in the reference list. Place the source information in parentheses.

For example:

… and most of these meningiomas proved to be inoperable (2003 email from RS Grant to me; unreferenced, see "Notes") while the few that …
 

An email address or the like belonging to an individual should be omitted. Should it be needed in a specific context, it must be cited only with the permission of its owner.

For private letters, unless the letter resides in a library or other public archive, the author of a publication citing a letter must provide written permission from the cited person (if living) to the publisher or from the cited organization if it is carried in a document such as in internal memorandum that is not accessible to the public.

It is highly recommended that any cited personal communications be saved to disk or in print because not all  systems use a standard method of saving or archiving messages.

Reference list entries are not needed.

Be sure to check with your lecturer if these kinds of resources are suitable for use in your assignments.

Using AI tools without permission may be considered an academic integrity violation and may result in disciplinary action.

Personal communication - examples 

 

Personal communications are usually run into the text only, not as formal end references. Include the nature and source of the cited information, using a term or terms to indicate clearly that no corresponding citation is in the reference list. Place the source information in parentheses.

The following are some examples of placing references to personal communications within the running text. 

See the general rules for personal communication for more details. 

 

Conversation example

In a conversation with the author on January 6, 2009, lobbyist Ann Adams (unreferenced) admitted that . . .

 

Email example

… and most of these meningiomas proved to be inoperable (2003 e-mail from RS Grant to me; unreferenced) while the few that …

 

Facebook message example

...produced the same result (Facebook direct message from Jonathan Lee to author, May 5, 2017, unreferenced) .

 

Personal interview (unpublished) example

.... Incidents of aggression towards hospital staff in the Sydney area have been increasing over the last five years (2016 author interview with PK Smith; unreferenced, see Appendix for full transcript) .

 

Generative AI example

When prompted with “What is a proper noun?” OpenAI's ChatGPT (24 December, 2022, unreferenced) replied “A proper noun is a type of noun that refers to a specific, unique person, place, thing, or idea.”

Generative AI such as ChatGPT

Currently there are no specific guidelines for citing generative AI in Vancouver style. The University of Newcastle suggests referencing Generative AI following the pattern for personal communications. There are several reasons for this, including that like personal communications, AI Generated content is difficult to reliably reproduce. 

 

Generative AI examples

  • "Clouds give us hope" (ChatGPT conversation with author, January 12, 2023, unreferenced)
  • When prompted with “What is a proper noun?” OpenAI's ChatGPT (24 December, 2022, unreferenced) replied “A proper noun is a type of noun that refers to a specific, unique person, place, thing, or idea.”

 

Reference list entries are not required. 

It is an expectation of the University of Newcastle that all work submitted for assessment is the student's own original work. Prior permission must be obtained from a course coordinator before submitting work generated using an AI tool. 

Using AI tools without permission may be considered an academic integrity violation and may result in disciplinary action.