TikTok / X (Twitter) post

In-text citations

This category covers posts and comments that are recoverable. Posts that are protected by privacy settings should be treated as personal communications; see Other sources; Personal communication.

Paraphrasing

Waldron (2025) presented at the former Sunbury Mental Hospital…

In a recent post on X, Barack Obama paid tribute to Aretha Franklin who was well known as the Queen of Soul (Obama, 2018).

Direct quote

Place direct quotes between double quotation marks " " and provide the paragraph number.

"In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade—our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect" (Obama, 2018, para. 1).

Reference list

Post/Video

Template

Author [Screen name]. (Year, Month Day). Title [Form]. Website name. URL

Example

Gates, B. [@BillGates]. (2019, September 7). Today, it’s difficult for researchers to diagnose #Alzheimers patients early enough to intervene. A reliable, easy and accurate diagnostic would [Thumbnail with link attached] [Post]. X. https://x.com/BillGates/status/1170305718425137152

Cook, P. [@chemteacherphil]. (2021, September 17). Fighting fire with fire. #sciencetok #learnontiktok [Video]. TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@chemteacherphil/video/7008953610872605957

Notes on style

  • Give the real name of the poster, followed by their exact screen name in square brackets. Use just their screen name without brackets if their real name is unknown.
  • Give the exact date of the post.
  • Provide the first 20 words of the post as the title, in italics. Count a URL, a hashtag, or an emoji as one word each, and include them in the reference if they fall within the first 20 words. Do not italicize emojis.
  • Add the form in square brackets to the title.
  • Give the full URL of the post.

Profile

Template

Author [Screen name]. (n.d.). Title [Form]. Website name. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL

Example

APA Style [@APA_Style]. (n.d.). Posts [X profile]. X. Retrieved November 8, 2023, from https://x.com/APA_Style

The Rock. [@therock]. (n.d.). CEO of #RockTok [TikTok profile]. TikTok. Retrieved February 22, 2022, from https://tiktok.com/@therock

Notes on style

  • Give the real name of the poster, followed by their exact screen name in square brackets. Use just their screen name without brackets if their real name is unknown.
  • Use n.d. (no date) if using an entire feed or page and not a specific post.
  • The title will be the tab title, usually Tweets for a Twitter feed.
  • Add the form "[X profile]" or "[TikTok profile]" in square brackets to the title.
  • Give the full URL of the post. If the item is archived, give the archived version URL (click the post’s date stamp).
  • A retrieval date is needed for whole feeds because the content will change over time.