How to Cite an Unpublished Work in APA, MLA, and Chicago Style

Here’s how to cite an unpublished work: add a status label such as [Unpublished manuscript] right after the title, then follow the reference format for APA, MLA, or Chicago Style depending on your assignment. A dissertation still in progress, a conference paper, or a private letter has not gone through a formal publisher, but readers still need a full reference to trace where the information came from. This guide walks through the exact reference list and in-text formats for all three styles, plus real examples for theses, speeches, and interviews.

What Counts as an Unpublished Work?

An unreleased work is any manuscript, dissertation, conference paper, speech, or personal communication that has not gone through a formal publisher, journal, or press. Citation styles still require a full entry for this kind of material so a reader can verify where the claim originated, even when the document itself is not publicly available. Recognizing these categories is the first step in learning how to cite an unpublished work correctly in APA, MLA, or Chicago Style.

• A thesis or dissertation still in progress or not yet archived in a public database
• A preprint or working paper submitted for review but not yet accepted by a journal
• A conference paper that was presented but never printed in the proceedings
• A personal communication, such as an email, letter, or interview
• A speech or lecture with no printed transcript
• Raw data, lab notes, or an internal report shared privately among colleagues

A preprint that is later accepted by a journal should be re-cited using the published-article format once it is formally released. Until then, treat it as a manuscript and update the reference when the final version appears.

How to Cite an Unreleased Manuscript in APA Style

The American Psychological Association’s 7th edition format for citing this kind of material adds a bracketed description after the title. This tells the reader the piece has not been formally released, without changing the rest of the reference structure.

Reference List Entry

Format: Writer’s Last Name, First Initial. (Date). Title of the piece [Unpublished manuscript]. Department, University.

In-Text Citation

Reference the writer’s last name and the date in parentheses, as in (Diaz, 2025). When no date is confirmed, replace it with “n.d.” The official APA Style guidance on unpublished works also covers informally self-published pieces and preprints. You can also build the reference automatically with our APA citation generator.

How to Cite an Unreleased Manuscript in MLA

The Modern Language Association keeps titles of this kind in quotation marks rather than italics, since the piece has not been formally released, and adds a short descriptive note about where it can be found.

Works Cited Entry

Format: Writer’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Piece.” Date composed, location of the collection or institution.

In-Text Citation

Cite the writer’s last name in parentheses, as in (Diaz), or the last name plus page number if the pages are numbered. The Andover library’s MLA guide on unreleased manuscripts gives additional examples for student papers versus professional ones. Our MLA citation generator can format the entry for you in seconds.

How to Cite an Unreleased Manuscript in Chicago Style

The Chicago Manual of Style, published by the University of Chicago Press, offers two systems: notes-bibliography, common in history and the humanities, and author-date, more common in the social sciences. Both point readers to the department or collection holding the material.

Notes-Bibliography Format

Footnote: Writer’s First Name Last Name, “Title of the Piece” (unpublished manuscript, Date), description of where it is held.

Author-Date Format

In-text: (Diaz 2025). Bibliography: Diaz, Maria. 2025. “Rethinking Peer Feedback in First-Year Writing Courses.” Unpublished manuscript, Riverside State University. The Purdue Online Writing Lab’s page on unpublished materials breaks down both systems side by side. Our Chicago citation generator supports the author-date variant shown above.

APA vs. MLA vs. Chicago for Unreleased Material

The three styles agree on the basics, credit the writer, name the piece, note its status, and point to where it is held, but they differ on punctuation and title formatting, as the table below shows.

Quick comparison across the three major styles

Element	APA	MLA	Chicago
Title formatting	Italicized	Quotation marks	Quotation marks
Status label	[Unpublished manuscript]	Short descriptive note	“unpublished manuscript”
In-text style	(Writer, Date)	(Writer) or (Writer Page)	(Writer Date) or footnote
Missing date	n.d.	Omit or use “n.d.”	n.d.

How to Cite Special Types of Unreleased Material

A thesis, a conference paper, an interview, and a speech each need a slightly different template, even though the core status-label rule above still applies to every one of them.

Theses and Dissertations

A thesis still in progress follows the manuscript format above. If it is already archived in a database such as ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global or a university repository, use the dedicated format in our guide on how to cite a thesis instead, and check the CUNY Graduate Center’s citation guide for dissertations for style-specific database examples.

Conference Papers

A paper that was presented but never printed in the proceedings gets the conference name and location added after the title. See our full breakdown in how to cite a conference paper.

Personal Communications and Interviews

Emails, letters, and interviews are usually cited in-text only in APA, since a reader cannot retrieve and verify them. MLA and Chicago do include these in the works cited list or bibliography. Our guides on how to cite an interview and how to cite an email walk through both approaches.

Speeches and Lectures

A speech or lecture with no printed transcript is cited by speaker, title, event, location, and date. If a transcript does exist, cite it as a manuscript instead. Compare the two situations in our guides on how to cite a speech and how to cite a lecture.

Common Mistakes When Citing an Unreleased Piece

Two mistakes show up again and again in student papers: mismatched title formatting and a missing institution name, both of which are easy to fix once you know what to look for.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are quick answers to the questions students ask most about citing material that has not been formally released, covering permission, missing dates, coursework shared between classmates, and where to find more examples for other source types.

Can I cite an unpublished work in an academic paper?

Yes. Instructors and journals generally accept this kind of material as long as you label its status clearly and follow the reference format for your required style.

What if the manuscript has no date?

Use “n.d.” in place of the date in APA and Chicago, or omit it in MLA if no reasonable estimate is available.

Do I need permission to cite an unreleased piece?

Citing a piece and quoting from it are different. A brief citation crediting the writer does not usually require permission, but quoting large sections of someone’s manuscript may, so check your institution’s policy before quoting extensively.

Can classmates cite each other’s unreleased coursework?

Yes, with the writer’s permission. Follow the same status-label rule, crediting the writer, the course or department, and the university, just as you would for a professor’s manuscript.

How do I cite an unreleased AI-generated draft or dataset?

Treat it the same way as any other unreleased material, but name the generating tool and version in place of a department, since there is no institution holding the file. Check your instructor’s policy first, since many courses restrict AI-assisted drafts entirely.

Where can I find more citation examples?

Now that you know how to cite an unpublished work in APA, MLA, and Chicago Style, browse our full citation guide hub for formats covering books, websites, interviews, speeches, and dozens of other formats.