Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
What are the specifics of Instagram posts in terms of referencing?
Let’s note several important aspects before explaining how to compile the references:
- Instagram is a specific platform focusing on visual contents, namely photos or images and videos.
- Instagram is not a source of scholarly data, therefore you should cite it with caution (and make sure that your university or journal allows doing so).
Bearing this in mind, it is still worth noting that Instagram is one of the world’s most popular websites. It contains large amounts of valuable information, works of art, photographs, and even textual data such as the opinions of influential persons, communication between people, and so on. All this leads to a growing amount of references to Instagram publications in scholarly articles, especially in the humanities.
How to cite Instagram publications?
What types of posts are there on Instagram?
When compiling the bibliographic reference to an Instagram post, you should identify first its type, i.e. its primary contents. As of today, one can publish the following types of posts on Instagram:
- Photo posts:
- single photos;
- carousels (multiple photos scrollable within one publication).
- Video posts:
- regular videos (previously referred to as IGTV);
- Instagram Reels (short videos).
- Instagram Stories: short-format vertical videos or images that disappear from the user’s profile after 24 hours.
- Instagram Highlights: these are Instagram Stories that the user saved and that can be viewed via a dedicated hyperlink.
- Live videos: after the streaming, these can be published as regular videos in the user’s feed.
- Instagram Guides: a feature of Instagram similar to a blog. It allows creating a curated flow of content with the user’s comments.
We will see next why this is important for referencing.
What elements to give in a bibliographic reference?
Just as in the cases of Twitter, Tumblr, or any other social media post, the contents of a bibliographic reference to an Instagram publication depend on the particular citation style that you are using. However, in most cases, one would need the following data to cite an Instagram publication:
- name of the author and/or their unique nickname (handle);
- text of the publication (if available);
- type of publication;
- date of publication;
- URL;
- date of access.
Also, a reference would often include the name of the social network, i.e. Instagram.
Examples of bibliographic references to Instagram posts
How to cite an Instagram photo?
Let’s consider the most basic case of an Instagram post: a single photo with some text added. Namely, we are going to consider this publication by Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina:
Image source: https://www.instagram.com/p/Chl5AgCN27f/
Here is how we would cite this Instagram photo in the most popular international citation styles:
| Citation style | Bibliographic reference |
| APA (7th ed.) | Svitolina, E. [@elisvitolina]. (2022, August 23). The colors that the whole world knows today! The colors of courage The colors of invincibility The colors of struggle [Photograph]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/Chl5AgCN27f/ |
| MLA (9th ed.) | Svitolina, Elina [@elisvitolina]. "The colors that the whole world knows today! The colors of courage The colors of invincibility The colors of struggle The colors of . . ." Instagram, 23 Aug. 2022, www.instagram.com/p/Chl5AgCN27f. |
| Harvard | Svitolina, E. [elisvitolina], (2022). [The colors that the whole world knows today! The colors of courage The colors of invincibility The colors of struggle The colors of independence I congratulate all Ukrainians on the National Flag Day 🇺🇦❤️ Кольори, які сьогодні знає весь світ! ...] [Instagram]. 23 August. [Viewed 30 January 2023]. Available from: https://www.instagram.com/p/Chl5AgCN27f/ |
| Chicago (17th ed.) (notes and bibliography) | Svitolina, Elina (@elisvitolina). "The colors that the whole world knows today! The colors of courage The colors of invincibility The colors of struggle The colors of independence I congratulate..." Instagram, August 23, 2022. https://www.instagram.com/p/Chl5AgCN27f/. |
| ISO 690:2021 | SVITOLINA, Elina [Instagram: @elisvitolina]. The colors that the whole world knows today! The colors of courage The colors of invincibility The colors of struggle ... Post. 2022-08-23. Available from: Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/p/Chl5AgCN27f/. [viewed 2023-01-30]. |
| Vancouver | Svitolina E. Instagram [Internet]. The colors that the whole world knows today! The colors of courage The colors of invincibility The colors of struggle [Post]; 2022 Aug 23 [cited 2023 Jan 30]. Available from: https://www.instagram.com/p/Chl5AgCN27f/. |
| MHRA (3rd ed.) (notes and bibliography) | Svitolina, Elina (@elisvitolina), ‘The colors that the whole world knows today! The colors of courage The colors of invincibility The colors of struggle [...]’, Instagram, 23 August 2022 |
As can be seen from the above comparison, different styles have different punctuation, require giving either the full name or the initials, have different date formats, and so on. So, even though they all might use similar elements to produce a bibliographic reference, the result is quite different in each particular case.
How to cite an Instagram video and Instagram Reels?
Another fact noticeable from the above example is that some styles mention the type of post either in brackets or otherwise. So, for example, a reference to the below Instagram video by Elina Svitolina would have the same structure in APA Style, yet the post type would be different. At the same time, MLA Style and Chicago Style ignore the type of post, and therefore the structure of the bibliographic reference would be just the same.
Image source: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn2PbCiD2Pn/
| Citation style | Bibliographic reference |
| APA (7th ed.) | Svitolina, E. [@elisvitolina]. (2023, January 25). 🇺🇦❤️ @u24.gov.ua #ukraine [Video]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/Chl5AgCN27f/ |
| MLA (9th ed.) | Svitolina, Elina [@elisvitolina]. "🇺🇦❤️ @u24.gov.ua #ukraine." Instagram, 25 Jan. 2023, www.instagram.com/p/Chl5AgCN27f. |
By providing the type of post in the citation styles that mention this element, we can distinguish between Instagram photos, videos, and carousels; in other citation styles, these differences will be neglected and the reader will have to visit the URL to reveal the type of post. The situation becomes more difficult with Instagram Stories and Instagram Highlights.
How to cite Instagram Stories and Instagram Highlights?
APA Style, one of the world’s most popular and most up-to-date citation styles, requires citing Instagram Highlights by adding the retrieval date and ignoring the date of publication, as the contents of the highlights can change over the course of time. Note the differences with the previous examples:
| Citation style | Bibliographic reference |
| APA (7th ed.) | Svitolina, E. [@elisvitolina]. (n.d.). ESFoundation [Highlight]. Instagram. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17845077475682067/ |
As for citing Instagram Stories, the situation is even more difficult, as stories disappear and do not have titles. In this case, MLA Style requires providing the URL of the story and putting a description of the image or video in place of its title. At the same time, APA Style states that such publications should be omitted from the reference list and should be credited only in the text of your paper. The same is also applicable to live videos from Instagram.
| Citation style | Bibliographic reference |
| MLA (9th ed.) | Svitolina, Elina [@elisvitolina]. Collage of Elina Svitolina’s photos made by @elifanjapan. Instagram, 31 Jan. 2023, www.instagram.com/stories/elisvitolina/3027355928756611786/. |
How to generate references to Instagram publications automatically?
By using the above templates (or the ones applied by your specific citation style), you can figure out how to cite an Instagram publication, even if the style does not provide any explicit recommendations. Nevertheless, it is much more reliable and simple to do this work automatically.
With the help of Grafiati, you can reference any type of Instagram publication (photos, videos, highlights, stories, etc.) in accordance with the requirements of any citation style. Use the widget on the top of this page or simply select the source type ‘Social media post’ on our homepage, enter the data of the publication you would like to cite, and we will generate a perfect Instagram reference for you.
P.S.
Elina Svitolina, whose Instagram account we used for providing you with examples of references, is an ambassador of UNITED24, the initiative of the President of Ukraine launched after the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation on February 24, 2022, to collect donations for the Ukrainian army and for humanitarian projects. Being Elina Svitolina’s fellow compatriots and a Ukrainian service, we ask you to support our country via UNITED24: https://u24.gov.ua/. Even the smallest donation helps our country resist.