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GS 721K: Oral Communication Skills: Citing Images

Research guide for Edie Allen's DKU course, fall 2016: Using images in presentations

Citing Images

Regardless of whether your image is under copyright or not, it is ethical to provide basic information on your image. Copyrighted images will state who and what to acknowledge;  non-copyright protected images still should give the artist, standard title (if one), and location:

  • For Example: Michelangelo.  Creation of Adam.  Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum.

Citing Images in MLA Format

For Works Cited page:

Creator's name (if known).  Title/caption of image.  Medium.  Name of website providing the image.  Publisher, date of content.  Medium (Web).  Date of access. <URL of web page>.

Example:

Dakota L. Common Snapping Turtles.  Digital image.  Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.  Wikipedia Foundation, 2011.  Web. 20 Feb. 2012.  <http://en.wikipedia.org/Common_Snapping_Turtle.jpg>.

Citing Images in APA Format in PPT

When setting up a PowerPoint presentation in APA Style, think of each individual slide as a separate page in a paper. The last slide in your PowerPoint presentation should provide a reference list, just as you would cite your references in a paper.

  • All sources used (text and image) should be included in the reference list at the end of the PowerPoint presentation.
  • If you have a large number of images, you could have one reference list for text sources (articles, books, etc.) and a separate reference list for image sources. Double-check with your professor to see if s/he has a preference."

Basic Format for an Electronic Image:

Author.  (Year image was created). Title of work [Type of work], Retrieved from URL (address of website)

If you can only find the screen name of the author (e.g. photographer on Flickr), it's fine to use this as the author's name.  If the name is written in lowercase, keep this style in your citation.

Format for Electronic Image with No Author:

Title of work [Type of work]. (Year image was created). Retrieved from URL (address of website)

Citing Images in APA Format in Your Paper

"When using images in APA Style, the images should be formatted as figures (see sections 5.20 to 5.25 of the APA manual). Most images won't have legends, but they should all have captions.

  • A legend explains symbols used in a figure. (It's placed within the figure.)
  • A caption is an explanation of the figure that is placed directly below the figure. It also provides the title of the figure. A caption should be brief but descriptive. After the description, provide additional information that may be needed to explain the image. If you did not create the image yourself, be sure to include a full reference for the creator of the image.

Here are two examples of images with captions. One is for an image with a copyright; the other is for an image with a Creative Commons license:

Image with a Copyright Image with a Creative Commons license

This information is taken from Concordia University. (n.d.). Library FAQs.  Retrieved from  http://libraryfaqs.cu-portland.edu/faq/103029