If the image is for use only in an assignment or a PowerPoint presentation, follow the advice in this section.
In text citations
Please Note: This information has been updated for clarity in September 2021
For assignments and presentations that will never be made publicly available you can just use a normal in-text citation in the note section under the image/figure (see the instructions for what to do for a document that is being made publicly available on our page for Theses and Publications). If you are providing a description as part of your note, you can include the citation as (author, date), or if there is no descriptive information you can just state the source of the image is the author, (date).
For example:
Note. Original painting hanging in the WAMA Gallery (Smith, 2017).
Note. Sourced from Smith (2017).
N.B.
We have previously also suggested Note. Source: (Smith, 2017) for brevity, but many people found this confusing, and the point of the note is to provide context for the in-text citation, so the exact wording is not important as long as it is clear. This is still acceptable if you have already used this pattern.
Reference list
Reference the source where the image was obtained from. If an image was viewed in a gallery or online then cite the image directly as a stand alone work. For images included in other sources reference the book, website or journal article that the image came from.
If the author is the same as the name of the website, omit the name of the website.
Remember to follow the referencing format of the resource you are using (e.g. book, journal article etc.) or include as much information about the image as possible:
References for image that come with the software you are using (e.g. PowerPoint, Canva) are not strictly necessary, but acknowledging the source is important to help your lecturers understand what images are and are not your own.
As such, we recommend mentioning that the image you have used was "supplied" by the software. For example, in your Note under the image, you might include:
Note. Image supplied by Microsoft PowerPoint 365
Include the name of the software developer, the software used and the version if possible. If this information is not available, use what you have:
Note. Image supplied by Canva
This would be treated as equivalent to personal communication, and not included in your reference list.
Please note, this is for images that exist as separate entities on the Internet, such as an image in Wikimedia Commons, Flickr, Pixabay, etc.
If the image is included as part of a webpage with other content, cite the webpage as per the example in the box below this one.
Put the in-text citation in the note under the image/figure.
| Format |
Author, A. A. or Creator, A. A. (Date). Title of image [Online image]. Publisher. http://www.xxxxx |
| Examples |
Standalone online image (see note above) Raphael. (2011). Portrait of a woman [Online image]. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raffaello_Sanzio_-_Portrait_of_a_Woman_-_WGA18948.jpg Infographic Chundur, A. (2018). The Mona Lisa: Why do her eyes follow you? [Infographic]. The Leaf. https://shsleaf.org/35480/media/infographics/the-mona-lisa-why-do-her-eyes-follow-you/ Clipart Hamid, E. (n.d.). Mon-alien-alisa [Clipart]. Vecteezy. https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/7357535-alien-monalisa-illustration |
| In text |
Figure 1 Portrait of a woman by Raphael, 1505-1506.
Note. Sourced from Raphael (2011).
Figure 2 Infographic: The Mona Lisa: Why do her eyes follow you?
Note. Sourced from Chundur (2018) Figure 3 Stylized Mona Lisa.
Note. Sourced from Hamid (n.d.) |
| Format |
Author, A. A. (Date). Title of entry. Title of Journal, volume number(issue number), page numbers of the whole article. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/xxxx |
| Examples |
Rousset, L., Bernardeschi, C. & Halioua, B. (2019, May). Did Mona Lisa suffer from postpartum thyroiditis? The Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, 33(5). e225-e226. https://doi.org/10.1111/jdv.15412 |
| In text |
Figure 2 Close up of Mona Lisa (left eye) by Leonardo da Vinci.
Note. Sourced from Rousset et al. (2019, p. e225). |
| Format |
Author, A. A. (Date). Title book. Publisher. DOI or http://www.xxxxx (if applicable) |
| Examples |
Kempt, M. (2012). Christ to Coke: How image becomes icon. Oxford University Press. |
| In text |
Figure 3 Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci.
Note. Sourced from Kempt (2012, p. 144). |
| Format |
Author A. A. or Creator, A. A. (Date). Title of work [Clipart]. Publisher. http://www.xxxxx |
| Examples |
Wikimedia Foundation. (2009). Stylized Mona Lisa [Clipart]. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stylized_Mona_Lisa.svg |
| In text |
Figure 4 Stylized Mona Lisa.
Note. Sourced from Wikimedia Foundation (2010). |
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