how to cite a picture from a research paper

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Locating and Using Images for Presentations and Coursework

• Free & Open Source Images
• How to Cite Images
• Alt Text Image Descriptions

Copyright Resources

• Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States from Cornell University Library
• Copyright Overview from Purdue University
• U.S. Copyright Office
• Fair Use Evaluator
• Visual Resources Association's Statement of Fair Use of Images for Teaching, Research, and Study
• Creative Commons Licenses

Attribution

Again, the majority of images you find are under copyright and cannot be used without permission from the creator. There are exceptions with Fair Use, but this Libguide is intended to help you locate images you can use with attribution (and in some case, the images are free to use without attribution when stated, such as with stock images from pixabay). ***Please read about public domain . These images aren't under copyright, but it's still good practice to include attribution if the information is available. Attribution : the act of attributing something, especially the ascribing of a work (as of literature or art) to a particular author or artist. When you have given proper attribution, it means you have given the information necessary for people to know who the creator of the work is.

Citation General Guidelines

Include as much of the information below when citing images in a paper and formal presentations. Apply the appropriate citation style (see below for APA, MLA examples).

• Image creator's name (artist, photographer, etc.)
• Title of the image
• Date the image (or work represented by the image) was created
• Date the image was posted online
• Date of access (the date you accessed the online image)
• Institution (gallery, museum) where the image is located/owned (if applicable)
• Website and/or Database name

Citing Images in MLA, APA, Chicago, and IEEE

• Directions for citing in MLA, APA, and Chicago MLA: Citing images in-text, incorporating images into the text of your paper, works cited APA 6th ed.: Citing images in-text and reference list Chicago 17th ed.: Citing images footnotes and endnotes and bibliography from Simon Fraser University
• How to Cite Images Using IEEE from the SAIT Reg Erhardt Library
• Image, Photograph, or Related Artwork (IEEE) from the Rochester Institute of Technology Library

Citing Images in Your PPT

Currently, citing images in PPT is a bit of the Wild West. If details aren't provided by an instructor, there are a number of ways to cite. What's most important is that if the image is not a free stock image, you give credit to the author for the work. Here are some options:

1. Some sites, such as Creative Commons and Wikimedia, include the citation information with the image. Use that citation when available. Copy the citation and add under the image. For example, an image of a lake from Creative Commons has this citation next to it:  "lake"  by  barnyz  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 .

2. Include a marker, such as Image 1. or Figure 1., and in the reference section, include full citation information with the corresponding number

3. Include a complete citation (whatever the required format, such as APA) below the image

4. Below the image, include the link to the online image location

5. Hyperlink the title of the image with the online image location

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Generate accurate MLA citations for free

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• How to cite an image in MLA

How to Cite an Image in MLA | Format & Examples

Published on November 20, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on March 5, 2024.

The format in which you cite an image in MLA style depends on where you viewed the image. Images are often found by searching online; in this case, you’ll cite the website where the image is hosted, in the following format.

Note that if you find an image using a search engine like Google, you should cite and link to the site hosting the image, not the search engine.

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Table of contents

Including images as figures, citing images from museums and galleries, citing images from books, citing images from journal articles, frequently asked questions about mla citations.

If you include an image directly in your paper, it should be labeled “Fig.” (short for “Figure”), given a number, and presented in the MLA figure format .

Directly below the image, place a centered caption starting with the figure label and number (e.g. “Fig. 2”), then a period. For the rest of the caption, you have two options:

• Give full information about the source in the same format as you would in the Works Cited list, except that the author name is not inverted.
• Or give just basic information about the source, like the author, title, and year.

If you go for option 1, you can leave this source out of your Works Cited list, since you already give full information in the caption. With option 2, you do need a Works Cited entry giving full information. The example below takes the second approach.

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To cite an artwork from a museum or gallery, mention the name of the institution and the city it is located in (unless the city name is already part of the institution’s name).

If you viewed the artwork on the museum’s website, instead of in person, you should include the website name (usually the same as the name of the museum) and the URL.

When you refer to an image you encountered in a book, it’s often sufficient to just cite the book as a whole. Include a figure and/or a page number to identify the image you’re referring to.

But if the image is by someone other than the book’s main author , provide details of the image (i.e. author, title or description , year) followed by details of the book in the usual format.

If the Works Cited entry specifies a single page on which the image appears, you don’t need to add a page number in the in-text citation.

A similar format is used to cite an image reproduced in a PowerPoint .

Images from journal articles can also often just be referred to in the text, citing the whole article with a figure and/or page number specifying the image’s location. This approach makes sense when the image was created by the article’s author(s).

Where the image is not by the author(s) of the article, it’s better to list details of the image followed by the usual details for a journal article .

Whenever you refer to an image created by someone else in your text, you should include a citation leading the reader to the image you’re discussing.

If you include the image directly in your text as a figure , the details of the source appear in the figure’s caption. If you don’t, just include an MLA in-text citation wherever you mention the image, and an entry in the Works Cited list giving full details.

When a source has no title , this part of your MLA reference is replaced with a description of the source, in plain text (no italics or quotation marks, sentence-case capitalization).

If a source has no author, start the MLA Works Cited entry with the source title . Use a shortened version of the title in your MLA in-text citation .

If a source has no page numbers, you can use an alternative locator (e.g. a chapter number, or a timestamp for a video or audio source) to identify the relevant passage in your in-text citation. If the source has no numbered divisions, cite only the author’s name (or the title).

If you already named the author or title in your sentence, and there is no locator available, you don’t need a parenthetical citation:

• Rajaram  argues that representations of migration are shaped by “cultural, political, and ideological interests.”
• The homepage of The Correspondent describes it as “a movement for radically different news.”

If a source has two authors, name both authors in your MLA in-text citation and Works Cited entry. If there are three or more authors, name only the first author, followed by et al.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2024, March 05). How to Cite an Image in MLA | Format & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved August 26, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/mla/image-citation/

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How to Cite Images, Tables and Diagrams

The pages outlines examples of how to cite images, tables and diagrams using the Harvard Referencing method .

An image found online

In-text citations

Mention the image in the text and cite the author and date:

The cartoon by Frith (1968) describes ...

If the image has no named author, cite the full name and date of the image:

The map shows the Parish of Maroota during the 1840s (Map of the Parish of Maroota, County of Cumberland, District of Windsor 1840-1849)

List of References

Include information in the following order:

• author (if available)
• year produced (if available)
• title of image (or a description)
• Format and any details (if applicable)
• name and place of the sponsor of the source
• accessed day month year (the date you viewed/ downloaded the image)
• URL or Internet address (between pointed brackets).

Frith J 1968, From the rich man’s table, political cartoon by John Frith, Old Parliament House, Canberra, accessed 11 May 2007, <http: // www . oph.gov.au/frith/theherald-01.html>.

If there is no named author, put the image title first, followed by the date (if available):

Khafre pyramid from Khufu’s quarry 2007, digital photograph, Ancient Egypt Research Associates, accessed 2 August 2007, <http: // www . aeraweb.org/khufu_quarry.asp>.

Map of the Parish of Maroota, County of Cumberland, District of Windsor 1840-1849, digital image of cartographic material, National Library of Australia, accessed 13 April 2007, <http: // nla . gov.au/nla.map-f829>.  

Online images/diagrams used as figures

Figures include diagrams, graphs, sketches, photographs and maps. If you are writing a report or an assignment where you include a visual as a figure, unless you have created it yourself, you must include a reference to the original source.

Figures should be numbered and labelled with captions. Captions should be simple and descriptive and be followed by an in-text citation. Figure captions should be directly under the image.

Cite the author and year in the figure caption:

Figure 1: Bloom's Cognitive Domain (Benitez 2012)

If you refer to the Figure in the text, also include a citation:

As can be seen from Figure 1 (Benitez 2012)

Provide full citation information:

Benitez J 2012, Blooms Cognitve Domain, digital image, ALIEM, accessed 2 August 2015, <https: // www . aliem.com/blooms-digital-taxonomy/>.   

Online data in a table caption

In-text citation

If you reproduce or adapt table data found online you must include a citation. All tables should be numbered and table captions should be above the table.

  Table 2: Agricultural water use, by state 2004-05 (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006)

If you refer to the table in text, include a citation:

As indicated in Table 2, a total of 11 146 502 ML was used (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006)

Include the name of the web page where the table data is found.

Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006, Water Use on Australian Farms , 2004-05, Cat. no. 4618.0, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra, accessed 4 July 2007, <https: // www . abs.gov.au>.

FAQ and troubleshooting

Harvard referencing

• How to cite different sources
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APA Citation Guide (7th edition) : Images, Charts, Graphs, Maps & Tables

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On This Page

Image reproduced from a magazine or journal, image reproduced from a website.

Reproducing Images, Charts, Tables & Graphs

Reproducing happens when you copy or recreate an image, table, graph or chart that is not your original creation. If you reproduce one of these works in your assignment, you must create a note underneath the image, chart, table or graph to show where you found it. You do not include this information in a Reference list.

Citing Information From an Image, Chart, Table or Graph

If you refer to information from an image, chart, table or graph, but do not reproduce it in your paper, create a citation both in-text and on your Reference list.

If the information is part of another format, for example a book, magazine article, encyclopedia, etc., cite the work it came from. For example if information came from a table in an article in National Geographic magazine, you would cite the entire article.

If you are only making a passing reference to a well known image, you would not have to cite it, e.g. describing someone as having a Mona Lisa smile.

Figure Numbers

Each image you reproduce should be assigned a figure number, starting with number 1 for the first image used in the assignment.

Images may not have a set title. If this is the case give a description of the image where you would normally put the title.

Copyright Information

When reproducing images, include copyright information in the citation if it is given, including the year and the copyright holder. Copyright information on a website may often be found at the bottom of the home page.

Note: Applies to Graphs, Charts, Drawings, Maps, Tables and Photographs

Figure X . Description of the image or title of the image. From "Title of Article," by Article Author's First Initial. Second Initial. Last Name, year, day, (for a magazine) or year (for a journal), Title of Magazine or Journal, volume number, page(s). Copyright year by name of copyright holder.

Note : Information about the image is placed directly below the image in your assignment. If the image has been changed, use "Adapted from" instead of "From" before the source information.

Figure 1 . Man exercising. Adapted from "Yoga: Stretching Out," by A. N. Green, and L. O. Brown, 2006, May 8, Sports Digest, 15 , p. 22. Copyright 2006 by Sports Digest Inc.

Note: Applies to Graphs, Charts, Drawings, Tables and Photographs

Figure x.  Description of the image or image title if given. Adapted from "Title of web page," by Author/Creator's First Initial. Second Initial. Last Name if given, publication date if given, Title of Website . Retrieved Month, day, year that you last viewed the website, from url. Copyright date by Name of Copyright Holder.

Note : Information about the image is placed directly below the image in your assignment. If the image has not been changed but simply reproduced use "From" instead of "Adapted from" before the source information.

Figure 2 . Table of symbols. Adapted from Case One Study Results  by G. A. Black, 2006, Strong Online. https://www.strongonline/ casestudies/one.html. Copyright 2010 by G.L. Strong Ltd.

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Referencing style - APA 7th: Images, tables and figures

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APA examples: Images, tables and figures

All images, figures and tables referred to in the text or reproduced in an essay, assignment or presentation, must be cited and included in your reference list. 

See this guides images, figures and tables tab to view how the attribution of these examples below are treated within the text. 

See  APA Style examples, Clip Art Image and  Artwork References  for general notes and more examples. 

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APA Citation Style, 7th edition: Figures/Images

• General Style Guidelines
• One Author or Editor
• Two Authors or Editors
• Three to Five Authors or Editors
• Article or Chapter in an Edited Book
• Article in a Reference Book
• Edition other than the First
• Translation
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• Magazine Article
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• Entry in a Reference Work
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Helpful Tip!

If you are unable to find the author/artist then use the title in your signal phrase or the first word or two of the title in the parentheses.

If there is no date available then use the abbreviation "n.d." (for "no date").

When possible, include the year, month, and date in references. If the month and date are not available, you may use the year of publication.

Situations this Section Covers

There are are many different types of figures, however, APA uses certain basic principles for all figure types.

Types of figures:

• photographs/images

This section will cover the following examples:

• Image from an Electronic Source

For more examples and information, consult the following publications:

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association  (7th ed.)

Call Number:  BF76.7 .P83 2020

Locations:  Main Reference Collection 1st Floor (1 copy); Book Stacks (5 copies)

About Citing Works of Art

Online Map: Title of work [Map]. (Date or date of latest update {Year, Month Day }). Site name (if needed). URL

Online Image/Web site; Artist's last name, artist’s initials. (Year). Title of work [Online image]. Site name (if needed). URL

For each type of source in this guide, both the general form and an example   will be provided.

The following format will be used:

In-Text Citation (Paraphrase) - entry that appears in the body of your paper when you express the ideas of a researcher or author using your own words.  For more tips on paraphrasing check out The OWL at Purdue .

In-Text Citation (Quotation) - entry that appears in the body of your paper after a direct quote.

References - entry that appears at the end of your paper.

Information on citing and several of the examples were drawn from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.).

Subject Guide

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Works-Cited-List Entries

How to cite an image.

To create a basic works-cited-list entry for an image, list the creator of the image, the title of the image, the date of composition, and the location of the image, which would be a physical location if you viewed the image in person. If you viewed the image online, provide the name of the website containing the image and the URL. If you viewed the image in a print work, provide the publication information for the print work, including a page number. Below are sample entries for images along with links to posts containing many other examples.

A Photograph Viewed in Person

Cameron, Julia Margaret. Alfred, Lord Tennyson . 1866, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

A Painting Viewed Online

Bearden, Romare. The Train . 1975. MOMA , www.moma.org/collection/works/65232?locale=en.

An Untitled Image from a Print Magazine

Karasik, Paul. Cartoon. The New Yorker , 14 Apr. 2008, p. 49.

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Citing tables, figures & images: APA (7th ed.) citation guide

On this page, introduction, general guidelines, examples for citing figures & images, examples for citing tables.

This guide is based on the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed. It provides selected citation examples for common types of sources. For more detailed information consult directly a  print copy  of the style manual.

Check out APA's Guide to what's new for APA 7 .

Keep track of your document references/citations and format your reference lists easily with Citation management software .

Tables and figures (includes images) follow similar set up and formatting. The guidelines below focus on common examples used by students for academic papers . For details on creating tables or figures for submission to journals or graduate theses, see APA's Tables and figures or consult the guide directly (Section 7, pp. 195–250).

Wondering if you can use that image you found online? Refer to SFU's Copyright and your coursework or the FAQ What is fair dealing? for guidelines on use.

• All figures and tables must be mentioned in the text (a "callout") by their number. Do not refer to the table/figure using either "the table above" or "the figure below."
• Assign table/figure # in the order as it appears, numbered consecutively, in your paper - not the figure # assigned to it in its original resource.
• A note is added when further description, for example, definitions or copyright attribution, is necessary to explain the figure or table. Most student papers will require a general note for copyright attribution and acknowledgement whether it is reprinted or adapted from another source. Consult the guide directly for detailed instructions on formatting notes (Section 7.14, pp. 203–205).
• For copyright attribution templates , consult Table 12.1 on page 390 of the guide (Section 12.18, pp. 389-390).
• If permission is required for reprinting or adapting, at the end of the citation place: Reprinted with permission or  Adapted with permission followed by a period.
• All the sources must have a full bibliographic entry in your Reference List .
• Review your figure/table against the appropriate checklist found only in the guide (Sections 7.20, Table, p. 206 and 7.35, Figure, p. 232).

Order of components

Above the figure/table.

• Write " Figure " or " Table " in bold font, flush left, followed by the number, for example, Figure 1 .
• Write the figure/table title using italic case below the figure/table number,
• Double-space the figure/table number and title,
• Embed image.

Below the figure/table

• On a new line below the figure/table, flush left, place Note. Provide further details/explanation about the information in the figure/table only if necessary. State if material is reprinted or adapted —use " From " if reprinted or " Adapted from " if adapted. Followed directly by the copyright attribution —this is basically the same information as found in the reference list entry but in a different order.
• Separate figure/table from the text with one blank double-spaced line.

Placement in paper

• embed in the text after it is first mentioned or,
• place on a separate page after the reference list (an appendix).
• When embedding all figures and tables are aligned with the left margin .
• All examples in this guide show embedded figures and tables.

Refer directly to the guide for more detailed notes on placement (Section 7.6, p. 198).

Figures include: images found online, maps , graphs , charts, drawings, and photographs, or any other illustration or non-textual depiction in printed or electronic resources.

See APA's Figure set up for detailed information on the basic components of a figure, principles of creation, and placement in papers with formatting requirements, or consult the guide directly (Section 7.22–7.36, pp. 225–250).

Review APA's guide for Accessible use of colour in table/figures for best practices.

Exact copy from a single source (aka reprinted)

The following example is when it is reproduced in your paper exactly as it appears in another source : Same format or state, no reconfiguration or new analysis.

Compiled from variety of sources

The following example is for citing a figure that you have created by compiling information from a variety of sources. For example, if you combined data from a database, a website , and a government report to create a new chart. Each source requires a copyright attribution in a general note and full bibliographic entry in the Reference List.

See APA's Clip art or stock image references ,  Image with no attribution required ,  Image requires an attribution , or consult the guide directly (Section 12.14–12.18, pp. 384–390 ).

Citing but not reproducing the image? See Visual: Artwork in museum, PowerPoint slides, photographs, clipart/stock image, maps retrieved online in this guide for examples or consult the guide directly (Section 10.14, pp. 346–347).

Image with attribution

Reference list examples

Beletsky, Y. (2013).  Three planets dance over La Silla [Photograph]. European Southern Observatory. https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1322a/

Euromonitor International. (2020). [Statistical data on market sizes of fresh food]. Passport . Retrieved January 21, 2021, from https://go.euromonitor.com/passport.html

FranceAgriMer. (2020, September). Consommation des produits carnes en 2019 . https://www.franceagrimer.fr/content/download/64994/document/STA-VIA-Consommation%20des%20produits%20carn%C3%A9s%20en%202019.pdf

Natural Resources Institute Finland. (2020). Consumption of food commodities per capita by year and commodity [Statistics database]. http://statdb.luke.fi/PXWeb/sq/d1b368d7-9c07-4efd-b727-13e57db90ee6

Okemasim–Sicotte, D. R., Gingell, S., & Bouvier, R. (2018). Iskwewuk E–wichiwitochik. In K. Anderson, M. Campbell, & C. Belcourt (Eds.), Keetsahnak /Our missing and murdered Indigenous sisters (pp. 243–269). University of Alberta Press.

Irish, J. (2019).  Sequoia National Park.  [Photograph]. National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/destinations/north-america/united-states/61-national-parks-photos/#/giant-tree-trail-sequoia-national-park.jpg

Drewes, W. (n.d.).  Frog and insects (no.200) . [Painting]. The Smithsonian Institution. https://www.si.edu/object/saam_1968.9.50

• See the General Notes in this guide for help with creating citations with missing information , e.g. using a description if no title—see Euromonitor International in the reference list above.
• For figures compiled from multiple sources, identify individual source information using the following format in the "From" statement: Note . The data for Country Name are from [copyright attribution according to source]. End each copyright attribution with a period.
• Use author-date in-text citation when the data is transformed (reconfigured or reanalyzed) to produce different numbers. (Section 12.15 Data subsection, p. 385).
• If work is published or read online, use live links—check with your instructor for their preference.

Tables are characterized by a row-column structure. See APA's Table set up for detailed information on the basic components of a table, principles of creation, and placement in papers with formatting requirements, or consult the guide directly (Section 7.8–7.21, pp. 199–224).

Exact copy from a single source (aka reprint)

If you have compiled data from a variety of different sources and put it together to form your own table, you still need to cite where you got the information from. Each source requires a copyright attribution in a general note and full bibliographic entry in the Reference List.

British Columbia Ministry of Health. (2019). Baby’s most chosen names in British Columbia, 2019 . https://connect.health.gov.bc.ca/babynames?year=2019

eHealth Saskatchewan. (2019). Most popular baby names for 2019 . https://www.ehealthsask.ca/health-data/babynames/Pages/mostpopular2019.aspx

Government of Alberta. (2019). Alberta’s top baby names . https://www.alberta.ca/top-baby-names.aspx

Manitoba Vital Statistics Agency . (2020). Annual report 2019-2020 . https://vitalstats.gov.mb.ca/pdf/2020_vs_annual_report_en.pdf

Williams, C. L. (1992). The glass escalator: Hidden advantages for men in the "female" professions. Social Problems , 39 (3), 253-267. https://doi.org/10.2307/3096961

• For tables compiled from multiple sources, in the "From" statement, identify each individual source information. e.g.: Note . The data for Country Name are from [copyright attribution according to source]. End each copyright attribution with a period.
• ​If you have multiple kinds of data (population figures, consumer information, etc...) in one table you would describe each set of data. e.g.: Note.  Population figures for XYZ are from [ copyright attribution according to source ] and for ABC are from [ copyright attribution according to source ]. Data for pet ownership for XYZ are from [ copyright attribution according to source ] and for ABC are from [ copyright attribution according to source ]. End each copyright attribution with a period.
• Use an author-date in-text citation when the data is transformed (reconfigured or reanalyzed) to produce different numbers. (Section 12.15 Data subsection, p. 385).
• All the sources must have a full bibliographic entry in your Reference List even though the information in the Note  field uses a lot of the same information.
• If work is published or read online, APA recommends using live links— check with your instructor for their preference.

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How to cite images and graphs in your research paper

Table of Contents

If you are confused about whether you should include pictures, images, charts, and other non-textual elements in your research paper or not, I would suggest you must insert such elements in your research paper. Including non-textual elements like images and charts in the research paper helps extract a higher acceptance of your proposed theories.

An image or chart will make your research paper more attractive, interesting, explanatory, and understandable for the audience. In addition, when you cite an image or chart, it helps you describe your research and its parts with far more precision than simple, long paragraphs.

There are plenty of reasons why you should cite images in your research paper. However, most scholars and academicians avoid it altogether, losing the opportunity to make their research papers more interesting and garner higher readership.

Additionally, it has been observed that there are many misconceptions around the use or citation of images in research papers. For example, it is widely believed and practiced that using pictures or any graphics in the research papers will render it unprofessional or non-academic. However, in reality, no such legit rules or regulations prohibit citing images or any graphic elements in the research papers.

You will find it much easier once you know the appropriate way to cite images or non-textual elements in your research paper. But, it’s important to keep in mind some rules and regulations for using different non-textual elements in your research paper. You can easily upgrade your academic/ research writing skills by leveraging various guides in our repository.

In this guide, you will find clear explanations and guidelines that will teach you how to identify appropriate images and other non-textual elements and cite them in your research paper. So, cut the clutter; let’s start.

Importance of citing images in a research paper

Although it’s not mandatory to cite images in a research paper, however, if you choose to include them, it will help showcase your deep understanding of the research topic. It can even represent the clarity you carry for your research topic and help the audience navigate your paper easily.

There are several reasons why you must cite images in your research paper like:

(i) A better explanation for the various phenomenon

While writing your research paper, certain topics will be comparatively more complex than others. In such a scenario where you find out that words are not providing the necessary explanation, you can always switch to illustrating the process using images. For example, you can write paragraphs describing climate change and its associated factors and/or cite a single illustration to describe the complete process with its embedded factors.

(ii) To simplify examples

To create an impeccable research paper, you need to include evidence and examples supporting your argument for the research topic. Rather than always explaining the supporting evidence and examples through words, it will be better to depict them through images. For example, to demonstrate climate change's effects on a region, you can always showcase and cite the “before and after” images.

(iii) Easy Classification

If your research topic requires segregation into various sub-topics and further, you can easily group and classify them in the form of a classification tree or a chart. Providing such massive information in the format of a classification tree will save you a lot of words and present the information in a more straightforward and understandable form to your audience.

(iv) Acquire greater attention from the audience

Including images in your research paper, theses, and dissertations will help you garner the audience's greater attention. If you add or cite images in the paper, it will provide a better understanding and clarification of the topics covered in your research. Additionally, it will make your research paper visually attractive.

Types of Images that you can use or cite in your research paper

Using and citing images in a research paper as already explained can make your research paper more understanding and structured in appearance. For this, you can use photos, drawings, charts, graphs, infographics, etc. However, there are no mandatory regulations to use or cite images in a research paper, but there are some recommendations as per the journal style.

Before including any images in your research paper, you need to ensure that it fits the research topic and syncs with your writing style. As already mentioned, there are no strict regulations around the usage of images. However, you should make sure that it satisfies certain parameters like:

• Try using HD quality images for better picture clarity in both print and electronic formats
• It should not be copyrighted, and if it is, you must obtain the license to use it. In short cite the image properly by providing necessary credits to its owner
• The image should satisfy the context of the research topic

You can cite images in your research paper either at the end, in between the topics, or in a separate section for all the non-textual elements used in the paper. You can choose to insert images in between texts, but you need to provide the in-text citations for every image that has been used.

Additionally, you need to attach the name, description and image number so that your research paper stays structured. Moreover, you must cite or add the copyright details of the image if you borrow images from other platforms to avoid any copyright infringement.

Graphs and Charts

You can earn an advantage by providing better and simple explanations through graphs and charts rather than wordy descriptions. There are several reasons why you must cite or include graphs and charts in your research paper:

• To draw a comparison between two events, phenomena, or any two random parameters
• Illustration of statistics through charts and graphs are most significant in drawing audience attention towards your research topic
• Classification tree or pie charts goes best to show off the degree of influence of a specific event, or phenomenon in your research paper

With the usage of graphs and charts, you can answer several questions of your readers without them even questioning. With charts and graphs, you can provide an immense amount of information in a brief yet attractive manner to your readers, as these elements keep them interested in your research topic.

Providing these non-textual elements in your research paper increases its readability. Moreover, the graphs and charts will drive the reader’s attention compared to text-heavy paragraphs.

You can easily use the graphs or charts of some previously done research in your chosen domain, provided that you cite them appropriately, or else you can create your graphs through different tools like Canva, Excel, or MS PowerPoint. Additionally, you must provide supporting statements for the graphs and charts so that readers can understand the meaning of these illustrations easily.

Similarly, like pictures or images, you can choose one of the three possible methods of placement in your research paper, i.e., either after the text or on a different page right after the corresponding paragraph or inside the paragraph itself.

How to Cite Images and Graphs in a Research Paper?

Once you have decided the type of images you will be using in your paper, understand the rules of various journals for the fair usage of these elements. Using pictures or graphs as per these rules will help your reader navigate and understand your research paper easily. If you borrow or cite previously used pictures or images, you need to follow the correct procedure for that citation.

Usage or citation of pictures or graphs is not prohibited in any academic writing style, and it just differs from each other due to their respective formats.

Cite an Image/Graphs in APA (American Psychological Association) style

Most of the scientific works, society, and media-based research topics are presented in the APA style. It is usually followed by museums, exhibitions, galleries, libraries, etc. If you create your research paper in APA style and cite already used images or graphics, you need to provide complete information about the source.

In APA style, the list of the information that you must provide while citing an element is as follows:

• Owner of the image (artist, designer, photographer, etc.)
• Complete Date of the Image: Follow the simple DD/MM/YYYY to provide the details about the date of the image. If you have chosen a certain historical image, you can choose to provide the year only, as the exact date or month may be unknown
• Country or City where the Image was first published
• A Name or Title of the Image (Optional: Means If it is not available, you can skip it)
• Publisher Name: Organization, association, or the person to whom the image was first submitted

If you want to cite some images from the internet, try providing its source link rather than the name or webpage.

Format/Example of Image Citation:

Johanson, M. (Photographer). (2017, September, Vienna, Austria. Rescued bird. National gallery.

Cite an Image/Graphs in MLA (Modern Language Association) style

MLA style is again one of the most preferred styles worldwide for research paper publication. You can easily use or cite images in this style provided no rights of the image owner get violated. Additionally, the format or the information required for citation or usage is very brief yet precise.

In the MLA style, the following are the details that a used image or graph must carry:

• Name of the creator of the owner
• Title, Name, or the Description of the Image
• Website Or the Source were first published
• Contributors Name (if any)
• Version or Serial Number (if any)
• Publisher’s Details; at least Name must be provided
• Full Date (DD:MM: YYYY) of the first published Image
• Link to the original image

Auteur, Henry. “Abandoned gardens, Potawatomi, Ontario.” Historical Museum, Reproduction no. QW-YUJ78-1503141, 1989, www.flickr.com/pictures/item/609168336/

Final Words

It is easy to cite images in your research paper, and you should add different forms of non-textual elements in the paper. There are different rules for using or citing images in research papers depending on writing styles to ensure that your paper doesn’t fall for copyright infringement or the owner's rights get violated.

No matter which writing style you choose to write your paper, make sure that you provide all the details in the appropriate format. Once you have all the details and understanding of the format of usage or citation, feel free to use as many images that make your research paper intriguing and interesting enough.

If you still have doubts about how to use or cite images, join our SciSpace (Formerly Typeset) Community and post your questions there. Our experts will address your queries at the earliest. Explore the community to know what's buzzing and be a part of hot discussion topics in the academic domain.

Learn more about SciSpace's dedicated research solutions by heading to our product page. Our suite of products can simplify your research workflows so that you can focus more on what you do best: advance science.

With a best-in-class solution, you can handle everything from literature search and discovery to profile management, research writing, and formatting.

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Using Images in Research and Presentations

• Finding Images
• Using Images

Why Do I Need to Cite Images?

Creative commons attribution.

Citing all your sources of information and creative work you use is part of academic integrity. You are giving credit where credit is due.

In academic work, images should be followed by and attribution or in text citation whether that be in a note or caption immediately following the image or at the bottom of a presentation slide. A full citation should be found in your Works Cited or Reference List, though you might separate them out into an Image Credit List, depending on the style of citation you are using.

The 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association expended their explanations and examples of how to cite multimedia sources including multimedia materials. Examples of reference are found in Chapter 10 of the Manual and the following sections focus on multimedia sources

• 10.12 Audiovisual works (films, streaming videos, television series, etc.)
• 10.13 Audio works (music, podcast, radio broadcast, etc.)
• 10.14 Visual works (fine art, clip art, infographics, photographs, maps, etc.)
• 10.15 Social media (including Instagram posts).

A related section of the Manual is Chapter 7 which deals with the presentation of tables and figures, so the Manual shows you how images should be incorporated into your work in addition to how they should be cited; see Sample Figure 7.3 for how to include an attribution in the figure note.

Here is an example of how the following photograph (found through Pixabay) should be cited using the APA style.

stokpic. (2015, February 10). Blonde Girl Taking Photo [Photograph]. Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/blonde-girl-taking-photo-629726/

Remember, the library has a copy of the Manual at the Reference Desk if you need to use it.

The 9th edition of the MLA Handbook Appendix 2 has several examples of works-cited-list entries and the examples of citing fine art and still images can be found on pages 331 - 333. The online  MLA Style Center  also has examples of image citations.

• Citations by Format | MLA Style Center Are you using any other types of information sources in your project? Find more examples of MLA citation styles here.

Here is an example of how the following photograph (found through Pixabay) should be cited using the MLA style.

stokpic. Blonde Girl Taking Photo. 10 February 2015.  Pixabay . pixabay.com/photos/blonde-girl-taking-photo-629726/

Remember, the library has a copy of the Handbook at the Reference Desk if you need to use it.

• Use & Remix - Creative Commons The "Use & remix" section of the Creative Commons website details how to properly attribute content licensed under a CC license. Attribution is a condition of all CC licenses. more info... less info... Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building a globally-accessible public commons of knowledge and culture. They provide Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools that give every person and organization in the world a free, simple, and standardized way to grant copyright permissions for creative and academic works; ensure proper attribution; and allow others to copy, distribute, and make use of those works.
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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / MLA Format / How to Cite a Picture or Image in MLA

How to Cite a Picture or Image in MLA

Photograph – An image produced by a camera.

Citing a photograph or image displayed in a museum or institution (viewed in-person)

The citations below  are based on information from the MLA Style Center .

View Screenshot | Cite your source

Citing a photograph or image from a museum or institution (viewed online)

Many museums have online collections of their work. The citations below  are based on information from the MLA Style Center .

Citing a digital image on a web page or online article

Digital Image – A picture that can be viewed electronically by a computer.

Here’s the standard structure for a digital image citation found on a website. It follows guidance found in the MLA Style Center .  

 View Screenshot | Cite your source

Image search: Do not cite the search engine (example: Google Images) where the image is found, but the website of the image the search engine indexes.

Citing a photograph from a book

Citing a photograph you took

The photo would be considered as part of a “personal collection.” The example below follows guidance found in the MLA Style Center .  

Citing a photograph from a database

  View Screenshot | Cite your source

MLA Handbook . 9th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021.

Updated April 26, 2021.

MLA Formatting Guide

MLA Formatting

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• View all MLA Examples

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To cite an image with no author in MLA style, you need to have basic information including the title or description, museum or website name, date, and URL if applicable. Templates and examples for in-text citations and works cited list entries for an image with no author (viewed online) are provided below:

In-text citation template and example:

For citations in prose and parenthetical citations, use the title of the image.

Citation in prose:

The photograph Robert Frank in Automobile ….

Parenthetical:

….( Robert Frank )

Works-cited-list entry template and example:

Viewed online:

Title of Photograph or Description. Date Published.  Name of Gallery/Museum or Website Name, URL.

Robert Frank in Automobile. 1958. National Gallery of Art, https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.89153.html.

To cite an image with no date in MLA style, you need to have basic information including the artist name, image title, and either the website where the image was viewed online or the museum or gallery name where it was viewed in person. If no date information is provided for an online image, omit the publication date details and instead provide the date you accessed it. Templates and examples for in-text citations and works cited list entries for an image with no date (viewed online and firsthand) are provided below:

For citations in prose, use the first name and surname of the artist on the first occurrence. For subsequent citations, use only the surname. In parenthetical citations, always use only the surname of the artist.

First mention: Janet Cameron ….

Subsequent occurrences: Cameron ….

….(Cameron).

Viewed firsthand :

Artist Surname, First Name. Title of the Image. Name of the Museum or Gallery, Physical Location (Major City or City, State).

Muybridge, Eadweard. Attitudes of Animals in Motion . Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

Viewed online :

Artist Surname, First Name. Title of the Image. Name of the Website , URL. Accessed Date.

Cameron, Janet. Who Was Cleopatra? Decoded Past , www.decodedpast.com/philosophy-2/ . Accessed 20 Sept. 2021.

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• AUT Library
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• Referencing styles and applications

APA 7th Referencing Style Guide

• Figures (graphs and images)
• Referencing & APA style
• In-text citation
• Elements of a reference
• Format & examples of a reference list
• Conferences
• Reports & grey literature

General guidelines

From a book, from an article, from a library database, from a website, citing your own work.

• Theses and dissertations
• Audio works
• Films, TV & video
• Visual works
• Generative artificial intelligence (AI)
• Computer software, games & apps
• Lecture notes & Intranet resources
• Legal resources
• Personal communications
• PowerPoint slides
• Social media
• Specific health examples
• Standards & patents
• Websites & webpages
• Footnotes and appendices
• Frequently asked questions

A figure may be a chart, a graph, a photograph, a drawing, or any other illustration or nontextual depiction. Any type of illustration or image other than a table is referred to as a figure.

Figure Components

• Number:  The figure number (e.g., Figure 1 ) appears above the figure in bold (no period finishing).
• Title: The figure title appears one double-spaced line below the figure number in Italic Title Case  (no period finishing).
• Image: The image portion of the figure is the chart, graph, photograph, drawing, or illustration itself.
• Legend: A figure legend, or key, if present, should be positioned within the borders of the figure and explain any symbols used in the figure image.
• Note: A note may appear below the figure to describe contents of the figure that cannot be understood from the figure title, image, and/or legend alone (e.g., definitions of abbreviations, copyright attribution). Not all figures include notes. Notes are flush left, non-italicised. If present they begin with Note. (italicised, period ending). The notes area will include reference information if not an original figure, and copyright information as required.

General rules

• In the text, refer to every figure by its number, no italics, but with a capital "F" for "Figure". For example, "As shown in Figure 1, ..." 
• There are two options for the placement of figures in a paper. The first option is to place all figures on separate pages after the reference list. The second option is to embed each figure within the text.
• If you reproduce or adapt a figure from another source (e.g., an image you found on the internet), you should include a copyright attribution in the figure note, indicating the origin of the reproduced or adapted material, in addition to a reference list entry for the work. Include a permission statement (Reprinted or Adapted with permission) only if you have sought and obtained permission to reproduce or adapt material in your figure. A permission statement is not required for material in the public domain or openly licensed material. For student course work, AUT assignments and internal assessments, a permission statement is also not needed, but copyright attribution is still required.
• Important note for postgraduate students and researchers: If you wish to reproduce or adapt figures that you did not create yourself in your thesis, dissertation, exegesis, or other published work, you must obtain permission from the copyright holder/s, unless the figure is in the public domain (copyright free), or licensed for use with a Creative Commons or other open license. Works under a  Creative Commons licence  should be cited accordingly. See Using works created by others for more information. 

Please check the APA style website for an illustration of the basic figure component & placement of figure in a text.

More information & examples from the   APA Style Manual , s. 7.22-7.36,    pp. 225–250

Figure reproduced in your text

Note format - for notes below the figure

In-text citation:

Reference list entry:

Referring to a figure in a book

If you refer to a figure included in a book but do not include it in your text, format the in-text citation and the reference list entry in the usual way, citing the page number where the figure appears.

Note format -  for notes below the figure

Referring to a figure in an article

If you refer to a figure in an article but do not include it in your text, format the in-text citation and the reference list entry in the usual way for an article, citing the page number where the figure appears.

Note format - for notes below the figure

Reference list:

Referring to a figure on a webpage

If you refer to a figure on a webpage and do not include it in your text, format the in-text citation and the reference list entry in the usual way for a webpage,

Not every reference to an artwork needs a reference list entry. For example, if you refer to a famous painting, as below, it would not need a reference.

Finding image details for your figure caption or reference

• clicking on or hovering your mouse over the image
• looking at the bottom of the image
• looking at the URL
• If there is no title, create a short descriptive one yourself and put it in square brackets e.g. [...]
• For more guidance, see Visual works

If it has been formally published reference your work as you would any other published work.

If the work is available on a website reference it as a webpage (see examples in the webpage section ).

Citing your own figures, graphs or images in an assignment:

• Include the title
• Add a note explaining the content. No copyright attribution is required.
• You can, if you wish, add a statement that it is your own work
• You do not need an in-text citation or add it to your reference list
• See example in APA manual p.247, Figure 7.17 Sample photograph

Great Barrier Island 

Note. Photo of Great Barrier Island taken from Orewa at sunrise. Own work.

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Research Guides

Gould library, how to cite your sources.

• Tools and Handbooks
• Chicago Manual of Style
• Citing Government Documents
• Citing Rare Books
• Citing Archival Material
• Image Credits and Captions

Elements of an Image Caption

Captioning creative commons media, find the original image, resources for learning more about image captions.

• Informal Attribution

The purposes of an image caption are to:

• Give credit to the creator
• Provide basic identification or description of the image
• Clarify the permissions or rights under which you are using the image

Due diligence

Before you decide to use the image, make sure you have done the following:

• Know who the creator is. Because other people have not captioned their images well does not give you license to do so as well. Dig to find who created the image.
• Dig to find the original. It is easy to discover images on social media, but usually those images were originally posted elsewhere. Do not settle for the most convenient location. Look for the most stable and authoritative original version. See the resources on this page for help.
• Determine whether you have the right to redistribute the image in this way. Remember that fair use does not extend to redistribution outside the classroom. If the image is copyrighted, ask for permission. If the image is license free, make sure. If the image is yours, say so. If the image is CC-licensed, you have less to worry about. 

Provide the following elements in this order:

• The phrase "Image source" or "Source"
• Author/Creator
• URL where accessed
• "Used with permission" - in the case of a copyrighted image where you have contacted the creator
• Text of the Creative Commons license - copy the language directly (ex. CC BY-SA, or CC BY 4.0 DEED Attribution 4.0 International, etc.)
• "Public domain" - when you have determined the image is not under copyright or licensed
• "Original photo" or "Author photo" - when you are the creator of the image
• **If the image is Copyrighted or Licensed, you can't reuse it on a public website or document without author permission.

The adorable face of a hedgehog. Image source: Mark Fletcher, "Hedgehog," 2009. Accessed via https://www.flickr.com/photos/fletchthemonkey/3807893972. CC BY-NC 2.0.

Remember...

The practice of image caption formatting changes depending on context. Different kinds of publications require more and less documentation. Different disciplines also vary. The elements listed above are suggestions based on the most common elements necessary to describe an image, make it possible to find again, and clarify why you get to share it. Take additional cues from good examples in the context where you are publishing. Finally, be responsible. Someone put work into the production of this image and they deserve credit. 

• Chicago Manual of Style: Caption formatting. 3.30: Placement of credit lines. How to format a caption that has content and a citation in it.
• Captioning Creative Commons Images and Media When you caption Creative Commons media (including images), you should include 4 major parts (TASL). You may need to modify the order or add more information based on the citation style you are using. Title : What is the name of the work? Author : Who allows you to use the work? Source : Where can people find the work? License : How can you use the work?

"Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by  Timothy Vollmer  is licensed under  CC BY 4.0

• TinEye Reverse Image Search Find all the other places online where this image has been posted. Great way to find the original source.
• Jeffrey Friedl's Image Metadata Viewer This tool shows you all the metadata hidden in an image file, which might help you determine date of creation as well as basic attributes.
• Google Images - Search by Image Click the camera icon in the search box and search by the image you have in hand (either by URL or by dragging in). Like TinEye, it finds other places online where the image has been posted.

Check the source's "Terms of Use," Image Credits," or "Image Permissions" section to make sure you know whether the image is under license or copyright or other terms of use.

• Adding Photo Credits to Talk Slides (blog post) A helpful overview of writing image captions for presentations with many good tips. By Colin Purrington, photographer and former professor at Swarthmore.
• Harder to Find Than Nemo: The Elusive Image Citation Standard (journal article) An article about the inconsistencies in the current standards for citing and captioning images. By Jennifer Yao Weinraub.
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Citation Styles

• Citing and referencing figures / images (APA 7th)
• How to cite Gen AI content in APA style
• Citing and Referencing in ASA 7th
• How to cite Gen AI content in Chicago Style
• Citing and referencing figures / images (IEEE)

In-text citation and references

• How to cite Gen AI content in IEEE Style
• How to cite Gen AI content in MLA Style
• Legal Citations
• ACS Citation Style

Citations of figures / images in the paper must be in numerical order. Place it below the figure / image.

Citations to figures in text always carry the abbreviation “Fig.” followed by the figure number.  The figure number must have a period after it. Then comes the caption followed by Adapted from [the number in the reference list in which you provide the details of the source]. The first word of the caption should be capitalized. Do not use A, An, or The at the beginning of a figure or table caption. 

Fig. 1.  Footwear collected from the shorelines of Midway Atoll. Adapted from [2]

a) In the reference list give the details of the source, the webpage from which the image is taken in IEEE citation style (IEEE Reference Guide 2018). 

[2]  NOAA Photo Library. “fis01484." Flickr.com. https://www.flickr.com/photos/noaaphotolib/27889266330/in/album-72157670783471385/ (accessed Oct. 3, 2021).

or b) Cite the image as Artwork in IEEE citation style.

[2] NOAA Photo Library, fis01484.  2013. Accessed: Aug. 22, 2023. [Photo].  Available: https://www.flickr.com/photos/noaaphotolib/27889266330/

Acknowledgement for the use of the photograph used in the example:

We acknowledge the use of the photograph fis01484 by Kristen Kelly, taken from https://www.flickr.com/photos/noaaphotolib/27889266330/in/album-72157670783471385/ under CC BY 2.0

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Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.

Can I copy an image from another paper (that I am citing)?

I am in the process of writing a paper on the results I have obtained recently. One of the steps where I have innovated is extracted from a paper published some years ago.

My idea for the paper was to compare the original method with my modifications and thus present the different results.

Is it generally accepted practice to simply copy the "results" image from the original paper (that I am extensively citing and discussing in mine)? Or should I somehow recreate it? (this last option is presenting some difficulties, as some implementation details* are not explicitely stated in the original paper and thus I cannot be 100% sure that my reproduction would be actually representative of what the authors originally did)

*: yes, we are speaking (also) about code

• publications

• There are no rules for scientific writing that prevent you from copying the image (in fact, as a reader I would appreciate it), but you need to work out the possible copyright issues (which can be difficult even if you consult a lawyer) or get permission (which often is also not easy). That's why it's not common. –  user9482 Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 7:59
• 1 Read from here as an example. –  Nikey Mike Commented May 13, 2016 at 11:47

You have two different questions: one in your title, regarding coping an image, and another regarding the results.

Copying a figure:

It depends on the license of the paper. If it is appropriately licensed (as with a Creative Commons Attribution license), you generally can, as long as you indicate it. If it is copyrighted, you are in the grey area of possible fair use. In these cases, the safest option is to contact the copyright holders (usually the publisher) and ask for permission.

Another option is to contact the authors and ask them for the raw data itself, so you can plot it yourself (so you keep a constant style across the paper), or ask them to regenerate it for you.

Using results:

The results are not copyrightable, so you can freely use them. If Smith et al, 2007 report an accuracy of 91%, and you get a 97%, you can freely put the numbers next to each other.

• maybe is not clear from my question, but the image in question contains the results (stated otherwise, it is a graphical representation of the results) –  Federico Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 7:58
• 2 There are many countries which don't have a "fair use" concept. I'm not sure if an international publisher would accept fair use. –  user9482 Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 8:03
• @Roland hence the grey area. –  Davidmh Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 9:32
• 1 @ScottSeidman it can be argued that that would be a small quote or a criticism, so falling within fair use. But IANAL, and the publisher will likely want a safer standard. –  Davidmh Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 14:54
• 1 @Diaa it will be somewhere pretty visible. But unless you see otherwise, you have to assume is copyrighted. You'd have to ask the journal you are going to publish. –  Davidmh Commented Aug 8, 2018 at 14:45

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Academic Referencing: How to Cite a Research Paper

Learning how to conduct accurate, discipline-specific academic research can feel daunting at first. But, with a solid understanding of the reasoning behind why we use academic citations coupled with knowledge of the basics, you’ll learn how to cite sources with accuracy and confidence.

When it comes to academic research, citing sources correctly is arguably as important as the research itself. "Your instructors are expecting your work to adhere to these professional standards," said Amanda Girard , research support manager of Shapiro Library at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU).

With Shapiro Library for the past three years, Girard manages the library’s research support services, which includes SNHU’s 24/7 library chat and email support. She holds an undergraduate degree in professional writing and a graduate degree in library and information science. She said that accurate citations show that you have done your research on a topic and are knowledgeable about current ideas from those actively working in the field.

In other words, when you cite sources according to the academic style of your discipline, you’re giving credit where credit is due.

Why Cite Sources?

Citing sources properly ensures you’re following high academic and professional standards for integrity and ethics.

“When you cite a source, you can ethically use others’ research. If you are not adequately citing the information you claim in your work, it would be considered plagiarism ,” said Shannon Geary '16 , peer tutor at SNHU.

Geary has an undergraduate degree in communication  from SNHU and has served on the academic support team for close to 2 years. Her job includes helping students learn how to conduct research  and write academically.

“In academic writing, it is crucial to state where you are receiving your information from,” she said. “Citing your sources ensures that you are following academic integrity standards.”

According to Geary and Girard, several key reasons for citing sources are:

• Access. Citing sources points readers to original sources. If anyone wants to read more on your topic, they can use your citations as a roadmap to access the original sources.
• Attribution. Crediting the original authors, researchers and experts  shows that you’re knowledgeable about current ideas from those actively working in the field and adhering to high ethical standards, said Girard.
• Clarity. “By citing your sources correctly, your reader can follow along with your research,” Girard said.
• Consistency. Adhering to a citation style provides a framework for presenting ideas within similar academic fields. “Consistent formatting makes accessing, understanding and evaluating an author's findings easier for others in related fields of study,” Geary said.
• Credibility. Proper citation not only builds a writer's authority but also ensures the reliability of the work, according to Geary.

Ultimately, citing sources is a formalized way for you to share ideas as part of a bigger conversation among others in your field. It’s a way to build off of and reference one another’s ideas, Girard said.

How Do You Cite an Academic Research Paper?

Any time you use an original quote or paraphrase someone else’s ideas, you need to cite that material, according to Geary.

“The only time we do not need to cite is when presenting an original thought or general knowledge,” she said.

While the specific format for citing sources can vary based on the style used, several key elements are always included, according to Girard. Those are:

• Title of source
• Type of source, such as a journal, book, website or periodical

By giving credit to the authors, researchers and experts you cite, you’re building credibility. You’re showing that your argument is built on solid research.

“Proper citation not only builds a writer's authority but also ensures the reliability of the work,” Geary said. “Properly formatted citations are a roadmap for instructors and other readers to verify the information we present in our work.”

Common Citation Styles in Academic Research

Certain disciplines adhere to specific citation standards because different disciplines prioritize certain information and research styles . The most common citation styles used in academic research, according to Geary, are:

• American Psychological Association, known as APA . This style is standard in the social sciences such as psychology, education and communication. “In these fields, research happens rapidly, which makes it exceptionally important to use current research,” Geary said.
• Modern Language Association, known as MLA . This style is typically used in literature and humanities because of the emphasis on literature analysis. “When citing in MLA, there is an emphasis on the author and page number, allowing the audience to locate the original text that is being analyzed easily,” Geary said.
• Chicago Manual of Style, known as Chicago . This style is typically used in history, business and sometimes humanities. “(Chicago) offers flexibility because of the use of footnotes, which can be seen as less distracting than an in-text citation,” Geary said.

The benefit of using the same format as other researchers within a discipline is that the framework of presenting ideas allows you to “speak the same language,” according to Girard.

APA Citation for College: A Brief Overview

Are you writing a paper that needs to use APA citation, but don’t know what that means? No worries. You’ve come to the right place.

How to Use MLA Formatting: A Brief Overview

Are you writing a paper for which you need to know how to use MLA formatting, but don’t know what that means? No worries. You’ve come to the right place.

How to Ensure Proper Citations

Keeping track of your research as you go is one of the best ways to ensure you’re citing appropriately and correctly based on the style that your academic discipline uses.

“Through careful citation, authors ensure their audience can distinguish between borrowed material and original thoughts, safeguarding their academic reputation and following academic honesty policies,” Geary said.

Some tips that she and Girard shared to ensure you’re citing sources correctly include:

• Keep track of sources as you work. Writers should keep track of their sources every time an idea is not theirs, according to Geary. “You don’t want to find the perfect research study and misplace its source information, meaning you’d have to omit it from your paper,” she said.
• Practice. Even experienced writers need to check their citations before submitting their work. “Citing requires us to pay close attention to detail, so always start your citation process early and go slow to ensure you don’t make mistakes,” said Geary. In time, citing sources properly becomes faster and easier.
• Use an Online Tool . Geary recommends the Shapiro Library citation guide . You can find sample papers, examples of how to cite in the different academic styles and up-to-date citation requirements, along with information and examples for APA, MLA and Chicago style citations.
• Work with a Tutor. A tutor can offer support along with tips to help you learn the process of academic research. Students at SNHU can connect with free peer tutoring through the Academic Support tab in their online courses, though many colleges and universities offer peer tutoring.

Find Your Program

How to cite a reference in academic writing.

A citation consists of two pieces: an in-text citation that is typically short and a longer list of references or works cited (depending on the style used) at the end of the paper.

“In-text citations immediately acknowledge the use of external source information and its exact location,” Geary said. While each style uses a slightly different format for in-text citations that reference the research, you may expect to need the page number, author’s name and possibly date of publication in parentheses at the end of a sentence or passage, according to Geary.

A longer entry listing the complete details of the resource you referenced should also be included on the references or works cited page at the end of the paper. The full citation is provided with complete details of the source, such as author, title, publication date and more, Geary said.

The two-part aspect of citations is because of readability. “You can imagine how putting the full citation would break up the flow of a paper,” Girard said. “So, a shortened version is used (in the text).”

“For example, if an in-text citation reads (Jones, 2024), the reader immediately knows that the ideas presented are coming from Jones’s work, and they can explore the comprehensive citation on the final page,” she said.

The in-text citation and full citation together provide a transparent trail of the author's process of engaging with research.

“Their combined use also facilitates further research by following a standardized style (APA, MLA, Chicago), guaranteeing that other scholars can easily connect and build upon their work in the future,” Geary said.

Developing and demonstrating your research skills, enhancing your work’s credibility and engaging ethically with the intellectual contributions of others are at the core of the citation process no matter which style you use.

A degree can change your life. Choose your program  from 200+ SNHU degrees that can take you where you want to go.

A former higher education administrator, Dr. Marie Morganelli is a career educator and writer. She has taught and tutored composition, literature, and writing at all levels from middle school through graduate school. With two graduate degrees in English language and literature, her focus — whether teaching or writing — is in helping to raise the voices of others through the power of storytelling. Connect with her on LinkedIn .

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Citation Styles

What is a Citation?

A citation is positioned within the body of your paper, right after you finish referencing or quoting another author's work. This is known as an inline or in-text citation. At the end of your paper, you will also provide a complete reference. A reference must provide enough information to both identify and locate the original source of the information.

A reference usually includes:

• Name(s) of author(s)
• Title of source (article or chapter title and journal or book title)
• Publication date (if known)
• Page number(s)
• Volume and edition/issue numbers (for books and articles)
• If the content is likely to change over time, include the date you originally accessed the content.

Citation Resources

Style Guide Resources

Check out the U-M Library's comprehensive  Citation Help Research Guide  for examples and formatting tips for APA Style, MLA Style, IEEE Style, and well as other Science Styles. You'll also find guidance on citing government documents, data and statistics, and using bibliography tools. Learn how to manage your citations and get help with the  Manage Citations with Zotero, Mendeley, Endnote Research Guide .  

Many students also rely on PurdueOWL for their various style guides, but be aware that the website has many ads, whereas our Citation Help Research Guide is ad-free.

Related Sources

• Do you have a literature review assignment? Check out this guide for an in depth look at writing an advanced literature review.
•   Beyond Plagiarism  is made up a series of lessons that focus on strategies for finding, citing, analyzing, and quoting source material responsibly.

Tools for Formatting Citations

Having trouble formatting your citations? Use these tools to automatically generate citations for books, journal articles, newspapers and more in APA, MLA, and Chicago styles.

• EasyBib EasyBib is an automatic bibliography and citation generator for MLA citations.
• University of North Carolina Citation Builder This citation generator will format citations in MLA, APA, Chicago, or CSE citation styles.
• ZoteroBib Helps you build a bibliography instantly from any computer or device, without creating an account or installing any software.

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When you're ready to write, check out  Sweetland Writing Center's Resources  page for undergraduate students. Here you'll find Writing Support , Writing Guides , and more. 

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Finding Images and incorporating images into your paper

Images, tables, and figures are often protected by copyright law. It is not sufficient to cite them; in many cases, you must get permission from the publisher or author before using them in your work. The data contained in a table or graph can be used and cited; generally it is the design and layout of the image that is protected.  In all cases, you must provide citation and attribution just as you would for a quotation or paraphrase, noting the creator, title, and the source of the image (this might be a link to an individual's site, to a museum, or to the Libraries' Artstor collections). Often, if you are finding your image online, the provider will provide guidance as to how they want the work cited. Explore the resources listed below to identify images useful to your chosen topic. For more information, refer to your Canvas course site in the White Paper Tab on Using visual images, where you will also find links to images and tables in the public domain.

ArtStor on JSTOR

The JSTOR Images  (formerly known as ArtStor) features multidisciplinary content from some of the world’s top museums, artists, libraries, scholars, and photo archives, including rare collections not accessible anywhere else. Approximately 300 collections provide access to more than 2.5 million images, scholars can examine wide-ranging material such as Native American art from the Smithsonian, treasures from the Louvre, and panoramic, 360-degree views of the Hagia Sophia in a single resource.  

JSTOR images provides full citation information (metadata) so that you can properly cite any images that you use in your papers.  Look for images from the Fisher Fine Arts Library. 

Creative Commons Flikr

Creative Commons Flikr  is the subset of the Flikr photography site that makes available the photographic work of photographers who have chosen to make their works available for use by the public through a Creative Commons license. These works are still protected by copyright, but the photographer specific guidance on how their works can be used so that you don't have to ask permission. In all cases, citation is a must. You can link back to the site and note the license information. Take a look at this example . You'll see the statement "some rights reserved." This links back to the Creative Commons license . 

Additional Penn Content

• Oxford Art Online   Oxford Art Online provides access to Grove Art Online, The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. It includes image partnerships with ARTstor, the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Images for College Teaching, Art Resource, Artists Rights Society and numerous international art galleries and artists. You can also search for digital images.
• AP Images   Contains Associated Press photographs from their 50 million image print and negative library, as well as charts, graphs, tables, and maps from the AP's graphics portfolio.

General Image Search Engines

Compfight  - Image search engine that locates high-resolution images with Creative Commons licenses for use in presentations, blogs, etc. Also retrieves stock photos.

Fotolia - Fotolia is a world-leading image bank, providing instant access to over 42 million images, vectors, illustrations and video clips. It is powered by a diverse international community of artists, graphic designers and agencies who bring you tens of thousands of new and unique images, illustrations and videos every single day. Google Image Search - Tip: Use advanced search or facets to limit by image size, images within a domain/site (e.g. site: getty.edu), and usage rights.

PicSearch - An image search service with more than 3,000,000,000 pictures

TinEye Reverse Image Search - Submit an image to TinEye to find out where it came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or to find higher resolution versions.

Unsplash - Free high-resolution photos.10 new photos will be sent to your email address every 10 days if you subscribe.

For more information ...

Boxes on this page were copied from the Penn Libraries guide for Finding images , developed by Patty Guardiola, Director of the Fisher Fine Arts Library. Please visit the full page for more information on working with images. 

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APA Style provides a foundation for effective scholarly communication because it helps writers present their ideas in a clear, concise, and inclusive manner. When style works best, ideas flow logically, sources are credited appropriately, and papers are organized predictably. People are described using language that affirms their worth and dignity. Authors plan for ethical compliance and report critical details of their research protocol to allow readers to evaluate findings and other researchers to potentially replicate the studies. Tables and figures present information in an engaging, readable manner.

The style and grammar guidelines pages present information about APA Style as described in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition and the Concise Guide to APA Style, Seventh Edition . Any updates to APA Style are noted on the applicable topic pages. If you are still using the sixth edition, helpful resources are available in the sixth edition archive .

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Title: research on improved u-net based remote sensing image segmentation algorithm.

Abstract: In recent years, although U-Net network has made significant progress in the field of image segmentation, it still faces performance bottlenecks in remote sensing image segmentation. In this paper, we innovatively propose to introduce SimAM and CBAM attention mechanism in U-Net, and the experimental results show that after adding SimAM and CBAM modules alone, the model improves 17.41% and 12.23% in MIoU, and the Mpa and Accuracy are also significantly improved. And after fusing the two,the model performance jumps up to 19.11% in MIoU, and the Mpa and Accuracy are also improved by 16.38% and 14.8% respectively, showing excellent segmentation accuracy and visual effect with strong generalization ability and robustness. This study opens up a new path for remote sensing image segmentation technology and has important reference value for algorithm selection and improvement.

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High-throughput Image-based Clustering of CAR-T/Tumor Cocultures for Rapid and Facile Hit Identification

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Chimeric antigen receptor T cell is crucial due to its potential to treat various diseases. With the development of deep learning, using unsupervised methods to classify medical images has become a significant focus because collecting high-quality labeled data for medical images is labor-intensive and time-consuming. Beyond the need for accurate labeling, there is a desire to explore the underlying characteristics of the data, even when labels may be ambiguous or uncertain. To address these challenges, we propose a novel approach that combines image clustering with an insightful explanation of how these clusters are formed. Our method employs a U-net combined with a clustering algorithm to segment the dataset into different groups. After clustering, we use various techniques to interpret and elucidate the results. Moreover, our paper introduces a unique dataset focused on cell data, specifically highlighting the developmental patterns of cancer cells and T cells under various experimental conditions. This dataset offers a rich source of information and presents a complex challenge for image classification due to the diversity of conditions and cell behaviors involved. Our study thoroughly compares different architectural models on this new dataset, demonstrating the superior performance of our proposed architecture. Through experimental analysis and ablation studies, we provide substantial evidence of the benefits offered by our architecture, not only in terms of accuracy but also in its ability to reveal deeper insights into the data. This work advances the field of image classification and opens new possibilities for understanding complex biological processes through computer vision.

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• 20 August 2024

The citation black market: schemes selling fake references alarm scientists

• Dalmeet Singh Chawla

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Citations for cash: researchers have identified services where scholars can buy citations to their papers in bulk. Credit: Vergani_Fotografia/Getty

Research-integrity watchers are concerned about the growing ways in which scientists can fake or manipulate the citation counts of their studies. In recent months, increasingly bold practices have surfaced. One approach was revealed through a sting operation in which a group of researchers bought 50 citations to pad the Google Scholar profile of a fake scientist they had created.

The scientists bought the citations for US$300 from a firm that seems to sell bogus citations in bulk. This confirms the existence of a black market for faked references that research-integrity sleuths have long speculated about, says the team.

The science that’s never been cited

“We started to notice several Google Scholar profiles with questionable citation trends,” says Yasir Zaki, a computer scientist at New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi, whose team described its sting operation in a February preprint 1 . “When a manuscript acquires hundreds of citations within days of publication, or when a scientist has an abrupt and large rise in citations, you know something is wrong.”

These practices are troublesome because many aspects of a researcher’s career depend on how many references their papers garner. Many institutions use citation counts to evaluate scientists, and citation numbers inform metrics such as the h -index, which aims to measure scholars’ productivity and the impact of their studies.

Citation manipulation can have real consequences. In June, Spanish newspaper El País reported that the country’s Research Ethics Committee has urged the University of Salamanca to investigate the work of its newly appointed rector, Juan Manuel Corchado, a computer scientist accused of artificially boosting his Google Scholar metrics. (Corchado did not respond to Nature ’s request for comment.)

References for sale

Research-integrity watchers had already suspected that citations are for sale at paper mills , services that churn out low-quality studies and sell authorship slots on already-accepted papers, says Cyril Labbé, a computer scientist at Grenoble Alpes University in France. “Paper mills have the ability to insert citations into papers that they are selling,” he says.

In November 2023, analytics firm Clarivate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, excluded more than 1,000 researchers from its annual list of highly cited researchers because of fears of citation gaming and ‘hyper-publishing’.

Hundreds of extreme self-citing scientists revealed in new database

In their sting operation, Zaki and his colleagues created a Google Scholar profile for a fictional scientist and uploaded 20 made-up studies that were created using artificial intelligence.

The team then approached a company, which they found while analysing suspicious citations linked to one of the authors in their data set, that seemed to be selling citations to Google Scholar profiles. The study authors contacted the firm by e-mail and later communicated through WhatsApp. The company offered 50 citations for $300 or 100 citations for $500. The authors opted for the first option and 40 days later 50 citations from studies in 22 journals — 14 of which are indexed by scholarly database Scopus — were added to the fictional researcher’s Google Scholar profile.

The team didn’t share the company’s name with Nature , citing concerns that revealing it could draw attention to its website, or the fake Google Scholar profile they created, because this might reveal the identities of the authors of the studies that planted the fake citations. Asked by Nature whether Google Scholar is aware that faked profiles can be created on its site, Anurag Acharya, distinguished engineer at the company said: “While academic misbehaviour is possible, it’s rare because all aspects are visible — articles indexed, articles included by an author on their profile, articles citing an author, where the citing articles are hosted and so on. Anyone in the world can call you on it.”

In another demonstration of citation manipulation, last month researchers created a fake Google Scholar profile for a cat called Larry listing a dozen fake papers with Larry as the sole author. The researchers posted a dozen more nonsensical studies on the academic social-networking site ResearchGate that cited Larry’s papers. A week or so after Larry’s identity was revealed, Google Scholar removed the cat’s studies, those citing Larry, and the accumulated citations. ResearchGate has also removed the bogus studies citing Larry.

Fake preprints

Zaki and colleagues’ sting operation was born out of a broader effort to assess the scale of the fake-citation problem. They used software to examine about 1.6 million Google Scholar profiles that had at least 10 publications. They searched for profiles with more than 200 citations and instances in which researchers’ citations increased by 10 times or more each year or when the rise represented a jump of at least 25% of their total citation count. The team found 1,016 such profiles.

The fight against fake-paper factories that churn out sham science

Zaki says that many citations to the papers on those profiles are from preprint articles that haven’t been peer reviewed and that they are typically listed in the bibliographies of papers but not cited in the main body of the manuscripts.

“Citations can easily be manipulated by creating fake preprints and through paid services,” says co-author Talal Rahwan, a computer scientist at NYU Abu Dhabi.

The authors also surveyed 574 researchers working at the 10 highest-ranked universities in the world. They found that of those universities that consider citation counts when evaluating scientists, more than 60% obtain these data from Google Scholar.

Fishy patterns

Labbé isn’t convinced by the survey’s claim that Google Scholar is widely used to obtain researchers’ citation metrics. Allegations of citation manipulation on Google Scholar have surfaced in the past, he says, and academics have long suspected that there are vendors offering this sort of service. But the sting operation to reveal a citation seller is the first of its kind, he says.

Guillaume Cabanac, a computer scientist at the University of Toulouse in France who has created a tool that flags fabricated papers that contain odd turns of phrase added to circumvent plagiarism-detection software, says that many studies are cropping up with citations to work that has nothing to do with the topic of the study.

Labbé’s team is building a tool that automatically flags fishy citation patterns that might point to manipulation.

How big is science’s fake-paper problem?

To help with that, Zaki’s team proposes a metric called the citation-concentration index, designed to detect cases in which a scientist receives many citations from few sources. Such activity is often a sign of a ‘citation ring’, in which scientists agree to cite one another to inflate each other’s metrics. “Suspicious ones tend to have massive citations stemming from just a few sources,” Rahwan says.

One fear among integrity sleuths is that fraudsters will conceive subtler practices to avoid being found out. For instance, one way to avoid being detected by the citation-concentration index, Labbé notes, is to buy a few citations at a time and not in bulk.

For Labbé, the way to address citation gaming is to change the incentives in academia so that scientists are not under pressure to accumulated as many citations as possible to progress their careers. “The pressure for publication and citation is detrimental to the behaviour of scientists,” he says.

Nature 632 , 966 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01672-7

Ibrahim, H., Liu, F., Zaki, Y. & Rahwan, T. Preprint at arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2402.04607 (2024).

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