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Hunter Library
Research Guides
Western Carolina University

Communication 201: Foundations of Communication

This guide is designed to help students researching for their informative & persuasive speeches in COMM 201.

Citing Images

Images that appear in papers, presentations, blog posts, or any other format that is accessible to others requires a citation. Here are a few points to guide you in creating citations (aka attributions).

  • Be consistent in how you attribute your images. If you find different examples of how to cite something in your style pick one and use it throughout your paper or presentation.
  • Attribution of an image to its author should appear in the citation and in the credit statements (often below the image) to acknowledge authorship.
  • Indicate when using a personal photograph
    • Basic: 'Photo courtesy of Author'
    • Use a Creative Commons (CC) license to document your personal images
  • Include source information
    • Where did you find the image? (Hint: Google is never the answer)
    • Blog post? Library database? Art Gallery you visited?
  • You should include (when possible):
    • Creator's Name
    • Title of Work (as stated)
    • Location of the Work (Who owns and where)
    • Date (the item was created)
    • The URL for the website or database you found it (ArtStor, Wikimedia Commons, etc.--Google is not a database)

Basic citation for a work of art:

Artist’s Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial. (Year created). Title of work in italics [work type]. Location: Housing institution or collection.

Wyeth, A. (1948). Christina's World [Painting]. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art.


Citation for a work of art from a print source or e-book:

Artist’s Last Name, First Initial. (Year created). Title of work in italics [work type].  From Title of print source in italics (page number), by author’s name. Year of publication, City of Publication: Publisher.

Wyeth, A. (1948). Christina's World [Painting]. From Andrew Wyeth, autobiography (p. 72), by Andrew Wyeth and Thomas Hoving. 1995, Boston: Little Brown.


For an item found on the web or an online database.

Artist’s Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial. (Year created). Title of work in italics [work type]. Retrieved from URL (address of website)

Wyeth, A. (1948). Christina's World [Painting]. Retrieved from http://www.artstor.org.

 


FYI: APA Citations--All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation.

Image found on Artstor:

Ulmann, D. (1929). Cherokee Woman, North Carolina [Platinum Print]. Retrieved from http://library.artstor.org/asset/AGETTYIG_10313914964

Creative Commons

Creative Commons - A Quick Intro

By Aditya Dipanker of Folography. -- Click on image to see larger version.

There are many sites around the web that offer content on Creative Commons (CC) licenses. There are even a few sites that offer nothing but CC-0 licenses, which mean that you don't have to cite them if you don't want to. The "Find Images" tab offers a number of sources but it is by no means a complete list.

There are also sites (like NYPL digital collections) that offer a number of images with no known copyright restrictions. This determination is often, but not always, made using the age of the item. If you are looking for images to use in works that you posting online and/or selling you need to consider where the item is coming from.

If you have questions or want help locating images for a project feel free to contact the art librarian. Contact info is located on the home page of this guide.

An ideal attribution for a Creative Commons item includes:

  • Title: In quotation marks and linked to the item on its original page
  • Author: For online material it will typically be a username and not a real name. Ideally it is linked to the author's page on the site you retrieved the image.
  • License: The license assigned by the author to the item (e.g. CC BY 2.0) and linked to the appropriate license page provided by CC.

See the 'Citation Example' tab for examples of images with attributions.

For instructions and best practices creating attributions for items you've modified, items with multiple sources, etc. click on the link below to find more information:

Example of CC attribution for an item found on Flickr:

"Mona Lisa" by waltjabsco is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Example of CC attribution for an item found on Pixabay. You are not required to attribute works with a CC0 license but it is good practice to give credit to the creator of an image:

"Bull landscape nature mammal" by RonBerg is licensed under CC-0