Research Guides: Marine Sciences: Find and Cite Images

How to Use Images in Presentations

Searching and Citing Images for Presentations
Did you know: if you Google search images and copy/paste photos and graphics into your presentation, you could be stealing someone else's property?

When creating a visual presentation, you want to avoid copyright infringement or plagiarism by using images that are licensed for re-use. Check out this slide show for step-by-step help.

Places to Find Images and Visuals

Flickr Creative Commons Portal
Search for Creative Commons licensed images uploaded by Flickr users.
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is an online repository of free-use images, sounds, and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Pixabay
Pixabay is a website for sharing photos, illustrations, vector graphics, film footage, and music for free exclusively under the custom Pixabay license, a modified and somewhat more restrictive version of the Creative Commons CC0 license.
Unsplash
Beautiful, free images and photos that you can download and use for any project. Unsplash is a website dedicated to sharing stock photography under the Unsplash license. The website claims over 207,000 contributing photographers and generates more than 17 billion photo impressions per month on their growing library of over 2 million photos.
"Pexels" Photos and Videos
Search high-quality photos and video clips available for use and re-use via open license.
Nappy
This site offers "Beautiful photos of Black and Brown people, for free." All images are licensed under the CC0 Creative Commons Zero license.
#WOCinTech Photos
Explore this unique collection of stock photos featuring women of color in tech! These images offer a visible representation of women of color engaging in technical tasks and are licensed under a CCBY (Creative Commons Attribution) license.
Library of Congress "Free to Use and Reuse" Image Collections
Browse through themed collections of photos and images from the Library of Congress' Digital Collections. All items are in the public domain or have copyright clearance.
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
Browse and search through images and photographs in the Library of Congress' collections. All items are in the public domain.
Smithsonian Open Access Portal
Search through millions of images of items in the Smithsonian collection. All images are in the Public Domain and can be downloaded, used, and reused.
Maps on Wikimedia Commons
Use this link to explore the variety of maps and map images available in the Wikimedia Commons library.

Citing Tables, Charts, and Images

Use these links for advice on creating MLA or APA Style citations for data tables, figures, and images that are not openly licensed.

MLA Style:

How Do I Cite a Data Table in MLA Style?
This link from the MLA Style Center will explain how to execute an MLA Style citation for a table, chart, or figure from an outside source.
Citing a Photograph from a Website in MLA Style
In MLA Style, Cite a photograph found on a website the same way you would cite any work of art found online. This post from the MLA Style Center contains info and examples on how to do this.

APA Style:

How Do I Cite a Data Table in APA Style?
This post from the APA Style website will explain how to execute an APA Style citation for a part of a work (table, chart, figure) from an outside source.
Citing a Photograph or Image from a Website in APA Style
Images, diagrams and artistic works should be cited as you would cite any other type of work in APA Style. This link provides some helpful guidelines, examples, and tips for citing electronic images in APA Style.
Citing Figures (Graphs and Images, Reprinted or Embedded) in APA Style
Use these guidelines for graphs or images you reprint or embed directly in your work. These images should follow the APA Style rules for tables and figures and will include a copyright attribution and corresponding reference list entry.
Examples of Image Citations in APA Style
Check out these APA Style image citation examples compiled by the State College of Florida Libraries.

Using Openly Licensed Images

Don't forget to include the attribution! An attribution gives proper credit to the creator and provides essential information, much like a citation. Some websites provide the attribution, but in some cases, you may need to create one yourself. You can use the attribution generator linked below to assist you. An attribution should include the Title, Author, Source (hyperlinks), and License.

Example:
"Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by tvol is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Best Practices for Attribution
The Creative Commons Wiki offers tips and instructions on how to best cite CC licensed material in your work.
Open Attribution Builder
As you fill out the form, the app automatically generates the attribution for you. Managed by the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.