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Images: Referencing & Captioning in APA 7th

A multidisciplinary guide to searching, evaluating & referencing different types of images

Icon Important!

This page provides information on referencing images in the APA 7th referencing style. For help referencing images in other referencing styles, ask a librarian. 

If you are using Indigenous content or works, please note there are additional sensitivities and legal/cultural issues and care should be taken in reusing or repurposing Indigenous work in your studies. Please check with the Library for assistance. 

Referencing images in APA 7th

 

When you mention, describe or analyse an image or artwork in the text of your work, you are referring to the image and therefore you will need to reference it.

If you are copying an image and placing it in your work, then the rules can vary, depending on whether you are a student submitting an assignment or whether you are writing for publication, for example writing a PHD dissertation or a journal article. If you are submitting a work for publication, then you will have to write a copyright note beneath the image you are reproducing. You can find more information on how to do this on pp164-167. of the Library's APA 7th Referencing Guide (linked below this box)

Rules for Copying/Reproducing an image in your work: 

  Student Assignment Writing for Publication
Elements required
  • In-text citation
  • Reference list entry
  • Figure number
  • Title
  • Copyright Attribution
Example

Figure 1
Composition with Yellow, Red and Blue

Geometric Painting

Source: (Mondrian, 1935/1942)

Reference List

Mondrian, P. (1935/ 1942). Composition with Yellow, Red and Blue [Painting]. Google Arts and Culture. 

Figure 1
Composition with Yellow, Red and Blue

Geometric Painting

Note. From Composition with Yellow, Red and Blue, by P. Mondrian, 1935/1942, Google Arts and Culture. Copyright Vidal Sassoon

Reference List

Mondrian, P. (1935/ 1942). Composition with Yellow, Red and Blue [Painting]. Google Arts and Culture.

If you are using Indigenous content or works, please note there are additional sensitivities and legal/cultural issues and care should be taken in reusing or repurposing Indigenous work in your studies. Please check with the Library for assistance. 

Referencing & captioning your own work

 

If you created an image and used it in your assessment, you are required to caption it, even though it’s your own creation.

Your caption should include: 

  • A Figure number
  • A title or description

You do NOT need to include a copyright attribution.

However, you should make it clear in the text of your assessment that the image was created by you.

IconYou do NOT need an in-text reference or reference list entry for images you created. 

Images referencing: Hints & tips

 
  • For photographs or images taken of an artwork or other creative work, reference the date of the work depicted in the image (e.g. for a photograph of the Mona Lisa, the date referenced should be the date the Mona Lisa was created, NOT the date the Mona Lisa was photographed). 
  • When including images in your work, these can go either in the body of your work, or after the reference list but before any Appendices.