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CHEM 110: Images (finding/using openly licensed images and citing)

Chemistry student project

Citing images, finding openly licensed images

Citing images can be a little complicated, in part because of where you find them, whether online, a book, a database, etc. and partly because of how you are going to the use the image. Here is a brief introduction to citing images generally from the Web. 

Here you will also find out about using openly licensed images and citing them with openly licensed attribution citations that are generally used in presentations, or as captions of images that are not referenced in your papers,

Openly licensed media of any kind is valuable to learn about and valuable to get into the habit of using. For example, you may be able to use copyright protected images for school work, and only school work, but you would not be able to use those same images in a portfolio of your school work to show perspective employers, and your future employers would not like it if you used copyright protected images for your work projects!

  • Copyright protected: The author of the work owns the image, and does not want anyone to use the image without their direct permission, or in many cases, without payment. Use of copyrighted material can result in legal actions by the owner.
  • Openly licensed: People note that they have created those works, but they offer free use of their work under certain conditions. The creative commons license attached to the work will let you know how you can use it.

Images rights

image of the creative commons logo

Using instructive images in your presentation is a great idea!

Many images we see on the "free" web are protected by "all rights reserved" copyright, meaning that the creators of those images own those images and we do not have rights to use them as we wish*.There may be some situations that allow us to use copyright protected images, for educational purposes for example, that may fall under "fair use" guidelines. Fair use, however, gets inappropriately applied quite a lot in educational settings, running us the risk of violating copyright law.

TCC, the e-Learning department, and the Library all strongly encourage you to use openly-licensed images even in your school work. Most images that are openly-licensed use Creative Commons licensing. If you don't know much about that, you can find out here.

*All rights reserved copyright is the default - you do not have to do anything special to have something your create 'copyrighted' - it is automatically copyright protected under the law, unless you openly license your work. Therefore, if you find an image (or other work) that is not labeled as "open" or CC-licensed, assume that it is copyright protected.

There are many places to find openly licensed images! Some of the links below also have copyright protected images as well (not free for general use). How to tell?

Copyright protected: The little C in a circle copyright icon, or there are watermarks all over the image, or there is no licensing information at all! Assume if you can't see any licensing information that an image is copyright protected.

Openly licensed: Some sites will tell you that images are free to use (you still need to cite them for college work), or there will be a Creative Commons licensed attached to them:

image of image rights, copyright, openly licensed, public domain

Pure caffeine powder - Flickr Creative Commons

image of pure caffeine in white powdered form

Open Attribution license (for caption citation) "100% caffeine" by mararie is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

MLA Works Cited citation: mararie. "100% Caffeine Powder." Flickr, 2015. https://www.flickr.com/photos/mararie/8639280606/

APA References citation: mararie. (2015).100% caffeine powder [Photograph]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/mararie/8639280606/

Caffeine - Wikimedia Commons openly-licensed image

Skeletal molecular structure of caffeine

"Chemical structure of Caffeine." by Icey, ClockworkSoul is in the Public Domain, CC0

Citing images in APA and MLA

Citing images is complex. It depends on how you are using them, and it depends on the types of image and where it comes from.

Here is a basic introduction to citing images found online.

Often, images you find on the Web have limited information, for example, the author (artist or photographer) may be missing, or the date is missing, or it doesn't have a title. If your image is missing any of this information either skip the part that is missing in your citation, or go find an image that does include all of the attribution information.

Please do your best to:

  • Locate the attribution information for any source, including images
  • Use only openly licensed or public domain images
  • Avoid using copyright protected images (if it doesn't say how it is licensed, we must assume that it is copyright protected)
  • Cite all images that you don't make yourself* even if the artist notes that you don't have to cite it (for academic purposes we cite all work that is not our own)

Below are two templates and examples for MLA and APA citations for images found online.

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*Even then, consider citing your own work!

MLA citation for online images

MLA format Creator Last Name, First name. “Image Title.” or Description of image. Website Name, day Mon. Year, URL.
MLA Works Cited entry Quinn, Pete. “European Grey Wolf Portrait.” Flickr, 21 Dec. 2021, flic.kr/p/2k6vq7V.
MLA in-text citation (Quinn)

APA citation for online images

APA format Creator Last name, Initials. (Year, Month day). Image title [Format]. Website Name. URL
APA reference entry Quinn, P. (2021, December 21). European grey wolf portrait [Photograph]. Flickr. https://flic.kr/p/2icfzq4
APA in-text citation (Quinn, 2021)

Open WA Creative Commons attribution builder

Fill in the blanks in the OpenWA attribution builder, and just like that, you have yourself an attribution (citation) for the openly-licensed CC image you are using in your presentation.

Screen shot of the OpenWa attribution builder showing the process of making a CC license for an openly licensed image

CC BY SA license

Except where otherwise noted, the content in these guides by Tacoma Community College Library is licensed under CC BY SA 4.0.
This openly licensed content allows others to cite, share, or modify this content, with credit to TCC Library. When reusing or adapting this content, include this statement in the new document: This content was originally created by Tacoma Community College Library and shared with a CC BY SA 4.0 license.

Tacoma Community College Library - Building 7, 6501 South 19th Street, Tacoma, WA 98466 - P. 253.566.5087

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