Citing Images - APA  

In some cases you will need a caption and a citation.  Please consult your Instructor.

Image from website:

Owner/author. (Publish date or n.d.). Title of image in italics[ image's media - photograph, painting, outdoor mural..]. Retrieved from URL (no period at the end)
  -  Don't know date?  Use n.d.
  -  Don't know title of image?  Put a descriptive title in brackets. [ descriptive title ]

Need more examples?  See University of Maryland. 

Clinton Community College Library has a good discussion and examples of citing images and using captions.

IMAGE WITH NAME AND DATE

Example:  Image of the famous painting The Scream from the Munch Museum.

1) Caption : A reader should not have to refer to the text to understand the image. Explanatory text should include title, owner/artist and where the image is stored.

Figure 1.  Edvard Munch, The Scream, The Munch Museum.

2) Citation for the References Cited page

IMAGE WITHOUT NAME AND DATE

Example:  This image was found using a Google Image search. To cite it correctly, go to the original location of the image. In this case, it was the Maryland Office for Children.  The "Terms of Use" for the page state that photographs are the property of the State of Maryland.  The image does not have a title.

1) Caption : A reader should not have to refer to the text to understand the image. Explanatory text should include title, owner/artist and where the image is stored.

Figure 1.  Photograph of a happy family. State of Maryland, http://www.goc.state.md.us/job_openings.html

2) Citation for the References Cited page

IMAGE FROM LIBRARY DATABASE

EXAMPLE:  This is a citation for an image taken from the CINAHL database.  The name of the article is "Low-level arsenic impairs glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in pancreatic beta cells: involvement of cellular adaptive response to oxidative stress" from the the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. It is in the June 2010, Volume 118, Issue 6 and specifically on page 866. Unless an image, photograph or table in an article states otherwise, it is assumed to be the work of the author of the article.  This articles was written by Fu, J. and others.  APA refers to the originating publication, not the database. In this case, to the URL for Environmental Health Perspectives : http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/home.action

1) Caption : A reader should not have to refer to the text to understand the image. Explanatory text should include title, owner/artist and where the image is stored

Figure 1. Effect of prolonged arsenite exposure on GSIS in INS-1(832/13) cells from Low-level arsenic impairs glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in pancreatic beta cells: involvement of cellular adaptive response to oxidative stress, Environmental Health Perspectives, Jun2010, 118:6, 866.

2) Example :

SPECIAL CASES

IMAGE FROM SCIENCE IN CONTEXT DATABASE

The images from the Science in Context Database are special cases because the images were originally published in books and do not have an owner/creator attributed to them. In these very rare cases, database information may be included in the citation. See Example 22 in the APA Publication Manual or speak with a librarian to see if your citation should be formated this way.

Example: Disjunction and nondisjunction during cell division [Photograph]. (2010). In R. Robinson (Ed.), Genetics. New York, NY:

                                Macmillan Reference USA. Retrieved from Gale Science in Context.