Images and Other Visual Resources

Images and Other Visual Resources

A Note About Images and Other Visual Resources

The “author” for a photograph, painting, or other image or visual resource is determined by the type of media. The chart below shows who should be included as an author for different types of media:  

Media Type   Who is included as the author?  
Photograph Photographer
Artwork, including 2D and 3D works Artist – this could be a painter, sculptor, illustrator, or other type of visual artist.
Clip Art Creator; this could be a given name or a screen name, or both
Infographics Creator; this could be a given name or a screen name, or both
Maps Creator; this could be an individual person, a group, or an entity like Google Maps

Photographs

An image of a photograph on the website of the Art Gallery of Ontario . The title of the photo is, “Queen Street West, Toronto”, and the photographer is listed as Michal Thomas Henry Lambeth. It is dated 1956. Blue arrows point to the title, date, photographer’s name, and the name of the website.
An example of a photograph in an online repository.

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Reference List Entry: Format (10.14)

Photographer, P. (Date). Title of work [Description]. Museum Name. Museum Location. OR Name of Website. URL if applicable.  

Reference List Entry: Example

Lambeth, M.T.H. (1956). Queen Street East, Toronto [Photograph]. Art Gallery of Ontario. Toronto, Ontario. https://ago.ca/collection/object/2000/9 
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Hint! Descriptions do not need to be complicated; something as simple as “Photograph” or “Painting’ is appropriate.

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Parenthetical Citation   

(Artist, Date), e.g.: (Lambeth, 1956)  

Narrative Citation 

Artist (Date), e.g.: Lambeth (1956)  

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Artwork

A screenshot of a painting from the Art Gallery of Ontario's online repository. Blue arrows point to the name of the artist, the title of the work, the date, the medium, and the name of the gallery.
An example of a painting in an online repository. Online repositories can also include photos of other kinds of artwork, like sculptures.

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Hint! Use this format to cite all types of museum artwork, including paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, drawings, and installations. Always include a description of the medium or format in square brackets after the title. If the work does not have a title, include a description in square brackets after the date.

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Reference List Entry: Format (10.14)  

Artist, A. (Date). Title of work [Description]. Museum Name. Museum Location. URL if applicable.  

Reference List Entry: Example

Thompson, T. (ca. 1915-1916). After the sleet storm [Painting]. The Thompson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Toronto, Ontario. https://ago.ca/collection/object/agoid.69250  

Parenthetical Citation   

(Artist, Date), e.g.: (Thompson, ca. 1915-1916) 

Narrative Citation 

Artist (Date), e.g.: Thompson (ca.1915-1916) 

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Clip Art

An image of clip art on a website called “Openclipart” . The title of the clip art is, “Symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019”, and the screen name of the creator is liftarn. No given name is provided. It is dated 2020. Blue arrows point to the title, creator, and date.
An example of a piece of clip art in an online repository.

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Hint! Clip art creators might only be credited with a screen name. Cite the screen name as it appears (9.8). If both a screen name and a given name are known, provide the given name followed by the screen name in square brackets.

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Reference List Entry: Format (10.14) 

Creator, C. (Date). Title of work [Description]. Website name. URL.  

Reference List Entry: Example

liftarn. (2020). Symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 [ Clip art]. Openclipart. https://openclipart.org/detail/319945/symptoms-of-coronavirus-disease-2019  

Parenthetical Citation

(Creator, Date), e.g.: (liftarn, 2020) 

Narrative Citation  

Creator (Date), e.g.: liftarn (2020)
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Remember! The examples above are used only to cite clip art. To reproduce clip art or stock images, permission and/or a copyright attribution may be necessary in addition to the reference. No citation, permission, or copyright attribution is necessary for clip art from programs like Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. See Section 12.15 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (the Publication Manual) for more information. 

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Infographics

An image of an infographic on a website called “World Science Festival”. The infographic is titled, “Sorting through our space junk”, and it was created by Julie Rossman and Roxanne Palmer in 2015. Blue arrows point to the title, date and creators.
An example of an infographic in an online repository. This image does not show the whole infographic.

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Reference List Entry: Format (10.14)  

Creator, C. (Date). Title of work [Description]. Website name. URL.  

Hint! Infographic creators might only be credited with a screen name. Cite the screen name as it appears (9.8). If both a screen name and a given name are known, provide the given name followed by the screen name in square brackets. 

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Reference List Entry: Example

Rossman, J., & Palmer, R. (2015). Sorting through our space junk [Infographic]. World Science Festival. https://www.worldsciencefestival.com/2015/11/space-junk-infographic/  

Parenthetical Citation   

(Creator, Date), e.g.: (Rossman & Palmer, 2015)  

Narrative Citation 

Creator (Date), e.g.: Rossman and Palmer (2015) 
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Remember! The example above is only used only to cite an infographic. To reproduce an infographic, permission and/or a copyright attribution may be necessary in addition to the reference (see Section 12.15 of the Publication Manual).  

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Maps

A screenshot from Google Maps showing the driving distance between Fort Simpson and Whitehorse, both in the Northwest Territories in Canada.
An example of a map from Google Maps.


Reference List Entry: Format (10.14)

Creator, C. (Date). Title of work [Description]. Website name. URL.  

Important Notes for Citing Maps

  • Dynamically created maps (e.g., Google Maps) do not have a title. For materials that do not have a title, describe the material in square brackets, and include a retrieval date
  • If no date of publication is available, insert “n.d.”, meaning “no date”, in place of the date of publication.  

  • If the author or creator and the publisher are the same, omit the publisher from the reference list entry.  

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Reference List Entry: Example

Google. (n.d.). [Google Maps directions for driving between Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories, to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories]. Retrieved April 2, 2020 from https://bit.ly/3bIlXgn  

Parenthetical Citation

(Creator, Date), e.g.: (Google, n.d.)  

Narrative Citation 

Creator (Date), e.g.: Google (n.d.)
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Sources

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association: The official guide to APA style. (7th ed.).  

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Loyalist College Guide to APA and Academic Writing Copyright © by Loyalist College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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