The Brown Library has a Citation Styles Guide that covers the basics of MLA, APA, and Chicago Style format. Please feel free to use it yourself and share it with your students if you assign research papers that use any of those styles.
When using clip art and stock images in APA Style presentations, it's important to follow the terms of the image's license, regardless of whether the image is free or paid. Some licenses require no attribution, while others do—if attribution is required, include a copyright statement and a reference list entry in APA Style. You can find how to cite many types of figures and images in the Citation InfoGuide.
Common sources for stock images and clip art include iStock, Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, Pixabay, Flickr, and Microsoft Office programs. Images and clip art from Microsoft Word or PowerPoint do not require attribution, as the license is included with the software purchase.
Continue reading to see what information needs to be added to your presentation slides for 1) images with no attribution required and 2) images that require attribution.
Image with no attribution required
If an image has a license that states that no attribution is required, you are free to include that image in your presentation without including any copyright attribution or citation information.
If an image has a license that states that attribution is required, then you should provide a copyright attribution underneath the image and a complete Reference list entry at the end of your presentation.
In the following example, the image of a frog comes from Flickr and has a Creative Commons license (CC BY 2.0), which states that the image is free to use but attribution is required.
To use the image in an APA presentation, including the figure number and title is optional but the note containing the copyright attribution is required. You must also include a reference list entry for the image at the end of your presentation.
Figure 1
Frog in a Pond
Note. From Frog [Photograph], by Chris Luczkow, 2010, Flickr (https://flic.kr/p/8bYXtt). CC BY 2.0.
Luczkow, C. (2010). Frog [Photograph]. Flickr. https://flic.kr/p/8bYXtt
Cite an image used in an MLA format presentation or PowerPoint the same way you would cite it in an MLA Style paper. For guidance on citing images in MLA format, see the Citation Styles InfoGuide.
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