How to Cite & Format Images in APA (7th Edition)

References List & In-Text Citations

Follow these examples when citing museum artworks, graphics or stock images in your paper or presentation.

Artwork (From a museum or on a museum website):

• Artist last name, First initial. Middle initial. (Year). Title of artwork [Format]. Museum Name, Location. URL
• Renoir, A. (1883). By the seashore [Painting]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.  https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437430
• In-Text Citation: (Renoir, 1883)

• ---

Graphics or Stock Photographs (Not from a museum or museum website):

• Author. (Year). Title of image [Format]. Website. URL
• Ungaro, F. (2019). Brown turtle underwater [Photograph]. Pexels. https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-turtle-underwater-3150271/
• In-Text Citation: (Ungaro, 2019).

For untitled stock photographs or graphics, include a description in square brackets in place of a title. Please note that images from clip art programs like Microsoft World or PowerPoint do not require citations.

Google Images:

• Click through to the original website image and cite it using one of the formats above.

Formatting Images in Your APA Style Research Paper

Follow the steps and examples listed below to properly format an included image in APA style paper:

1. Center the image in the center of your page
2. Create a figure number in bold type
3. Create a title for the image below the figure number in italics
4. Insert your image below the image title
5. Include a note below the image when necessary
   • Notes can be included below the image to give a copyright attribution.

Copyright Permissions & Attributions

Please note that when including actual images in a paper, poster, or presentation, author permissions and/or a copyright attribution may be required. Please note that images from clip art programs like Microsoft Word or PowerPoint do not require copyright attributions.

Search for freely useable images on the website listed below:

• Creative Commons Search
• Unsplash
• Pexels

Reference List Entries

Most included images need to have their own entry in your reference list.

For details on which reference entry format to use, follow examples as listed below. Please note that images from clip art programs like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint do not require a reference list entry but they should still be formatted properly when included in your paper.

Referring to your Included Images:

When you refer to an included image in your text, make sure to refer to it using the figure number you created for the image:

• “As you can see in figure 1…”

For more information, please look at the citation guides found on the CUE Library website.

Photo by Derick McKinney on Unsplash.