APA: Online Pictures

Citing images you get from online can also be tricky to cite because they are often missing some piece of information, such as an author name, a title, or a date.  

• Artist/creator names are always formatted as Lastname, comma, then their initials. Do not include full first names. Commas are used the separate different creators if there is more than one.
• Image titles are italicized and written sentence style, which means you capitalize like you are writing a sentence. Capitalize the first word and any proper nouns in the title. If the image doesn't have a title, then give it a description. 
• The format describes what type of image it is; this goes in brackets. Typically it will be either [Photograph] or [Online Image].
• Include the name of the website where you found your article. Only include the name, do not include the .com/.edu/.org. This will have formal capitalization.
• Always include the the link (URL) to the page where the image is found. Do not put a link for a Google Image search. 
• Note where periods or commas separate pieces of information. There is no period after the URL/link.
• If there is no date on your image, use (n.d.). in place of a year.

Image, creator, title and date listed:

Information you will need: Creator. Date. Image title capitalized sentence style [Image Format]. Website Name. URL. 

ADA. (2016). Sealants are safe [Online Image]. Mouth Healthy. https://www.mouthhealthy.org/en/az-topics/s/sealants

Image, NO creator listed:

If no creator is listed, begin your citation with the image title. You will then move the date to behind the title. Citations will never begin with the date. If we pretend that the example above doesn't have an author, it would look like this:

 Sealants are safe [Online Image]. (2016). ADA. https://www.mouthhealthy.org/en/az-topics/s/sealants

Image, NO creator or title listed:

If no title is listed, use a description of the image. You can come up with your own description, whatever makes it obvious to your reader which image and reference go together. The description also goes in brackets - this is so you reader knows you came up with the description and it's not the actual title.

[Photo of young child receiving dental care] [Photograph]. (n.d.). Super Molar. https://www.supermolar.com/blog/what-happens-if-a-tooth-decays-under-the-sealant/

Many students will use pictures from the internet for their assignments and often those images come from a Google Image search.

What's the problem with using Google Image? 

It can be difficult to know if the image you are using is in its original form or if it's been edited and/or copied from another site. 

Here are some great sites for free images!

• Creative Commons
• Wikimedia Commons
• Smithsonian Open Access
• Pexels
• Pixabay

If you use a picture from one of the sites above and the picture is listed as no attribution required, APA rules say you may reference this differently. However, most of the time your instructors will want you to cite these photos in your references and in your paper. Be sure to follow assignment directions.

The APA does not require that you cite the stock photos that are included with PowerPoint and Word. However, your instructor may still want these cited, so be sure to check your assignment directions or ask your instructor. 

To use stock photos for Word or PowerPoint, go to the Insert tab and click on Picture. Then choose Stock Image from the drop down. See the screenshots below.

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