Using images, tables & other visual material in your work

Figure is the term for any kind of visual, non-text material in a piece of work, such as images, photographs, drawings, diagrams, screenshots, tables, graphs, charts, or maps.

Figures will often be accompanied by a caption, a short portion of text with information about the figure. Whether a figure has a caption, and what information goes in the caption, is determined by where the figure comes from and how you are using it.

The elements that might go into a caption include, in order:

• a Figure number
• a Title or Description
• a Citation 
• a Rights attribution

In most standard written assignments, a figure’s caption would either go directly above or directly below the figure. Either approach for presenting the caption would be acceptable: but whichever approach you use, you should use it consistently throughout your work. 

Some figures, which might need more detailed information to accompany them, may also include:

• a Key or Notes

Keys and notes aren't part of the caption, but will normally appear close to the caption or figure.

There is a page of examples to help you understand what captions may look like in different circumstances.

Working through following 11 questions will help you to work out what information to include or take out of the caption for a figure you are using. It is possible that you will need to do different things for different figures in your work

There is a page of examples to help you understand what captions may look like in different circumstances.

Important

Some questions may be marked out with this symbol. There are important legal and ethical issues that can apply when using images. If you are unable to meet the conditions the question sets, then you shouldn't use the figure. While you do get more freedom with some of the legal issues in your student work, in professional life breaking these legal and ethical standards can result in you having to withdraw or re-do work, or even being taken to court. So it's sensible to get into good habits!

These legal and ethical issues can also apply to written work: it is just that you are much more likely to encounter them when using figures.

Assessment & publication guidelines

These are intended to be general-purpose guidelines to follow when using figures in your work.

However, If your assignment gives you different guidelines to follow when using figures in your work, those take precedence and you should use them instead.

If so, you need to include alt text for readers who use screen readers.

You can find out more about alt text and accessibility matters in this section.

If so, your caption will only need to include a rights attribution at most, and you can remove the rest of the caption: check the clip art terms & conditions to see if an attribution is needed.

You can find out more about clip art in this section

You can find out more about rights attributions in this section

If the figure is acting as evidence, an example or providing information, you need to include a figure number and title or description

If the figure is decorative, it will NEVER have a figure number, citation & reference, or notes & key.  A title or description is wholly optional.

You can find out more about figure numbers in this section.

You can find out more about titles and descriptions in this section.

You can find out more about citations and references in this section.

You can find out more about notes and keys in this section.

If so, you should declare it. This is done after any title or description, and before any citation.

In addition, anything generated by AI is never treated as being created by you and counts as coming from an existing source. It will have a citation & reference. But check the AI’s terms & conditions, as they may not always require you to include a rights attribution

You can find out more about AI and figures in this section.

You can find out more about citations and references in this section.

You can find out more about rights attributions in this section.

If the figure comes from an existing source, it will need a citation & reference and a rights attribution.

You can find out more about citations and references in this section.

You can find out more about rights attributions in this section.

If so, you include a citation & reference.

You can find out more about citations and references in this section.

If the property rights don’t allow it or you can’t  get permission from the rights holder, you can’t use the figure.

You can find more information about property rights and getting permission in this section.

If so, you should declare it. This is done after any title or description, and before any citation.

If you have adapted a figure, you must have permission to do so, and must not adapt it in a way that misrepresents the figure or misleads your reader. If this is not possible, then you can't use the figure.

You can find out more about adapting figures in this section.

If so, to use the figure, you need permission from any identifiable people in the figure. If you can’t get permission, you can’t use the figure

You can find out more about ethical use of images and getting permission in this section.

If so, you include a key and/ or notes

There are two sorts of note:

General notes apply to the entire figure

Specific notes only apply to part or parts of the figure. 

You can find out more about keys and notes in this section.

It sounds silly: but people do sometimes include figures that don’t show the right object or data, or they label it with the wrong title or description. So it’s always worth double-checking!

If you use a figure which doesn’t show what you claim it does, it will make you look incompetent or deceitful, and people will be less likely to trust what you say. So if the figure doesn't show what you claim it does, in most cases you can't use the figure.

Mock-ups, replicas, substitutes, and artist's impressions

Sometimes you will need to deliberately include images or recordings which don't show exactly the right object, because it's not possible to obtain an image of the object you want: for example, you might create a mock-up of a product that hasn't been built yet. You should always make it clear to your reader when you have done this.

You can find out more about how to do this in this section.

There is other content you may use in your work which is also treated differently from text. Some of this works in a similar way to figures: other types work differently

Video and audio recordings

If you are embedding links to video or audio recordings in your work, then you include a caption with each link in exactly the same way as for a figure.

If you need to reference such a recording, then, just like a figure, you reference it as a normal reference for the type of source the recording came from (eg, Feature Film, TV/Radio Episode, Webpage, etc). 

If you have created a video or audio recording and want to cite and credit sources you have used in creating that recording, then this is a subject we are looking at producing further guidance on. In the meantime, you can contact the Library for more support.

Equations 

Equations are treated more like text in your work, although equations can also be numbered in a similar way to figure numbers: we may be able to develop another guide on this topic in the future. In the meantime, you can contact the Library for more support.

Not all of your assignments will be standard written essays or reports: examples might be posters or presentations. These type of assignments might have lay-outs which aren’t as well suited to standard caption placement. Under these circumstances, you have more freedom to decide where to place the caption, and it would be acceptable to place captions down either side of a figure. However, it should always be clear which caption belongs to which figure: and notes should still always go underneath their figure (reading one or two lines of text rotated through 90° isn’t too difficult: but reading several lines like that is much harder!)

Where you work includes decorative figures, it may not always be possible to include captions in the normal way without disrupting the aesthetic effect of the decorative figures. However, there may well be some information that would normally go into a caption which still needs to be included in the work somehow. 

We are hoping to create a new guide with more information and suggestions about how to do this. In the meantime, you can contact the Library for more support.