How to Reference Figures and Tables GMIT Library

GMIT Library
How to Reference
Figures and Tables
When writing your assignments or theses, sometimes you will want to use
tables or images to illustrate your work. Every time you borrow a picture,
painting, photograph, diagram or other image from a source, you must
acknowledge where you got it from.
Copyright:
When re-using images, diagrams, graphs or tables created by others, from
either a printed or an internet source, they are usually protected by copyright. This will be stated on the image itself or nearby in the text. Often
reproduction for use in academic assignments which are not formally
published is acceptable. If in doubt, ask your lecturer.
To find copyright free images, try using a royalty free image site or the
Creative Commons search engine http://search.creativecommons.org/.
Always check the author's terms of use to see if permission is granted. If the
author does not state any terms of use, then assume that the item is protected by copyright and you will need permission from the creators to use it.
Duplication of charts, diagrams, pictures etc. should be treated as direct
quotes, in that the author(s) should be acknowledged and page numbers
shown both in your text where the diagram is discussed or introduced and
in the caption you write for it. i.e. the author(s) is alluded to 3 times:
1. In a caption, just above or below the image or table. This includes a title
and its source.
2. In your text. Include a citation and a sentence or more about the image
or table explaining what it exemplifies and why it is there.
3. As a reference in your bibliography or reference list. If you are writing a
thesis, and have used a lot of images or tables, you should reference
them in a separate List of Figures and/or List of Tables.
Provide a list of Figures and Tables at the beginning of your thesis,
immediately after the title page and the table of contents. They should
appear in consecutive order, as they are referred to in the text, and have
clear, concise titles. The correct method of introducing them into your text
is to refer to the figure or table by number, for example: “As Table 1
shows, ...” or “(See Figure 2)”.
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Referencing Images from Printed Material
You should provide a caption, an in-text citation for any photographs,
images, tables, diagrams, graphs, figures or illustrations that you reproduce
in your work and provide a full reference as with any other type of work.
The citation would normally be given after the title of the figure, table,
diagram, etc.
[Caption] Figure 1: Gram stain of a sputum sample showing Streptococcus
pneumoniae as gram-positive diplococci (Reller et al 2008, p.927).
Text: As can be seen in Figure 1, the bacterial cell appears to be
surrounded by a halo (Reller et al 2008, p.927).
Reference:
 Start your reference with the creator of the image and the year it was
created, followed by its title and medium [e.g. illus./photo./diag./map/
table/fig.].
 Next, add the word “In”, followed by the author or editor of the work,
its date, the title, either the publisher details (for a book) or journal
details (for an image found in a journal).
 For an image found in a journal, use the page number the image was
found on, rather than the whole page range of the article.
RELLER, L.B., WEINSTEIN, M.P., WERNO, A.M. & MURDOCH, D.R., 2008.
Gram stain of a sputum sample showing Streptococcus pneumoniae as gram-positive
diplococci [Fig.]. In Clinical Infectious Diseases, 46 (6), pp. 927.
Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, 2004. New building [illus.]. In: GMIT
research and innovation: an overview. Galway: Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology,
p. 21.
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Reproduction of Artwork in a Book
For the reproduction of artwork, the details of the person responsible for the
reproduction and the details of the book should also be included:
RUNGE, P.O., 1805-06. The Hulsenbeck children [painting]. In: BARTRUM, G.
(ed.), 2011. German Romantic prints and drawings: from an English private
collection. London: Contemporary Editions, p.27.
Reproduction of Photograph within a book
If the photograph is within a book, the details of the book should also be
included and the page number:
EDGERTON, H., 1957. Milk drop coronet [photograph]. In: THOMAS, A., 1998.
Beauty of Another Order: Photography in Science. New Haven: Yale University Press,
p. 183.
Reproduction of Illustration within a book
If the illustration is within a book, the details of the book should also be
included and the page number:
MORRISSEY, T., 2000. Life in nineteenth century Wexford [illus.]. Dublin:
Macmillan, p. 645.
Maps and other cartographic material
If possible details of a map should include the originator/author (if stated on
the publication), the date, the title and scale of the map (e.g. 1:50,000) and
the Place and Publisher:
Ordnance Survey (Year of pub.) Title of the map, Sheet number. Scale of
map, (Series).
ORDNANCE SURVEY, 1999. Munster by road, 21. 1:50000, Dublin: Ordnance
Survey (Discovery series).
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Referencing Images appearing online: website or database
[Caption:] Figure 2: Two women standing under a tree exchanging an olive branch and
music, with freight around them and with ships passing by in the background; representing
the friendship of England and Ireland as a sea-trading union.
Text: Figure 2 shows… (Gally 1800)
Reference:
 Author: or photographer, creator
 Year the image or photo was taken/posted online
 Title of image or photo (in italics)
 Title of online collection (in italics). Omit if the image is not part of a
collection.
 [Online]
 Available from: website address
 [Date of access]
GALLY, P., 1800. Two women standing under a tree exchanging an olive branch and
music, with freight around them and with ships passing by in the background;
representing the friendship of England and Ireland as a sea-trading union. Wellcome
Library no. 39098i [Painting online]. Available from: http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/
ixbin/hixclient.exe?MIROPAC=V0048014 [Accessed 6 September 2012].
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Referencing Tables
When copying an entire table or diagram, a reference must be made to the
source. Referencing tables is the same as Figures or Images, in that you need
to provide a caption for each table, explain in your own words why you have
used it and acknowledge where you found it in your reference list.
If you are writing a long assignment with a number of tables, they should be
referenced in a List of Tables. Remember that Figures include pictures,
graphs and diagrams while Tables contain data. Therefore, it is appropriate
to list tables and figures separately.
In a shorter assignment, where you might have included only one or two
tables, you can reference them in your bibliography (reference list).
If the table is reproduced in its entirety, place the citation below the table.
Be particularly careful to note the original source of data, as well as the
authorship of the document you are using. The heading of the table goes
directly above it.
Source: Central Statistics Office 2012
Text: Table 1 (Central Statistics Office 2012) indicates that…
Reference: CENTRAL STATISTICS OFFICE, 2012. Homeless persons in Ireland:
A special Census report. Available from: http://www.cso.ie/en/census/
census2011reports/homelesspersonsinirelandaspecialcensus2011report/ [Accessed
6 September 2012].
If the source of the data is not the author’s own, but obtained from another
source, it becomes a secondary reference and needs to be cited as such:
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Source: Department of Education & Science 2007, cited in McCoy, Calvert and
Darmody 2009, p.11
Text: The rates are shown in Table 1.2; the special grant rate has increased
considerably since its inception, and now stands roughly equivalent to the
normal maintenance grant, non-adjacent and adjacent respectively
(Department of Education & Science 2007 cited in McCoy, Calvert and
Darmody 2009, p.11) .
Reference: MCCOY, S., CALVERT, E., SMYTH, E. and DARMODY, M., 2009.
Study on the Costs of Participation in Higher Education. Dublin: The National
Office for Equity of Access to Higher Education, Higher Education Authority.
Referencing your own Figures or Tables
If you create your own figures or tables from your own research, it is not
necessary to reference them, but you still need to give them a label and write
how they were constructed (reference citations, data sources, etc.) and highlight the key findings.
The figure or table itself has a number and a descriptive title. When referring
to the figure or table in your text refer to it by number e.g. "as shown in
Table 6".
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Summary of requirements for Figures and Tables
 Summarized data presented in columns and rows are referred to as tables. All
other items (graphs, pictures, drawings, maps, etc.) are referred to as figures.
Do not refer to them as graphs or charts.
 Whenever a table and/or figure is included in the assignment, some mention of
that table or figure must also be included in the text.
 Tables and figures are numbered independently of each other. For example,
with three tables and two figures, the tables would be labelled Table 1, Table 2,
Table 3 and the figures would be labelled Figure 1 and Figure 2.
 Tables and figures are assigned their respective numbers by the order in which
they are first mentioned in the text.
 Tables and figures should be placed as close as possible to the page where the
table or figure is mentioned in the text so that the reader can easily refer to it
when it is mentioned.
 All tables and figures must be numbered and must have self-explanatory titles.
 Titles and labels for tables are always placed at the top of the table. Titles and
labels for figures are always placed below the figure.
 All tables and figures must include the units of measurement involved. All
columns in a table should have separate headings identifying the entries. On
both axes of graphs, name the variable and its corresponding unit of
measurement. The independent variable is placed on the x-axis and the
dependent variable is placed on the y-axis.
The information found in this guide are guidelines only
Use your department’s guide in preference to the library guide
GMIT Library
Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology
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Galway
Phone: 091 742785
Email: [email protected]
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