Research Guides: Citation Help and Avoiding Plagiarism: Citation Styles and Creative Commons Attributions

Citation Styles and Creative Commons Attributions

MLA Style
MLA Style is used primarily by English and some Humanities.
APA Style
APA Style is used primarily by Business, Economics, Education, Psychology, Social Sciences, and Sciences
Chicago Style
Chicago Style (sometimes referred to as Turabian) is primarily used by History, Humanities, Business, Economics, Religion, Fine Arts, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences.
CSE - Scientific Style and Format
CSE is primarily used for scientific papers, life sciences, and biological sciences.

Creative Commons attributions

The BY - Attribution element of every Creative Commons license requires you to add an attribution statement for the image to your work. This is best placed directly under the image, whether on a poster or in a PowerPoint.

Creative Commons suggests using TASL

Title – What is the name of the work? Link to the original if possible.
Author – Who is the author? Link to their profile page if possible.
Source – Often included in the Title hyperlink, but need to add if print resource. Use the full URL, not a bit.ly or tiny.url.
License – What is the Creative Commons License? Link to the Common deed on the CC website. e.g. CC-BY 4.0

Here's an example of what TASL looks like in action for this image:

Programming Code by Martin Vorel is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0

Finding all the pieces of your attribution may take a little hunting. If you need help, ask your librarian.

Attributing the source properly is extremely important. If the CC license is version 2.0 or earlier, you may be sued for not having a proper attribution using the above TASL standards. For 3.0 and newer licenses you will have 30 days to fix the attribution before you'd get sued for misuse of the licensed material.

Citing Images in Chicago, MLA, and APA

Please refer to the Finding and Using Online Images Ethically Research Guide > Image Citation

Image Citation

Creative Commons (CC) Licenses

Open licenses enable creators to proactively grant certain rights in advance while still retaining copyright. Creative Commons (CC) are open licenses.

Creative Commons licenses offer creators an opportunity to share your work under certain terms by applying a license, rather than traditional "All Rights Reserved" copyright. CC licenses are legal tools, built on copyright law. The CC License 4.0 version is international, while earlier versions (3.0, 2.5, 2.1, 2.0, and 1.0) are applied by country.

Creative Commons provides a set of copyright licenses and tools that can be adapted on varying levels set by the creator. CC currently has 6 licenses made from a combination of 4 elements:

BY = Attribution - Any reuse must cite your original work - Who is it BY?
NC = NonCommercial - Work and adaptations can only be used in noncommercial ways
ND = No Derivatives - Reusers can't share adaptations of the work with anyone else
SA = Share Alike - Adaptations based on your work must be licensed under the same CC license

What are Creative Commons Licenses? (1:57)