Basics of Citing Images
Whenever you are using an image in a project, we recommend adding a caption under the image includes the Title, Author, Source, and License. To remember these attribution elements, it’s helpful to think of the acronym: TASL.
Example of citing using TASL
Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by Timothy Vollmer is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Information on this page is adapted from "Recommended practices for attribution" from CC Wiki, licensed CC BY 4.0.
Title: What is the name of the work?
If a title was provided for the work, include it as a part of the attribution. Sometimes a title is not provided; in that case, there’s no need to mention the title.
Author: Who allows you to use the work?
When an author has made their name available, include the author’s name as a component in your attribution. Sometimes, the author may want you to give credit to some other entity, like a company or institution, or the author may want to be credited by a pseudonym instead of their real name. In rare cases, the author may not want to be attributed at all. In all of these cases, do what the author requests.
Sometimes, the author will also provide a copyright notice, which consists of the copyright symbol, year of publication, and the name of the author/licensor. Include the copyright notice as a part of your attribution if such information is provided.
Source: Where can people find the work?
To make it possible for future users to find the source of the material, by include a URL or hyperlink to where the work is hosted. This often is where you found the work. If you found it somewhere other than the original site, try to include information about the original site where the work was first shared publicly.
You can either hyperlink (like this: CC Wiki) or write out the full URL (like this: https://wiki.creativecommons.org/).
License: How can you use the work?
You must specify which CC license was applied to the work you are reusing. Each of the six different CC licenses come with distinct requirements for re-use. We recommend that you name and provide a link to the license, e.g., CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) for a work licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Summing Up + Examples
To sum up, if the licensor has provided any information related to TASL, include that information in your attribution. We also recommend providing links to the Title, Author, Source, and License, where possible, so future users can easily access the information they need on a work and the license terms.
Reasonable attribution
TASL is just one guide to citing images! The CC licenses ask you to be reasonable:
There is no single best or correct way of attribution, as long as your attribution is reasonable and suited to the medium you're working with.
Examples
See Examples of attribution on the "Recommended practices for attribution" guide from CC Wiki for examples of using TASL to cite images and more!