You have to have permission to use any image in your text, but even if you have permission you still have to credit the image creator and copyright owner. In some cases on some websites you will find instructions to attribute an image to an institution or organization that owns the copyright of that image in this case look for (terms of use). Make sure to record all information about the image:
- image creator's name.
- title of the image.
- date of the image.
- where the image is (in an institution, gallery, etc.), and add the name of the owner in this field too.
- if it's an online image, you should add the link of the website, name of the website, or database.
Image protection
Copyright protects authorship of words as well as images, including charts, graphs, and pictures. How to determine whether using another source’s image in our work is acceptable or not, but perhaps more importantly we should question whether this sort of borrowing is even helpful in all cases. Sometimes adding a map or chart or graph is important to give more meaning to the words. In a chart or a graph numbers can describe and provide information more than words.
As a researcher your ideas the conclusions you come up with as a result are most important. If you copy a chart or graph from another resource and you did not put your own findings on your chart copying (even when you cite it and document it correctly) is a sign that your research is taking over your essay. A good question to ask is, “Is this chart or graph important enough to my paper that its relevance will overshadow the distraction it will cause?” If not, try summarizing the overall point you’d like to make about the numbers presented in your source’s graph or chart. Your readers can always use your works cited page or bibliography to find the source and see the original graph or chart.