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Medical Images

This guide provides VCU students and faculty with resources for studying and publishing health science images.

Basic Information

The basic information you will need:

  • Artist name
  • Title of the work
  • Date it was created
  • Repository, museum, or owner
  • City or Country of origin
  • Dimensions of the work
  • Material or medium such as oil on canvas, marble, found objects

If you found the image in a book you will need the author, title, publisher information, date, and page, figure or plate number of the reproduction.

If you found the image online you will need an access date, the web site address (URL) and in some cases an image ID number.

Citation Styles

ACS

  • Credit lines for images from published works are placed at the end of the caption in parentheses, and citation to source of the image follows regular citation formatting.
  • Depending on which ACS format used, information at the end of the caption is in one of two formats
  1. Number style example: 
    Reprinted with permission from ref XX. Copyright Year Copyright Owner’s Name.
    Reprinted with permission from ref 10. Copyright 2003 American Pharmaceutical Association.
  2. Parenthetical style example:
    Reprinted with permission from Author Names (Year of Publication). Copyright Year Copyright Owner’s Name.
    Reprinted with permission from Camiola and Altieri (2006). Copyright 2006 American Institute of Physics.
  • For works produced by the U.S. Government where copyright doesn't apply, "with permission" and the copyright information are dropped, and the parenthetical note begins with, "Reprinted from". For images from ACS journals to be published in ACS journals, "with permission" is dropped.

 

APA

  • Artist (last name, first name), artist’s role (in parentheses i.e. Artist, Architect), title, the work type, in brackets [Painting, Cathedral, Chair], country of origin or city, and state, and repository.
  • Example:
    Constable, John (Artist). (1821). The Hay Wain [Image of painting]. London, England; National Gallery. Retrieved May 30, 2011, from http://www.artstor.org

 

AMA

  • "The original source should be acknowledged in the legend. If the original source in which the illustration has been published is included in the reference list, the reference may be cited in the legend, with the citation number for the reference corresponding to its first appearance in the text, tables, or figures..."
  • Author of image (if given). Title of image [format]. In: Remainder of citation as it would be for the book chapter, article, or other source that it came from
  • Example caption for work not cited elsewhere in the document: 
    Figure 1 Analytical Framework [Image]. In: O’Connor E, Rossom RC, Henninger M, Groom HC, Burda BU. Primary care screening for and treatment of depression in pregnant and postpartum women:  Evidence report and systematic review for the US preventive services task force. JAMA. 2016;315(4):388-406. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.18948

 

CSE

  • Images should include supportive information to indicate the subject of the image, how it was obtained, and why it was selected. 
  • Cite like any other CSE citation and include content designator in square brackets after the title. 
  • Example for a map:
    Northeastern United States. West Nile virus: wild bird cases [demographic map]. Washington (DC): Department of the Interior (US); 2001 Jun 1. 1 sheet: color.

 

Chicago

  • In the humanities citations are provided in footnotes and endnotes along with a bibliography. Images can be cited using captions or in a bibliography. Check with your instructor or instructions for authors for the correct manner.
  • Example:
    Sullivan, Louis H. The Security Bank, 1907. Owatonna, Minnesota. http://www.artstor.org/ (accessed May 12, 2011).

 

MLA

  • Cite the artist's name, title, usually underlined, and the institution or individual who owns the work, and the city.If you want to indicate the work's date, include it after the title. For a work of art you viewed online, end your citation with your date of access and the URL.
  • Example:
    Botticelli, Sandro. Birth of Venus. c. 1482. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. ARTstor. 6 Jun. 2011, <http://www. artstor.org>.

 

Turabian-style Citation Format

  • Cite the artist's name, title in italics, the medium and support, the date, and the institution or individual who owns the work, the city, and, if needed for clarification, the state. If the location is unknown use, “whereabouts unknown” in parentheses.As a general rule cite images only in notes.
  • Example:
    Frank Duveneck, 1872. Whistling Boy. [database on-line] (ARTstor, accessed 14 June 2011); available www.artstor.org, image ID CARNEGIE_4410001