Referencing in APA Style: Images and Tables

​A table or figure that you produced yourself

Use these guidelines if you have created a table or figure yourself (e.g. a table or graph made up of data you collected in an experiment, a photograph that you have taken, etc.). If you have adapted a table or figure from another source, you should use the tabs above for referencing guidance instead.

Table

Format

Figure 1
Descriptive title of the figure

Note. This part is optional, but if you need to add any notes to explain the image, do so here.

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Components

• Figure number in bold
• On the next line, a descriptive title of the figure in italics
• The figure itself
• Optional: If you need to explain something in the figure (e.g. abbreviations you have used), write the word Note in italics, followed by a full stop, and then write your explanatory notes.

 

​A table or figure from a book

If you have copied or adapted a table or figure from a book, or if you have taken information from a book and put it into a table/figure yourself, you must include an in-text citation in your notes section underneath the table or figure. In APA, this has a different format to normal in-text citations and is called a copyright attribution.

You can use the following phrases:

• From: if you have directly copied a table or figure
• Adapted from: if you have changed the original figure or table in some way
• If you have pulled together information from multiple sources to create a table or figure, you can also indicate this using phrases like 'Data in column 1 from...'

Note that you must also include an entry in your list of references for a book, using the normal referencing format.

Format

 

Table

Table 1
Descriptive title of the table

	Example	Example
Data	1	2
Data	3	4

Note. From Title of the Book (edition, p. page), by N. Author, year, Publisher (https://doi.org/xxxxx)

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Figure

Figure 1
Descriptive title of the figure

Note. From Title of the Book (edition, p. page), by N. Author, year, Publisher (https://doi.org/xxxxx).

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Components

• Table or figure number in bold
• On the next line, a descriptive title of the table or figure in italics
• The table or figure itself
• Note in italics, followed by a full stop
• From or Adapted from
• Copyright attribution, which is a different format for an in-text citation:
  • Title of the book in italics, using title case (capitalise all important words)
  • edition if there is one, p. and the page number you took the table or figure from, all in brackets 
  • a comma
  • by
  • Author's initials and surname (note that initials go first), followed by a comma
  • The year the book was published, followed by a comma
  • The publisher
  • The DOI or web address in brackets, if there is one (see the DOI and Web Addresses section for more information)
  • A full stop

For examples of fully written tables and figures, check the examples page. Below, you will see examples of the in-text citations that need to go below tables and figures.

You must also give a normal list of references entry for the book you used, with the book's details in the normal order. Check the Books section for instructions.

​A table or figure from a journal article

If you have copied or adapted a table or figure from a journal article, or if you have taken information from a journal article and put it into a table/figure yourself, you must include an in-text citation in your notes section underneath the table or figure. In APA, this has a different format to normal in-text citations and is called a copyright attribution.

You can use the following phrases:

• From: if you have directly copied a table or figure
• Adapted from: if you have changed the original figure or table in some way
• If you have pulled together information from multiple sources to create a table or figure, you can also indicate this using phrases like 'Data in column 1 from...'

Note that you must also include an entry in your list of references for a journal article, using the normal referencing format.

Format

 

Table

Table 1
Descriptive title of the table

	Example	Example
Data	1	2
Data	3	4

Note. From "Title of the Article," by N. Author, year, Title of Journal, volume(issue), pages (https://doi.org/xxxx).

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Figure

Figure 1
Descriptive title of the figure

Note. From "Title of the Article," by N. Author, year, Title of Journal, volume(issue), pages (https://doi.org/xxxx).

---

Components

• Table or figure number in bold
• On the next line, a descriptive title of the table or figure in italics
• The table or figure itself
• Note in italics, followed by a full stop
• From or Adapted from
• Copyright attribution, which is a different format for an in-text citation:
  • Title of the article in title case (capitalise all important words), followed by a comma, inside speech marks
  • by
  • Initials and surname of the author (note that initials come first), followed by a comma
  • Year of publication, followed by a comma
  • Title of the journal in italics, using title case, followed by a comma
  • Volume number in italics 
  • Issue number in brackets, followed by a comma
  • Pages of the article
  • DOI OR web address in brackets
  • A full stop

For examples of fully written tables and figures, check the examples page. Below, you will see an example of the in-text citation that needs to go below tables and figures.

You must also give a normal list of references entry for the journal article you used, with the article's details in the normal order. Check the Journal Articles section for instructions.

​A table or figure from a website or online report

If you have copied or adapted a table or figure from a website, or if you have taken information from a website and put it into a table/figure yourself, you must include an in-text citation in your notes section underneath the table or figure. In APA, this has a different format to normal in-text citations and is called a copyright attribution.

You can use the following phrases:

• From: if you have directly copied a table or figure
• Adapted from: if you have changed the original figure or table in some way
• If you have pulled together information from multiple sources to create a table or figure, you can also indicate this using phrases like 'Data in column 1 from...'

Note that you must also include an entry in your list of references for a website or online report, using the normal referencing format.

Format

 

Table

Table 1
Descriptive title of the table

	Example	Example
Data	1	2
Data	3	4

Note. From Title of the Specific Webpage, by N. Author, year, Website Name (www.website.com/page). 

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Figure

Figure 1
Descriptive title of the figure

Note. From Title of the Specific Webpage, by N. Author, year, Website Name (www.website.com/page). 

---

Components

• Table or figure number in bold
• On the next line, a descriptive title of the table or figure in italics
• The table or figure itself
• Note in italics, followed by a full stop
• From or Adapted from
• Copyright attribution, which is a different format for an in-text citation:
  • Title of the specific webpage in italics, using title case (capitalise all important words), followed by a comma, 
  • by
  • Initials and surname of the author (note that initials come first) OR the name of the website if no specific author is listed, followed by a comma
  • Year of publication, followed by a comma
  • Name of the website, if you gave a specific person as the author (if you used the website as the author, miss this out)
  • Web address of the specific web page in brackets
  • A full stop

For examples of fully written tables and figures, check the examples page. Below, you will see examples of the in-text citations that need to go below tables and figures.

You must also give a normal list of references entry for the website you used, with the website's details in the normal order. Check the Webpages section for instructions.

Figure 1

The three Ps of pain management

Note. Adapted from Children and Young People's Nursing at a Glance (p. 152), by A. Glasper, J. Coad, & J. Richardson, 2014, Wiley.

Figure 2

Five countries with the most summer Olympics medals won 1886 - 2016

Note. Adapted from Olympic Summer Games Medal Table (Total Medals Won) from 1896 to 2016, by Statista, 2016 (https://www.statista.com/statistics/262864/all-time-summer-olympics-medals-table/).

Table 1

Perceived usefulness of Google Scholar by postgraduate students

Note. Adapted from "An Analysis of Perceived Usefulness of Google Scholar by the Postgraduate Students of the University of Ilorin, Nigeria," by A. Tella, M. Oyewole, & A. Tella, 2017, South African Journal of Information Management, 19(1), a793 (https://doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v19i1.793).

Table 2

Confidence of students before and after learning intervention

Note. Percentage represents proportion of participants rating themselves 'confident' or 'very confident' against each learning objective.

Figure 3

Lanchester Stanhope Phaeton

Note. From Side view of the Lanchester 5 hp Stanhope Phaeton, the first all British 4-wheel, petrol car, by Lanchester Interactive Archive, 1895 (https://catalogue.lanchesterinteractive.org/records/LAN/7/30).

List of References

Data in Table 1 reproduced in this guide under the Creative Commons (BY) 4.0 License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Lanchester Interactive Archive image reproduced in this guide under the Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) 4.0 License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/