A figure may be a chart, a graph, a photograph, a drawing, or any other illustration that you want to use in your assignment. In the APA style, any type of illustration other than a table is referred to as a figure.
Reproduction of tables, diagrams, pictures etc. should be treated as direct quotes, in that the author(s) should be acknowledged and page numbers shown both in your text where the diagram is discussed or introduced and in the caption you write for it. i.e. the author(s) is alluded to 3 times:
If you are writing a thesis, you will need to show a 'List of Figures' immediately after the table of contents. They should appear in consecutive order, as they are referred to in the text, and have clear, concise titles. If you have only used a few images, you can include the details of the figures in your Reference List.
If you have copied or adapted a figure from a book, you must include a caption underneath the figure. This is called a copyright attribution.
Depending on whether you have reproduced it exactly from the book or modified it in any way, you use phrases such as these:
Note that you must also refer to the figure by its figure number in the body of your text and include an entry in your reference list for a book, using the normal referencing format.
Figure number (in bold) (e.g. Figure 1) (above the figure)
A descriptive title of the figure (in italics) (above the figure)
Reprinted [or Adapted] from (Note below the figure)
Copyright attribution:
Title of the book (in italics, using title case)
(edition (if there is one), p. and the page number you took the figure from),
By
Author(s)' initials and surname(s),
Year of publication
Publisher
(DOI or URL). if any
Copyright year by Name of Copyright holder OR In the Public domain OR CC BY-NC.
Reprinted with permission or Adapted with permission. Note that you should only use the wording "Reprinted [or Adapted] with permission" when permission has been sought and granted.
Figure 1
Figure and Ground
Note. Reprinted from Management & Organisational Behaviour (9th ed., p. 219), by L. J. Mullins, 2010, Financial Times Prentice Hall. Copyright 2010 by Laurie Mullins. Reprinted with permission.
Refer to the image or figure in the body of the text of your assignment as its figure number.
As can be seen in Figure 1...
Figure 2 shows...
... (see Figure 3)
If you simply refer to a figure in a book, but do not reproduce it in your document, format the in text-citation and the reference list entry in the usual way.
Figure number (in bold) (e.g. Figure 1) (above the figure)
Copyright year by name of Copyright holder
Permission statement (if required). This statement appears with the copyright attribution. This is put in only when you have sought permission from the copyright holder.
In the caption below the figure:
Figure 2
Galway Bay
Note. Extensive seabed mapping was carried out to give a coherent picture of the coastline and seabed features of Galway Bay. Reprinted from “Geomorphology and substrate of Galway Bay, Western Ireland”, by D. McCullagh, S. Benetti, R. Plets, F. Sacchetti, E. O’Keeffe & K. Lyons, 2020, Journal of Maps, 16(2), p. 167. Copyright 2020 by Taylor & Francis.
If you simply refer to a figure in an article, but do not reproduce it in your document, format the in text-citation and the reference list entry in the usual way.
Caption:
In the caption below the figure:
Note that you should use the wording “Reprinted [or Adapted] with permission” only when permission has been sought and granted.
Figure 3
Retail Sales
Note. Reprinted from “Retail sales index November 2021”, by Central Statistics Office, 2021 (https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/rsi/retailsalesindexnovember2021/). Copyright 2021 by CSO Ireland.
If you simply refer to an image, but do not reproduce it in your document, format the in text-citation and the reference list entry in the usual way.