Pictures, figures, tables, illustrations, photos, art and other material published in printed or digital form are protected by copyright law. You are for example allowed to use and cite the data included in tables and figures. Still, if you want to use the table or figure in its entirety you need to consider whether it might be copyrighted material.
If you want to use published material, you first need to find out whether and how you are allowed to use and publish the material. The copyright information can for example be stated together with the picture, somewhere on a website or on one of the first pages of a book or a journal. There are often licenses and agreements that allow you to use the material and if there are not, you can contact the copyright holder or the publisher and ask permission to use their material.
JU has an agreement with Bonus Copyright Access that allows students to use copyrighted material, such as tables and figures from books and articles, within JU without asking for permission. Reference must always be stated.
This means that it is possible to use, for example, a figure from a book or article in a work that is to be presented orally or uploaded in Canvas.
If you want to use, for example, a figure from a book or article in an essay that is to be published in DiVA and be available to people outside JU, it is important that you ask the responsible publisher or copyright holder for permission first. You must then state in your reference that you have been allowed to use the material, for example by writing "Used with permission from the publisher".
Sometimes you will find a Creative Commons license that tells you how the material can be used. There are six different types of licenses depending on how the copyright holder allows the material to be used, if you for example can make changes in the material or if it can be used for commercial purposes. Regardless of what license the material has, you always need to cite the copyright holder when you use it in your production.
You can read more about the different CC licenses on Creative Commons.
You include the reference to the material you have used in your reference list and also in a note underneath the material. In the note you include:
You find more information on how to write your references in Reference examples and the different material types in our guide here. Also, see the examples from APA Style:
APA Style: Image with no attribution required
APA Style: Image that requires an attribution
If you don't find a license or agreement, you must contact the copyright holder/publisher and ask permission to use the material.
Explain in what context you want to use the material and where it will be published. Save the permission you receive since there might be legal consequences when using copyright material without permission.
