How to Cite a Graph, Chart, or Figure

Graphs and charts communicate data efficiently — but using someone else's visual requires attribution. Whether you are reproducing a figure, adapting one, or building your own from published data, the rule differs. Here's how to tell which case you're in.

Three Scenarios

• Reproducing: using a figure exactly as it appeared in the source.
• Adapting: modifying it (new colours, simplified elements, combined or extended data).
• Creating from data: making your own figure from data you got from a cited source.

Each requires a different note.

APA Figure Anatomy

Before the attribution, get the frame right. APA Style lists five figure components: the figure number (bold, above the title), the title (one double-spaced line below the number, in italic title case), the image itself, an optional legend positioned inside the figure's borders, and notes below the figure. Notes are where copyright attribution goes, and APA says to "include figure notes only as needed."

On placement, APA gives two options: embed each figure in the text after it is first mentioned, or put each figure on its own page after the reference list.

Reproducing a Graph Exactly

When you use a figure unchanged, the note begins with "From". This is APA's own published sample figure note, for a figure reprinted from a journal article:

Read off the pattern: a general note describing the figure, then From "[Article title]," by [Authors], [Year], [Journal], [Volume](Issue), p. [page of the figure] ([DOI]), then the copyright statement.

The source also goes in your reference list as an ordinary journal article:

When the source is in the public domain, the copyright sentence changes. APA's sample map note:

If you asked the copyright holder and they said yes, James Cook University Library's APA guide says to add "Reprinted with permission" after the copyright statement.

For a Creative Commons figure, name the licence in place of the copyright sentence — for example "CC BY-NC-ND 4.0".

Adapting a Graph

When you change the figure, the note says "Adapted from" instead of "From", as in APA's map example above. Describe what you changed if the change is material:

That figure exists: Fanelli's Figure 1 counts "Web of Science records that in the title, abstract, or keywords contain one of the following phrases: 'reproducibility crisis,' 'scientific crisis,' 'science in crisis,' 'crisis in science,' 'replication crisis,' 'replicability crisis'", classified by whether they endorse the crisis narrative. The bracketed sentence is where your own modification goes, in your own words — a reader who opens the original should be able to recognise what you did to it.

Creating Your Own Graph From Published Data

This is the most common case in student work, and it is the simplest: you are the figure's author, so there is no reprint to attribute. You cite the data.

The dataset also belongs in your reference list, using your style's dataset format. Cite the dataset itself, not a news article about the dataset — unless what you are actually citing is that article's analysis.

Assignments vs. Publication

University guides draw a practical line here that the manuals leave implicit. James Cook University Library's APA guide puts it plainly: APA's copyright-attribution requirements are written "for published works", and "student assignments are not considered to be 'published' as they are not publicly available", so the library offers a simplified in-text citation in the note instead. It also says to check with your lecturer whether the simplified approach is acceptable.

The full copyright attribution is expected when your work will be public: a thesis deposited in a repository, a journal article, a book, a public web page.

Figure Numbering and Placement

Figures are numbered in the order they are first mentioned: Figure 1, Figure 2, and so on. Refer to them in your text — "as shown in Figure 1", "(see Figure 2)".

• APA: embedded after first mention, or all figures on separate pages after the reference list.
• MLA: caption and placement conventions are in the MLA Handbook (9th ed.) and are not published on the free MLA Style Center, so check the Handbook or your library's MLA guide rather than trusting a format you found second-hand. The works-cited entry for the source is built from MLA's usual core elements.
• Chicago: figure placement normally follows the requirements of the publication or department you are submitting to.

Citing Graphs You Only Discuss

If you refer to a figure without reproducing it, no figure formatting is needed — just a pinpoint citation so the reader can find it:

Tables vs. Figures

APA's line is categorical: "All types of visual displays other than tables are considered figures in APA Style" — line graphs, bar graphs, charts, drawings, maps, plots, photographs, infographics and other illustrations.

• Tables: labelled "Table 1", "Table 2". Notes below.
• Figures: labelled "Figure 1", "Figure 2" (or "Fig." in some styles).

If what you are reproducing is a table rather than a figure, follow APA's separate table guidance: the components are named differently, and the copyright attribution belongs in the table's note.

Multiple Graphs From One Source

Each figure gets its own number, title and note, and each note carries its own attribution — repeating the same source across three notes is correct, not redundant. Never put two sources' figures under one note.

Screenshots of Interactive Visualizations

A screenshot of a dashboard is a figure of your own making, capturing someone else's product at a moment in time. Give the source, the view, and the date you captured it, and note that interaction is lost:

Where the underlying data is what matters, cite the dataset as well.

Where These Rules Come From

• APA: the "Figure Setup" and "Sample Figures" pages on the APA Style site (apastyle.apa.org), which cite Publication Manual Sections 7.22–7.36. APA's site blocks automated requests, so these were read through Internet Archive captures; the two sample notes above are quoted from that page.
• APA, corroborated: James Cook University Library's APA guide, "Images, Figures & Tables" and "Using Visual Works in Theses and Publications" (libguides.jcu.edu.au/apa/images-figures, .../apa/images/forpublications), and Murdoch University Library's APA 7th guide, "Images" (libguides.murdoch.edu.au/APA/images). All read live.
• The Wang, Lind and Bingham article was checked against the Crossref record for DOI 10.1037/xhp0000553 (volume 44, issue 10, pages 1508–1522, 2018), which contains the page 1513 that APA's note cites. The Fanelli article was checked against Crossref for DOI 10.1073/pnas.1708272114 and its Figure 1 against the full text in PubMed Central (PMC5856498).
• The data sources were checked live (data.worldbank.org, which titles itself "World Bank Open Data") and, because bls.gov returns 403 to automated requests, through an Internet Archive capture of the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPS home page, which carries the heading "Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey".