Research Guides: Entomology: Taxonomy and Insect Images

Image Copyright

Images, illustrations, charts, and other visual material can make your papers and presentations more interesting and informative.

It is easy to find and download images from the Web. However, your use of these digital images downloaded from the Web or scanned from a print source may be restricted by copyright.

You can generally use these images for non-published, educational purposes, but you must still cite your source.

The Digital Image Rights Computator can help you figure out whether or not you can legally use an image.

Creative Commons Licenses

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that has developed a standardized ways for creators to determine which rights they reserve and which ones they waive. Even though you do not need to obtain permission to use these images, they still require attribution (citation) when they are used.

Public Domain

Works by the U.S. Government are considered in the public domain and are not covered by copyright.

Taxonomy - Finding Species Names

Insect Image Collections

Finding Images

These search tools allow you to limit your search to images that can be reused in various ways.

Citing Images

Some styles such as APA provide specific citation styles for images from the Web. The CSE (Council of Science Editors) Manual does not have a specific citation format for Web images. Generally, the following information, when available, should be included in your citation:

Photographer, artist, or creator's name
Title of the work
Date created
Repository, museum, or owner
City or Country of origin
Access date and web site address (URL)

Information on Citing Images from Wikimedia Commons (from Scientific American)