A figure (image) may be a chart, a graph, a photograph, a drawing, or any other illustration or nontextual depiction. This section details elements of formatting students must use when including a figure in a document.

These guidelines are for undergraduate students completing assignments at SAE. Use the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association for guidelines on how to create Figure and Table notes and copyright attributions in works that are included for publication, such as theses, journal articles, books, and public webpages.

SAE guidelines for using figures in assignments and presentations:

• Each figure needs to be numbered in the order in which it appears in the document. (For presentations, like PowerPoint, you do not need to include a figure number and title above the image).
• Provide each figure with a brief but explanatory title (in italics).
• For an untitled figure, add a brief description of the figure in place of title. (Place this description in square brackets in place of title in the reference list).
• In text, refer to every figure by its number. For example, As shown in Figure 1, ... 
• An in-text reference should be included to acknowledge that the figure has been reproduced from another source. The in-text citation (or caption) for a figure should be placed underneath the figure with the following format:

 (Author, Date) Include the page number if applicable, for example, for an image from a book or journal article.

• In the reference list, reference the source from which the image was obtained. 

Cite the image directly as a stand-alone work if an image was viewed:

• in a gallery or on a gallery website,
• on a photo sharing platform, e.g. Flickr; or
• from a website where the image author is clearly identified.

Use other sources for images that have been found in:

• books,
• journals, and
• websites where the author of the image is not evident.

• If you created the image (this is usually the case when you are displaying your own data that you have compiled in a graph or chart or your own photograph), you do not need to include it in the reference list, but the image must be clearly labelled (e.g. Figure 1: Audio students by age).  There is no requirement to include a caption (citation) under the image when displaying your own created data.
• If you feel it needs to be made clear it is your own work, add "Own Work" on or under the image to avoid confusion. See Additional Considerations for an example.

• If reference elements such as the title and date of the image are not present, please see the following guidelines: What to do if any of the reference elements are missing.