A Short Guide To Referencing Figures And Tables For .

A short guide to essay planning and structureLIBRARYSERVICESA short guide to referencingfigures and tables forPostgraduate Taught studentswww.intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/asc1

2A short guide to referencing figures and tables for Postgraduate Taught studentsReferencing figures and tablesIntroductionHow do you go about referringto figures, tables and other visualsin your academic writing? What doyou do when you want to includetables that are all your own work,or a table that is adapted from thework of another author?Tables and figuresVisuals are normally divided into twocategories for use in your writing.Tables are – fairly obviously – columnsof words or data that you wouldcreate in a package such as MicrosoftWord or Excel .This Short Guide will either give youthe answers, or refer you to othersources of information. Please use it inconjunction with its companion guidefrom the ASC, Short Guide to usingvisuals in your writing (Universityof Birmingham, 2015).Figures are everything else, forinstance pictures, drawings, scannedmaterial, photographs, charts andgraphs etc. In some schools, all visualmaterials may be grouped togetherand known as ‘Figures’.There is no standard practice acrossthe University of Birmingham. Someindividual departments will have theirown guidelines, and others may haveno guidelines at all. So here are a fewtips to help you to confidently usetables and figures in youracademic writing.Guidelines – a health warningThis complements whatever you gettold by individual lecturers. Obviously,guidance from within your Schoolalways takes priority over this generalguide to good practice.CopyrightYou can normally use copyrightmaterial for your private study.However, images you will see on theweb are protected by copyright lawand cannot be simply cut and pastedinto your work. You must always givea source for the figure or table, andnever use copyright material withoutacknowledgement. We stronglyadvise you to find out more from theUniversity of Birmingham webpage onfair dealing (University of Birmingham,2015a), and the web page on digitalcontent (University of Birmingham,2015b).

A short guide to referencing figures and tables for Postgraduate Taught studentsImages may also be available to youunder what is called the CreativeCommons agreement. In otherwords, this is an arrangement forthe legal sharing of content whichindividuals have created. As well asacknowledging the creator of thework, it’s also a good idea to use alow resolution image from a highresolution work. Again, find out moreabout this at the University website(University of Birmingham 2015b).Using Creative Commons means youwill avoid the risk of copyright theft,and also plagiarism. To learn more,go to the Creative Commons website(Creative Commons, 2014).Labelling your workUnless you are told to the contrary,tables should be labelled sequentiallyas Table 1, Table 2, Table 3 etc.Everything else is labelled sequentiallyas Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3 etc.ExampleThe label is usually placedbeneath the figure or table.But be aware of practice inyour own School.Figure 1.Dimensions of thecross-section of the beam(Frei, 2012. Used withpermission).3

Specialist412A short guide to referencing figures and tables for Postgraduate Taught ordinatorTablesResourceinvesMake sure thatany referencePlantto percentages always includes0510N 45the specific number. Thenormalshorthand is N 45 (where the studyrefers to 45 respondents).152025Belbin roles% in atorN 45ResourceinvesPlant0510152025Number of participants per groupFigure 2. Belbin roles (Source: Personal collection)Referring to your work in the textof your assignmentWhen you have gone to a lot oftrouble to create tables and figures,it is important to make sure that youuse them effectively.So always refer directly to the figure.For instance:‘Figure 7, above, suggests that.’‘Table 4, page 19, is a powerfulargument for.’‘Figure 17, over page, provides clearevidence that.’

A short guide to referencing figures and tables for Postgraduate Taught studentsWho created your table or figure?Always give a source for your table orfigure, or if you have found an imagethat you want to use after altering it.Figure 3. Creative Commons logo(Creative Commons, 2015).Some visuals that you might want touse are copyright and as previouslymentioned, other materials may beavailable to you under the CreativeCommons agreement.In order to use these two greatfree services:1. Decide what kind of image you need.2. Locate the web address of animage using University of Derby(2015) service.3. Copy the web address and pasteit into the University of Nottingham(2015) Xpert database.4. Download the image. You will noticethat it now has a list of credits at itsbase. This box displays the technicalinformation you need to display.5. Save that image and then pasteit into your document.There is a very useful way to locateimages within the Creative Commonscheme. You can find the search tool ata University of Derby website (2015).This lists a wide range of relevantsources of copyright free images.In addition, the University of Nottingham(2015) has produced a very helpfulsearch tool for saving time when youhave found an image. This useful toolembeds the attribution in the image,thus making it clear that the work iscleared of copyright problems.You can find the Nottingham Xpert toolhere: e 3. Creative Commons attributionon an image of a palace. (Gabowich,2009).5

6A short guide to referencing figures and tables for Postgraduate Taught studentsAs an example: here is a mind map with theattribution automatically added.The official‘attribution’under CreativeCommonsis tuckeddiscreetly downin the bottomleft cornerFigure 4. Example of mind map. (Gabowich, 2009, cc BY 2.5).Reminder: please note that the imagehas both a copyright statement inat the bottom of the figure, plus thefigure number and a caption.You need both sets of identification.If the image does not show up onthe University of Nottingham Xpertdatabase, it is perfectly permissibleto add your own attribution.

A short guide to referencing figures and tables for Postgraduate Taught studentsQuestionsDo I need to cite the Universityof Derby and University ofNottingham searching toolsin my assignments?No , they are just search enginesto help you find appropriate images,in the same way as Google, Bingor the Library Services FindIt@Birmingham search engines.Are other image searching toolsavailable?Yes of course there are lots whichyou are probably already aware of.We are mentioning the Universityof Derby and the University ofNottingham tools because they areso useful, and refer you to fullylicensed materials.7

8A short guide to referencing figures and tables for Postgraduate Taught studentsEfficiencyDatacompressionrateBig DataassessmentDataprocessingspeedTimeFigure 5. Data processing speed, datacompression rate and Big Data assessmentversus time. (Bautsch, 2014) cc BY 1.0.More examples of referencingtables and figuresTables and figures should always bereferenced. Treat the visuals exactlyas though they were quotations takenfrom a published work. Consequentlyyour reader can go back to check theoriginal reference.Creative Commonsstatement, preparedby the studentwho wants to usesomeone else’simage. This caption isperfectly acceptable.Figure 6. Effective gallic acid onbiomass of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp.(Wu et al., 2009, p.300).Referencing another writer’s graph.

A short guide to referencing figures and tables for Postgraduate Taught studentsAmending another writer’s workIf you have adapted the data, thenuse ‘Amended from’.For instance, if you had worked onFigure 6, above and slightly altered orchanged it, your caption would read:Figure 7. Effective gallic acid onbiomass of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp.(Amended from Wu et al., 2009,p300).Further example of amended data.All your own workIf you have created your own originalfigure, you write:Name of image(Source: Personal collection),as the following example illustrates.Why?What?How?Whatelse?clcclear allp [0.001113, - 0.001713,(13.19 - 380)];roots(p);Figure 8. MATLAT script for x(Amended from Duncan, 2012).Amending someone else’s data.Figure 9. A revised 4Mat grid(Source: Personal collection).Referencing your own visualeg, graph or chart9

10 A short guide to referencing figures and tables for Postgraduate Taught studentsTables and figures in the list of referencesA table or figure from a bookGive the Originator’s Surname,INITIALS. (Year of publication) Title ofimage [type of image]. Title of book.Place of publication: Publisher.Example:Timbrell, J. (2000) Additional reaction[Diagram] . In: Principles ofbiochemical toxicology. 3rd. ed.London: Taylor and Francis, p.101.A table or figure froma journal articleGive the Originator’s Surname,INITIALS. (Year of publication) Title ofimage [type of image]. Source In: Titleof Journal article. Journal title, number(part): pages.Example:Wu, G., Fang y and Yang S. (2004)Figure 1: Multiplicity of Glutathioneroles in mammalian organisms[JPEG]. In: Gluthione metabolismand its implications for health.Journal of Nutrition, 134 (3):489-492.A table or figure from anonline sourceGive the Originator’s Surname,INITIALS. (Year of publication) Titleof image [type of image]. Source[Online]. Available from: URL[Accessed: date].Example of online reference:Gunning, V. (2012) Figure 2:Chemical structure of2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene [Diagram].In: The role of glutathionetransferases in TNT detoxification.Figure 1.1, p1. MSc thesis.University of York. Departmentof Biology. [online]. Available from:http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/3785/1/Vanda Gunning thesis.pdf [Accessed: 10 February 2015].

A short guide to referencing figures and tables for Postgraduate Taught students 11List of referencesUniversity of Birmingham. Library Services.(2015a) Fair dealing [online].Available ed: 20 March 2015 ].University of Birmingham. Library Services.(2015b) Digital content and copyright[online]. Available ssed: 20 March 2015 ].University of Bradford. (2014) Writing forscience: diagrams and tables [online].Available from: s/study/assignmentwriting/write-sciences[Accessed: 15 February 2015 ].University of Bournemouth. Library. (2014)How to cite references: BU Harvard Style[online].Available from: -refs-harvard.html[Accessed: 15 February 2015 ].University of Birmingham. Library Services.Academic Skills Centre. (2015) Short Guideto using visuals in your writing [online].Academic Skills Centre. March 2015.University of Derby. Library. (2015)Student copyright guide [online].Available from: http://libguides.derby.ac.uk/content.php?pid 445253&sid 3736284[Accessed: 15 February 2015 ].[This is one of the best places to look whenyou want to find a wide range of imagesearch engines for copyright-clearedmaterial].University of Nottingham. (2015)Xpert attribution tool [online].Available from: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xpert/attribution [Accessed: 15 February2015 ]. [The tool allows you to attribute theauthor in your visual].With special thanks to: Nancy Graham, formerly Subject Advisor,Library Services, who drew the ASC’sattention to the University of Derby andUniversity of Nottingham tools. Alex Fenlon, University of Birmingham,Copyright and Licensing Officer, forinvaluable advice on copyright matters andCreative Commons. Sonia Lee Cooke and Paul Foxall,University of Birmingham, Digital andTechnology Skills Team for illuminatingadvice on inserting images into documents. Jenny Frei and Ian Duncan (University ofBirmingham students), for allowing theASC to use samples of their materials.

www.birmingham.ac.uk13355 University of Birmingham 2016. Printed on a recycled grade paper containing 100% post-consumer waste.Library ServicesEdgbaston, Birmingham,B15 2TT, United Kingdom

original reference. Referencing another writer’s graph. Figure 6. Effective gallic acid on biomass of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. (Wu et al., 2009, p.300). A short guide to referencing figures and tables for Postgraduate Taught students Big Data assessment Data compression rate Data processing speed Time Efficiency Figure 5. Data processing speed, data compression rate and Big Data assessment .