LibGuides: Citing Sources in Digital Assignments: Seneca Libraries Recommendations

Best Practices for Citing Sources in a Digital Assignment

Always confirm assignment expectations with your instructor first. There are no official APA or MLA rules for citing material in digital assignments, so Seneca Libraries recommends following these guidelines. However, if your professor requires you to use APA or MLA for a digital assignment, you must abide by their instructions. Click here to see a short presentation comparing the library's recommendations for citing in presentations (aka a digital assignment) compared to citing using APA and MLA style in a presentation.

General Recommendations

Citing information other than images

Name the source of information with a hyperlink to the source within brackets.
When the URL for the source is long, you may use shortened URLs (e.g., bit.ly).

Citing images

Include the creator (omit if not available) and a hyperlink to where you found the image underneath the image.
If it looks too cluttered to have this information directly underneath the image, then provide it in one central place with all other image credits and include a title or short description so it is clear which image you are crediting.
When the URL for the image source is long, you may use shortened URLs (e.g., bit.ly).
For images with a Creative Commons license, see the “Attributing Sources” section of the Creative Commons page or the Wiki for best practices in attributing Creative Commons Sources for instructions on providing an image credit.
If an image website gives you the attribution note, you may copy and use their recommended attribution.

Specific Recommendations

Recommendations for Citing Images

Option 1: Crediting under image - List the creator (omit if not available) and a hyperlink to the source directly under the image.
Option 2: Crediting on end slide - List the title (or a short description of the image if the title is not available), the creator (omit if not available), and a hyperlink on an end slide labelled Image Credits.

Recommendations for Citing Information

Include in-text citation of source name with hyperlink to source, e.g. (National Post). You do not need to have an end slide with citations.

If you are citing information from a journal article, use the name of the journal as the source, and include a permalink to the article. (How do I find the permalink to an article?)

Examples

Citing Images

List a short description of the image, the creator in brackets (omit if not available), and a hyperlink to the source at the end/bottom of the infographic in a section called Sources.

List them in the order they appear in the infographic.

List both images and other information sources together in the same Sources section.

Citing Other Information

List the title of the information in quotation marks (if title is not available, list a short description of the information, not in quotation marks), the source in brackets, and a hyperlink to the source at the end/bottom of the infographic in a section called Sources.

List them in the order they appear in the infographic.

List both images and other information sources together in the same Sources section.

If you are citing information from a journal article, use the name of the journal as the source, and include a permalink to the article. (How do I find the permalink to an article?)

Examples

Citing Images (2 options)

Option 1: Crediting under photo

List the creator (omit if not available) and a hyperlink to the source directly under the image.

Example:

Option 2: Crediting at bottom of webpage or on a new tab/page

List a short description, the creator (omit if not available), and a hyperlink at the bottom of the webpage in a section called Image Credits, or on a new tab/page labelled Image Credits.

Example:

Citing Other Information

Include in-text citation of source name with hyperlink to source.

If you are citing information from a journal article, use the name of the journal as the source, and include a permalink to the article. (How do I find the permalink to an article?)

Example:

Citing information on a website

Citing Images

List a short description, the creator (omit if not available), and a link at the end of the video on a screen called Image Credits.

Citing Other Information

List the title of the information in quotation marks (if title is not available, list a short description of the information, not in quotation marks), the source in brackets, and hyperlink at the end of the video on a screen called Sources.

If you are citing information from a journal article, use the name of the journal as the source, and include a permalink to the article. (How do I find the permalink to an article?)

Example of citing information:

citing information sources in video

Citing Images

List the title (or a short description of the image if the title is not available), the creator (omit if not available), and a hyperlink in a separate document called Image Credits.

List them in the order they appear in the infographic, if possible.

The image credits appear on a separate document from the photo collage so as not to distract from the aesthetics of the photo collage.

Example:

photo collage citation

Citing Images

List the title (or a short description of the image if the title is not available), the creator (omit if not available), and a hyperlink in the caption in a section called Image Credits.

Example:

Instagram Post image credit

Citing Images Generated by AI

Here are a few examples on how you could cite AI-generated images in your projects and assignments. Remember to check with your instructor if you're permitted to use AI. Always follow your instructor’s preferred citation format.

If you're citing AI-generated text, see the APA or MLA citation guide for more information. For free images, see Finding Free Images, Audio & Video with the Seneca Sandbox.