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Attribution Style Guide

Table of contents

This guide provides a method for writing attributions along with examples for different content types. We also recommend using the Washington Open Attribution Builder to get started. The attribution builder, and the examples here, provide attribution statements that you can copy and paste into your own document. You can then modify to include:

Attributions for Content with a Creative Commons License

Unmodified text with Creative Commons license

Example 1:

The Underground Economy Around the World by Tonja R. Conerly, Kathleen Holmes, Asha Lal Tamang, Introduction to Sociology 3e, Openstax, is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Example 2:

Agency definition from the Open Education Sociological Dictionary edited by Kenton Bell is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Modified text with Creative Commons license

How Cultures Change is adapted from High, Low, Pop, Sub, Counter-culture and Cultural Change by Tonja R. Conerly, Kathleen Holmes, and Asha Lal Tamang, Introduction to Sociology 3e, Openstax, which is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Modifications by Yvonne Smith, licensed under CC BY 4.0, include adding more inclusive images and a case study about Rashnishism.

Expanded and modified text with Creative Commons licenses:

Example 1:

Historical Perspective on Mental Disorders is adapted from:

Modifications by Anne Nichol, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, include substantially expanding and rewriting.

Example 2:

Open Education Foundations is adapted from:

Modifications by Open Oregon Educational Resources, licensed under CC BY 4.0, include stylistic changes for coherence and flow.

Modified text with 1.0, 2.0, or 3.0 Creative Commons license version

Racial Bias in Standardized Texts is adapted from Standardized and other formal assessments by Kelvin Siefert and Rosemary Sutton, Educational Psychology, which is licensed under CC BY 3.0. Modifications by Tabitha Raber, licensed under CC BY 4.0, include substantial rewrites for DEI focus and stylistic consistency and a new concluding paragraph.

When you create an adaptation or new works, use 4.0–the newest and most globally compatible version of the license.

Unmodified figure with Creative Commons license

Figure 1.1. Which Nationalities Consider Religion Most Important? by Niall McCarthy, StatistaCharts, is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Modified figure with Creative Commons license

Figure 1.1. Diagram illustrating Milgrams Obedience Study is adapted from Un-labeled Diagram Illustration of the Setup of a Milgram Experiment by Fred the Oyster, Wikimedia Commons, which is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modifications: Annotations added by Jennifer Puentes and Michaela Willi Hooper.

Figure with Creative Commons license as a component in a new work

Figure 1.1. Latino vs. Hispanic Infographic by Kimberly Puttman and Michaela Willi Hooper, Open Oregon Educational Resources, is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Map image: Latin America (orthographic projection) by Heraldry is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Embedded video with a Creative Commons license

The Urgency of Intersectionality with Kimberlé Crenshaw by TED is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Transcript for a Creative Commons-licensed video

Transcript for The Urgency of Intersectionality with Kimberlé Crenshaw by TED is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Corrected transcript for a Creative Commons-licensed video

Transcript for Sociological Imagination by SociologyLive! is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Modifications: revised for accessibility.

Attributions for Content in the Public Domain

Unmodified figure in the Public Domain

Figure 1.1. Snow Scene by Utagawa Kunisada, Wikipedia, is in the Public Domain. Courtesy of Brooklyn Museum Collection.

This particular resource asks that you credit the Brooklyn Museum Collection, so this was added manually.

Unmodified figure marked CC0

Figure 2.4. Photo by nappy is in the Public Domain, CC0 1.0.

Content created with AI

Content created by AI is not subject to copyright and, thus, not subject to licensing. Your human contributions are subject to copyright and licensing.

Example 1:

Better Sharing With AI by Creative Commons was generated by the DALL-E 2 AI platform with the text prompt A surrealist painting in the style of Salvador Dali of a robot giving a gift to a person playing a cello. CC dedicates any rights it holds to the image to the public domain via CC0.

Example 2:

The text and arrangement of “Copyright and AI” by Rachel Bridgewater is licensed under CC BY 4.0. All images were generated by Midjourney and lightly edited by Rachel Bridgewater. Any rights present in the images are dedicated to the public domain via CC0.

Example 3:

“Copyright and AI” was created by ChatGPT and is not subject to copyright. Details including a full list of text prompts are available in Appendix 3.

Attributions for Content with a Custom License

If you don’t see a Creative Commons license, look around for other copyright or terms of use information to confirm what permissions you have. Examples of platforms with custom licenses include:

Even if an image is open or free to use, don’t present identifiable people in a bad light or in a way that invades their privacy. Read more via When to Use a Release [Website].

Embedded video with custom license

Example 1:

Figure 1.1. Rosie Perez on Roles for Women of Color by PBS is licensed under the Standard YouTube License.

Example 2: 

Figure 1.1. Covenant of the Salmon People by Swiftwater Films is licensed under the Vimeo Terms of Service.

Copied transcript for Youtube video

Example 1: Copied with permission

Transcript for Major Sociological Paradigms: Crash Course Sociology #2 by CrashCourse is included with permission.

Example 2: Copied under fair use

Transcript for Major Sociological Paradigms: Crash Course Sociology #2 by CrashCourse is included under fair use.

Corrected transcript for YouTube video

Example 1: Revised with permission

Transcript for Rosie Perez on Roles for Women of Color by PBS revised for accessibility with permission.

Example 2: Revised under fair use

Transcript for Rosie Perez on Roles for Women of Color by PBS revised for accessibility under fair use.

Embedded YouTube video with added content

Figure 1.1. Rosie Perez on Roles for Women of Color by PBS is licensed under the Standard YouTube License. Introduction and discussion questions added under fair use.

If some of your content is not directly related to the video, it may warrant a separate licensing statement.

Unmodified image with custom license

Example 1:

Figure 1.1.Photo by stokpic is licensed under the Pixabay License.

When no title is provided, you can describe the content type and link to the source.

Example 2:

Figure 1.1. Photo by Nate Johnson is licensed under the Unsplash License.

Example 3:

Figure 1.1. Man Reviewing Womans Resume by Tima Miroshnichenko is licensed under the Pexels License.

Example 4:

Figure 1.1. Demographic shifts in todays military show growing representation of racial and ethnic minorities from The Changing profile of the U.S. military: Smaller in size, more diverse, more women in leadership © Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. (2019) is licensed under the Centers Terms of Use.

Remixing text is not recommended for content with limited grants of license like Pew Research Centers. Note that the license is revocable, while Creative Commons licenses are not. Also note that additional information (date, location) are included here due to a specific attribution request from the Center.

Attributions for Content that is © All Rights Reserved

Here are some examples of attributions for materials that are © All Rights Reserved. Anything without an open license or that is not in the public domain should be considered All Rights Reserved. You have two options for including limited portions of All Rights Reserved materials if there is no adequate open substitute we can use or create: with permission or under fair use. 

Learn more:

Unmodified All Rights Reserved Content under Fair Use

Example 1:

Figure 1.1. Screenshot from The Help © Walt Disney Studios is included under fair use.

Example 2:

Figure 1.1. Percent of Imprisoned People in Private Prisons, 2020 in Private Prisons in the United States (p. 2) © The Sentencing Project is included under fair use.

If you are not able to identify the copyright holder (social media memes, etc.), use by or via instead of ©.

Modified All Rights Reserved Content under Fair Use

Figure 1.1. Advertisement © Dolce & Gabbana is included under fair use. Modifications: cropped and annotated for pedagogical impact.

All Rights Reserved content used with permission

Figure 1.1. Rend and Mend © Andrew Douglas Campbell is all rights reserved and included with permission.

Modified All Rights Reserved content used with permission

Figure 1.1. The ACME Framework by professorx is all rights reserved and included with permission. Modifications by Jane Forbes and Michaela Will Hooper include an image description and increased contrast for accessibility.

Help Other People Attribute You

Include a licensing statement to identify your original work and help downstream users write their attribution.

It is best practice to link to the Creative Commons license you are using in your attributions and licensing statements. Copy/paste from the list below.

CC BY 4.0

CC BY-SA 4.0

CC BY-ND 4.0

CC BY-NC 4.0

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

CC0 1.0

Original work

Overview by Christina Belli, Terese Jones, and Esmerelda Janeth Julyan is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Revised work

Overview by Christina Belli, Terese Jones, and Esmerelda Janeth Julyan is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Revised by Terese Jones.

It is up to the team to decide who gets credit, who is credited first, etc. You may also decide to just add the Revising Author name to the original list of authors.

Original section with a different license than overall work

Feminist Theory by Jennifer Puentes is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

The author chose this license for this chapter section because re-used text in this section had this same Sharealike license. If you use only a paragraph or so of the more restrictive (SA) licensed content, consider paraphrasing or using other content so that you can choose your own license.

Simple text table

Figure 7.12. Student Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity over Time (2011-2020) Annual Headcount. Data from Uni Headcount by Race, Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission.

Simple text tables are often not creative enough to be copyrightable (when they’re just presenting numerical data, for example). While it is recommended to create attributions or licensing statements for most figures, original text tables do not need to be credited separately from the rest of the section. You can choose to credit yourself, though. Its a best practice to note where you got the data, if it is not original.

Organizing Attributions and Licensing Statements

While you’re working on your text, add attribution statements in the order in which they appear. Don’t worry about organizing them as you go along. When you’re preparing a final draft, you may decide to group attributions and licensing statements into three categories with headings, to make them easier for downstream users to navigate:

Example of Licenses & Attribution Section

Below is an example of a Licenses and Attribution section (from the Social Problems manuscript by Kimberly Puttman, with chapter author Kathryn Burrows), which is found at the end of each H2 section. Kimberly made the decision to include quotation marks around untitled descriptions of resources as well as titles. Make sure everyone on your team is aware of customizations to the default style for your book!

Licenses and Attributions for Health Equity is Social Justice

Open Content, Original

Health Equity is Social Justice by Kathryn Burrows and Kimberly Puttman is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Open Content, Shared Previously

Changing US Healthcare policy and Changing Healthcare Policies Around the World are adapted from Comparative Health and Medicine by Tonja R. Conerly, Kathleen Holmes, Asha Lal Tamang, Introduction to Sociology 3e, Openstax, which is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Modifications: Sustainability goals and covid detail was added.

Figure 10.16. People Living in the US Who Are Uninsured by Elizabeth B. Pearce and Michaela Willi Hooper, Open Oregon Educational Resources is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Figure 10.17. Obamacare Protest at Supreme Court by Tabitha Kaylee Hawk is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Figure 10.19. Boston Women’s March 02 by Carly Hagins is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Figure 10.20. Photo of Black pregnant woman and man by Andre Adjahoe is licensed under the Unsplash License.

All Rights Reserved Content

Figure 10.18. Cover of the 1973 edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves by The Boston Womens Health Book Collective is included under fair use.

Attributions for Content on This Page

Attribution Style Guide by Open Oregon Educational Resources is modified from work by Michaela Willi Hooper that is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

“Content created with AI” by Rachel Bridgewater is excerpted from Exploring Artificial Intelligence in Open Education Contexts (not so scary after all?), licensed CC BY 4.0.

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