old-2024-Center for Research & Writing

Creative Commons - Search for content and images that can be reused without breaking copyright laws!

Creative Commons (CC) is an organization that provides free licenses for creators to use when making their work available to the public. These licenses allow the creator to determine how their work can or can not be used by others - granting copyright permissions for creative and academic works; ensure proper attribution; and allow others to copy or remix or distribute.

For any work that will be published and seen outside of classroom environment, it is important to follow the Creative Commons license for use of the work, or that permission to use the work is obtained from the author/creator. See the Creative Commons and Fair Use Guide.

Look for a license stamp like one these below - this stamp determines if and how the work is to be used and how it should be attributed to the original author or not.

CC Licenses - see definitions here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Google Images

 Search Google images, make sure you are using the labeled for noncommercial reuse which is found under the Tools bar.

The problem with this is that citation for these images can be difficult to find.

Smithsonian Open Access

Flickr

First search for an image using a key word - then sort the results to only show a specific usage license.

All images on Wikimedia Commons are reusable but each image may have different requirements for crediting a photographer/artist. Look at the Creative Commons licenses to determine if/how the image should be cited.

All images and charts on CREDO Reference can be used - you just need to include a citation.  The citations for all images and charts are conveniently provided at the bottom of each article. 

Statista provides data and statistics charts that can be easily imported into ppt slides, or downloaded as image files. Citations for each chart are available on the page and embedded within the imported image or download.