how to cite a diagram in a research paper

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• Library Guides
• Referencing styles and applications

APA 7th Referencing Style Guide

• Figures (graphs and images)
• Referencing & APA style
• In-text citation
• Elements of a reference
• Format & examples of a reference list
• Conferences
• Reports & grey literature

General guidelines

From a book, from an article, from a library database, from a website, citing your own work.

• Theses and dissertations
• Audio works
• Films, TV & video
• Visual works
• Computer software, games & apps
• Lecture notes & Intranet resources
• Legal resources
• Personal communications
• PowerPoint slides
• Social media
• Specific health examples
• Standards & patents
• Websites & webpages
• Footnotes and appendices
• Frequently asked questions

A figure may be a chart, a graph, a photograph, a drawing, or any other illustration or nontextual depiction. Any type of illustration or image other than a table is referred to as a figure.

Figure Components

• Number:  The figure number (e.g., Figure 1 ) appears above the figure in bold (no period finishing).
• Title: The figure title appears one double-spaced line below the figure number in Italic Title Case  (no period finishing).
• Image: The image portion of the figure is the chart, graph, photograph, drawing, or illustration itself.
• Legend: A figure legend, or key, if present, should be positioned within the borders of the figure and explain any symbols used in the figure image.
• Note: A note may appear below the figure to describe contents of the figure that cannot be understood from the figure title, image, and/or legend alone (e.g., definitions of abbreviations, copyright attribution). Not all figures include notes. Notes are flush left, non-italicised. If present they begin with Note. (italicised, period ending). The notes area will include reference information if not an original figure, and copyright information as required.

General rules

• In the text, refer to every figure by its number, no italics, but with a capital "F" for "Figure". For example, "As shown in Figure 1, ..." 
• There are two options for the placement of figures in a paper. The first option is to place all figures on separate pages after the reference list. The second option is to embed each figure within the text.
• If you reproduce or adapt a figure from another source (e.g., an image you found on the internet), you should include a copyright attribution in the figure note, indicating the origin of the reproduced or adapted material, in addition to a reference list entry for the work. Include a permission statement (Reprinted or Adapted with permission) only if you have sought and obtained permission to reproduce or adapt material in your figure. A permission statement is not required for material in the public domain or openly licensed material. For student course work, AUT assignments and internal assessments, a permission statement is also not needed, but copyright attribution is still required.
• Important note for postgraduate students and researchers: If you wish to reproduce or adapt figures that you did not create yourself in your thesis, dissertation, exegesis, or other published work, you must obtain permission from the copyright holder/s, unless the figure is in the public domain (copyright free), or licensed for use with a Creative Commons or other open license. Works under a  Creative Commons licence  should be cited accordingly. See Using works created by others for more information. 

Please check the APA style website for an illustration of the basic figure component & placement of figure in a text.

More information & examples from the   APA Style Manual , s. 7.22-7.36,    pp. 225–250

Figure reproduced in your text

Note format - for notes below the figure

In-text citation:

Reference list entry:

Referring to a figure in a book

If you refer to a figure included in a book but do not include it in your text, format the in-text citation and the reference list entry in the usual way, citing the page number where the figure appears.

Note format -  for notes below the figure

Referring to a figure in an article

If you refer to a figure in an article but do not include it in your text, format the in-text citation and the reference list entry in the usual way for an article, citing the page number where the figure appears.

Note format - for notes below the figure

Reference list:

Referring to a figure on a webpage

If you refer to a figure on a webpage and do not include it in your text, format the in-text citation and the reference list entry in the usual way for a webpage,

Not every reference to an artwork needs a reference list entry. For example, if you refer to a famous painting, as below, it would not need a reference.

Finding image details for your figure caption or reference

• clicking on or hovering your mouse over the image
• looking at the bottom of the image
• looking at the URL
• If there is no title, create a short descriptive one yourself and put it in square brackets e.g. [...]
• For more guidance, see Visual works

If it has been formally published reference your work as you would any other published work.

If the work is available on a website reference it as a webpage (see examples in the webpage section ).

Citing your own figures, graphs or images in an assignment:

• Include the title
• Add a note explaining the content. No copyright attribution is required.
• You can, if you wish, add a statement that it is your own work
• You do not need an in-text citation or add it to your reference list
• See example in APA manual p.247, Figure 7.17 Sample photograph

Great Barrier Island 

Note. Photo of Great Barrier Island taken from Orewa at sunrise. Own work.

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• Study and research support
• Referencing
• Leeds Harvard referencing examples
• table or diagram Figure

Leeds Harvard: Figure, table or diagram

Reference examples.

The full reference should direct the reader to the source (eg the book or website ) from which the item was taken.

Citation examples

Image, figure, table or diagram.

You should provide an in-text citation for any photographs, images, tables, diagrams, graphs, figures or illustrations that you reproduce in your work. The citation would normally be given after the title of the figure, table, diagram, etc.

Example: Figure 1, A four pointed star (Jones, 2015, p.54).

A reference within the text to a table, graph, diagram, etc. taken from a source should include the author, date and page number in brackets to enable the reader to identify the data.

Example: (Jones, 2015, p.33)

If you have already named the author in the text, only the publication year and page number needs to be mentioned in brackets.

Jones (2015, p.33) gave a detailed figures on the rapid increase of trade union membership during the twentieth century.

If the source of the data is not the author's own, but obtained from another source, it becomes a secondary reference and needs to be cited as such.

Example: (United Nations, 1975, cited in Smith, 2016, p.33)

If you use a table/graph, etc. from a source and then adapt it to use in your own assignment, you must make that clear in your reference.

We would suggest something along the lines of: Figure 1, Title, based on Smith, 2005, p.22.

Corporate author

If the item is produced by an organisation, treat the organisation as a "corporate author". This means you can use the name of the organisation instead of that of an individual author. This includes government departments, universities or companies. Cite the corporate author in the text the same way as you would an individual author.

According to a recent report, flu jabs are as important as travel vaccines (Department of Health, 2017).  

Common issues

When you're referencing with Leeds Harvard you may come across issues with missing details, multiple authors, edited books, references to another author's work or online items, to name a few. Here are some tips on how to deal with some common issues when using Leeds Harvard.

Skip straight to the issue that affects you:

• Online items
• URL web addresses
• Multiple authors
• Corporate author(s) or organisation(s)
• Multiple publisher details
• Editions and reprints
• Missing details
• Multiple sources with different authors
• Sources written by the same author in the same year
• Sources with the same author in different years
• Two authors with the same surname in the same year
• The work of one author referred to by another
• Anonymising sources for confidentiality
• Identifying the authors’ family name (surname)

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How to Cite Images, Tables and Diagrams

The pages outlines examples of how to cite images, tables and diagrams using the Harvard Referencing method .

An image found online

In-text citations

Mention the image in the text and cite the author and date:

The cartoon by Frith (1968) describes ...

If the image has no named author, cite the full name and date of the image:

The map shows the Parish of Maroota during the 1840s (Map of the Parish of Maroota, County of Cumberland, District of Windsor 1840-1849)

List of References

Include information in the following order:

• author (if available)
• year produced (if available)
• title of image (or a description)
• Format and any details (if applicable)
• name and place of the sponsor of the source
• accessed day month year (the date you viewed/ downloaded the image)
• URL or Internet address (between pointed brackets).

Frith J 1968, From the rich man’s table, political cartoon by John Frith, Old Parliament House, Canberra, accessed 11 May 2007, <http: // www . oph.gov.au/frith/theherald-01.html>.

If there is no named author, put the image title first, followed by the date (if available):

Khafre pyramid from Khufu’s quarry 2007, digital photograph, Ancient Egypt Research Associates, accessed 2 August 2007, <http: // www . aeraweb.org/khufu_quarry.asp>.

Map of the Parish of Maroota, County of Cumberland, District of Windsor 1840-1849, digital image of cartographic material, National Library of Australia, accessed 13 April 2007, <http: // nla . gov.au/nla.map-f829>.  

Online images/diagrams used as figures

Figures include diagrams, graphs, sketches, photographs and maps. If you are writing a report or an assignment where you include a visual as a figure, unless you have created it yourself, you must include a reference to the original source.

Figures should be numbered and labelled with captions. Captions should be simple and descriptive and be followed by an in-text citation. Figure captions should be directly under the image.

Cite the author and year in the figure caption:

Figure 1: Bloom's Cognitive Domain (Benitez 2012)

If you refer to the Figure in the text, also include a citation:

As can be seen from Figure 1 (Benitez 2012)

Provide full citation information:

Benitez J 2012, Blooms Cognitve Domain, digital image, ALIEM, accessed 2 August 2015, <https: // www . aliem.com/blooms-digital-taxonomy/>.   

Online data in a table caption

In-text citation

If you reproduce or adapt table data found online you must include a citation. All tables should be numbered and table captions should be above the table.

  Table 2: Agricultural water use, by state 2004-05 (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006)

If you refer to the table in text, include a citation:

As indicated in Table 2, a total of 11 146 502 ML was used (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006)

Include the name of the web page where the table data is found.

Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006, Water Use on Australian Farms , 2004-05, Cat. no. 4618.0, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra, accessed 4 July 2007, <https: // www . abs.gov.au>.

FAQ and troubleshooting

Harvard referencing

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• How to cite references
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Tips for Citing Figures and Tables in a Manuscript

During the preparation of your research article or thesis, you may choose to include figures and tables to illustrate key points. Similar to using information from a journal or other source, it is important that these items are correctly cited and listed in the references. If you created the table or image yourself, you would not include it in the reference list. You need to refer to the table or image two times. First, there should be, a brief mention of the table or figure in the text preceding its placement in your document. This should explain why the table or image was included or what major point the table or image is helping you to make. Just above the table or image, there should be an appropriate, descriptive title. The title should help the reader make sense of the information in the table or image.

If you are writing a thesis and there are many tables or figures, you would create a List of Figures and a List of Tables with their associated page numbers. Tables and scientific figures you have created would be included in these lists but excluded from your reference list. If you create a table based on data from other sources, the accompanying caption should detail the sources used. It may be appropriate, to use superscript numbers or letters to allow your readers to identify exactly which article or book each item in your table was first presented in, especially if this table was created using data from many sources. Again, depending on the format , you may be able to use the first column in your table to list the reference associated with data in each row.

Citing Others’ Tables

You may also choose to include scientific tables in your writing that have been obtained from other sources. In this case, in addition to mentioning the diagram in the text and giving it a descriptive caption, it would also need to be cited in the reference list. There are many variations in the way this is done so it is best to consult the style guide prescribed by the journal for which you are writing. This will help you to conform exactly to their preferences.

In general, the descriptive title will be placed near the table (either immediately above or below it, depending on the style used). The tables should be numbered sequentially. There should be an indication of the source of the table which may be included below the table. The information concerning the source should be enough to allow the reader to find the original source of the diagram. The author(s), year of publication, and the journal or book in which it was published should be included. If the scholarly article being written is made publicly available, then you should obtain permission from the original authors to reprint their data. The fact that you have permission to use the diagram should be included in the note below the table.

Note . Reprinted from “Title of Article,” by A. Surname, Year,  Journal Title, Volume (issue), page number. Copyright (year) by title of publisher.

Note.  Reprinted from  Title of Book  (p. xx), by A. Surname, Year, Place of Publication: Publisher. Copyright (year) by title of publisher.

If the diagram was obtained online, similar details will need to be provided along with the website from which the diagram was retrieved.

Note . A. Surname. (Year). Title of Webpage . [Table] Retrieved from http://www.sourceofdata.com .

The third place where the table should be mentioned is in the reference list. Much like the note below the table, as much detail as possible should be presented in the reference list. The only difference is that the phrase “reprinted from” would be excluded.

For example:

Surname, A. A., (year). Title of article.  Title of Journal, volume (issue) ,  page(s). Retrieved from URL (if the article was obtained online. Otherwise, this section would be omitted).

Citing Images

The purpose of citing an image, similar to citing a table, is to give credit to the original author for their work and allow your readers to find the original image. Like tables, images should be mentioned three times. The descriptive title and presentation in the reference list are similar to what is required for tables. The caption revealing the source is still placed below the image but the information in the caption can vary depending on your style guide.

Figure 1:   Questions the Literature Review can Answer (The Learning Centre 2007)  

Figure X . Descriptive title for figure. Reprinted from “Title of Article,” by A. Author, B. Author, and C. D. Author, Year,  Journal Title, Volume (issue), page number. Copyright (year) by title of publisher.

Figure X.  Descriptive title for figure. Reprinted from  Title of Book  (p. xx), by E. F. Author, Year, Place of Publication: Publisher. Copyright (year) by title of publisher.

Figure X.  Title of Image. Reprinted [or adapted] from  Title of Website,  by A. A. Author and B. B. Author, Year, Retrieved from URL. Copyright (year) by title of publisher.

Many authors are familiar with citing the ideas of others using a preferred citation style such as American Psychological Association’s style guide (APA) or the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS). It is important to remember that photographs, diagrams, comic strips, and tables also represent intellectual property and need to be cited. The key to proper citation is to determine which reference citation style is preferred by the academic journal or university that you are writing for. Following that citation style guide closely will ensure that your diagrams are cited with the same level of precision as other ideas in your text.

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Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

MLA Tables, Figures, and Examples

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

The purpose of visual materials or other illustrations is to enhance the audience's understanding of information in the document and/or awareness of a topic. Writers can embed several types of visuals using most basic word processing software: diagrams, musical scores, photographs, or, for documents that will be read electronically, audio/video applications. Because MLA style is most often used in the humanities, it is unlikely that you will include raw scientific data in an MLA-style paper, but you may be asked to include other kinds of research in your writing. For additional information on writing a research paper in MLA style, visit the MLA Style Center’s page on Formatting a Research Paper .

General guidelines

• Collect sources. Gather the source information required for MLA documentation for the source medium of the illustration (e.g. print, Web, podcast).
• Determine what types of illustrations best suit your purpose. Consider the purpose of each illustration, how it contributes to the purpose of the document and the reader's understanding, and whether the audience will be able to view and/or understand the illustration easily.
• Use illustrations of the best quality. Avoid blurry, pixilated, or distorted images for both print and electronic documents. Often pixelation and distortion occurs when writers manipulate image sizes. Keep images in their original sizes or use photo editing software to modify them. Reproduce distorted graphs, tables, or diagrams with spreadsheet or publishing software, but be sure to include all source information. Always represent the original source information faithfully and avoid unethical practices of false representation or manipulation  (this is considered plagiarism) .
• Use illustrations sparingly. Decide what items can best improve the document's ability to augment readers' understanding of the information, appreciation for the subject, and/or illustration of the main points. Do not provide illustrations for illustrations' sake. Scrutinize illustrations for how potentially informative or persuasive they can be.
• Do not use illustrations to boost page length. In the case of student papers, instructors often do not count the space taken up by visual aids toward the required page length of the document. Remember that texts explain, while illustrations enhance. Illustrations cannot carry the entire weight of the document.

Labels, captions, and source information

Illustrations appear directly embedded in the document, except in the case of manuscripts that are being prepared for publication. (For preparing manuscripts with visual materials for publication, see Note on Manuscripts below.) Each illustration must include a label, a number, a caption and/or source information.

• The illustration label and number should always appear in two places:  the document main text (e.g. see fig. 1 ) and near the illustration itself ( Fig. 1 ).
• Captions  provide titles or explanatory notes (e.g., Van Gogh’s The Starry Night)
• Source information  documentation will always depend upon the medium of the source illustration. If you provide source information with all of your illustrations, you do not need to provide this information on the Works Cited page.

MLA documentation for tables, figures, and examples

MLA provides three designations for document illustrations: tables, figures, and examples (see specific sections below).

• Refer to the table and its corresponding numeral in-text. Do not capitalize the word table. This is typically done in parentheses (e.g. "(see table 2)").
• Situate the table near the text to which it relates.
• Align the table flush-left to the margin.
• Label the table 'Table' and provide its corresponding Arabic numeral. No punctuation is necessary after the label and number (see example below).
• On the next line, provide a caption for the table, most often the table title. Use title case.
• Place the table below the caption, flush-left, making sure to maintain basic MLA style formatting (e.g. one-inch margins).
• Below the title, signal the source information with the descriptor "Source," followed by a colon, then provide the correct MLA bibliographic information for the source in note form (see instructions and examples above). If you provide source information with your illustrations, you do not need to provide this information on the Works Cited page.
• If additional caption information or explanatory notes is necessary, use lowercase letters formatted in superscript in the caption information or table. Below the source information, indent, provide a corresponding lowercase letter (not in superscript), a space, and the note.
• Labels, captions, and notes are double-spaced.

Table Example

In-text reference:

In 1985, women aged 65 and older were 59% more likely than men of the same age to reside in a nursing home, and though 11,700 less women of that age group were enrolled in 1999, men over the same time period ranged from 30,000 to 39,000 persons while women accounted for 49,000 to 61,500 (see table 1).

Table reference:

Rate of Nursing Home Residence among People Age 65 or Older, by Sex and Age Group, 1985, 1995, 1997, 1999 a

Example Table

Source: Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics, Older Americans 2008: Key Indicators of Well-Being , Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics, Mar. 2008, table 35A.

a. Note: Rates for 65 and over category are age-adjusted using the 2000 standard population. Beginning in 1997, population figures are adjusted for net underenumeration using the 1990 National Population Adjustment Matrix from the U.S. Census Bureau. People residing in personal care or domiciliary care homes are excluded from the numerator.

• All visuals/illustrations that are not tables or musical score examples (e.g. maps, diagrams, charts, videos, podcasts, etc.) are labeled Figure or Fig.
• Refer to the figure in-text and provide an Arabic numeral that corresponds to the figure. Do not capitalize figure or fig .
• MLA does not specify alignment requirements for figures; thus, these images may be embedded as the reader sees fit. However, continue to follow basic MLA Style formatting (e.g. one-inch margins).
• Below the figure, provide a label name and its corresponding arabic numeral (no bold or italics), followed by a period (e.g. Fig. 1.). Here, Figure and Fig . are capitalized.
• Beginning with the same line as the label and number, provide a title and/or caption as well as relevant source information in note form (see instructions and examples above). If you provide source information with your illustrations, you do not need to provide this information on the Works Cited page.
• If full citation information is provided in the caption, use the same formatting as you would for your Works Cited page. However, names should be listed in  first name last name  format.

Figure Example

Some readers found Harry’s final battle with Voldemort a disappointment, and recently, the podcast, MuggleCast debated the subject (see fig. 2).

Figure caption (below an embedded podcast file for a document to be viewed electronically):

Fig. 2. Harry Potter and Voldemort final battle debate from Andrew Sims et al.; “Show 166”; MuggleCast ; MuggleNet.com, 19 Dec. 2008, www.mugglenet.com/2015/11/the-snape-debate-rowling-speaks-out.

Musical Illustrations/"Examples"

• The descriptor "Example" only refers to musical illustrations (e.g. portions of a musical score). It is often abbreviated "ex ." 
• Refer to the example in-text and provide an Arabic numeral that corresponds to the example. Do not capitalize "example" or "ex "  in the text.
• Supply the illustration, making sure to maintain basic MLA Style formatting (e.g. one-inch margins).
• Below the example, provide the label (capitalizing Example or Ex . ) and number and a caption or title. The caption or title will often take the form of source information along with an explanation, for example, of what part of the score is being illustrated. If you provide source information with your illustrations, you do not need to provide this information on the Works Cited page.

Musical Illustration Example

In Ambroise Thomas's opera Hamlet,  the title character's iconic theme first appears in Act 1. As Hamlet enters the castle's vacant grand hall following his mother's coronation, the low strings begin playing the theme (ex 1).

Musical Illustration reference:

Ex. 1: Hamlet's Theme

Source: Thomas, Ambroise. Hamlet . 1868.

Source information and note form

Notes serve two purposes: to provide bibliographic information and to provide additional context for information in the text. When it comes to citing illustrations, using notes allows for the bibliographic information as close to the illustration as possible.

Note form entries appear much like standard MLA bibliographic entries with a few exceptions:

• Author names are in First_Name—Last_Name format.
• Commas are substituted for periods (except in the case of the period that ends the entry).
• Publication information for books (publisher, year) appears in parentheses.
• Relevant page numbers follow the publication information.

Note: Use semicolons to denote entry sections when long series of commas make these sections difficult to ascertain as being like or separate (see examples below.) The MLA Handbook  (8 th ed.) states that if the table or illustration caption provides complete citation information about the source and the source is not cited in the text, authors do not need to list the source in the Works Cited list.

For additional information, visit the MLA Style Center’s page on Using Notes in MLA Style .

Examples - Documenting source information in "Note form"

The following examples provide information on how a note might look following an illustration. Write the word “Source” immediately before your source note. If an illustration requires more than one note, label additional notes with lowercase letters, starting with a (see the note underneath the example table above).

Tom Shachtman, Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold  (Houghton Mifflin, 1999), p. 35.

Website (using semicolons to group like information together)

United States; Dept. of Commerce; Census Bureau; Manufacturing, Mining, and Construction Statistics; Housing Units Authorized by Building Permits ; US Dept. of Commerce, 5 Feb. 2008; Table 1a.

In this example, the commas in Manufacturing, Mining, and Construction Statistics prompt the need for semicolons in order for the series information to be read easily. Even if Manufacturing, Mining, and Construction Statistics had not appeared in the entry, the multiple "author names" of United States, Dept. of Commerce, and Census Bureau would have necessitated the use of a semicolon before and after the title and between ensuing sections to the end of the entry.

Furthermore, the publisher and date in a standard entry are separated by a comma and belong together; thus, their inclusion here (US Dept. of Commerce, 5 Feb. 2008) also necessitates the semicolons.

Note on manuscripts

Do not embed illustrations (tables, figures, or examples) in manuscripts for publication. Put placeholders in the text to show where the illustrations will go. Type these placeholders on their own line, flush left, and bracketed (e.g. [table 1]). At the end of the document, provide label, number, caption, and source information in an organized list. Send files for illustrations in the appropriate format to your editor separately. If you provide source information with your illustrations, you do not need to provide this information on the Works Cited page.

In-text citation

Reference list.

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Use tables for exact values and information that is too detailed for the text. Use a table only if there isn't a simpler way to present your content such as a list or a diagram.

Tables should include a caption title row and column headings, information (exact values)

In-text table section

Use Table 1, Table 2 etc to caption tables and refer to them in the text.

See the Style Manual section on tables .

Author A or Name of Agency (Year) Title of data set [data set], Name of Website, accessed DD Month YYYY. URL

National Native Title Tribunal (2014) Native Title determination outcomes [data set], accessed 4 January 2020. data.gov.au/data/dataset/native-title-determination-outcomes

• If no date, use n.d.
• If name of website is the same as author, do not include the name of the website.

Personal communication and confidential unpublished material

A Author, personal communication, Day Month Year.

A Author, Type of Confidential Unpublished Material, Day Month Year.

M Smith (personal communication, 8 February 2020) wrote . . .

The radiologist's findings were further confirmed (P Alan, radiology report, 6 March 2021) . . .

• Don’t include an entry in the reference list.
• Personal communication may include materials such as emails from unarchived sources, private memos or unrecorded interview conversations.
• Confidential material may include medical charts, patient health records and other internal reports containing private information.
• Permission from the source is necessary before paraphrasing or citing from a confidential document.
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MLA Citation Guide (MLA 9th Edition): Charts, Graphs, Images, and Tables

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Is it a Figure or a Table?

There are two types of material you can insert into your assignment: figures and tables. A figure is a photo, image, map, graph, or chart. A table is a table of information. For a visual example of each, see the figure and table to the right.

Still need help?  For more information on citing figures, visit  Purdue OWL .

Reproducing Figures and Tables

Reproducing happens when you copy or recreate a photo, image, chart, graph, or table that is not your original creation. If you reproduce one of these works in your assignment, you must create a note (or "caption") underneath the photo, image, chart, graph, or table to show where you found it. If you do not refer to it anywhere else in your assignment, you do not have to include the citation for this source in a Works Cited list.

Citing Information From a Photo, Image, Chart, Graph, or Table

If you refer to information from the photo, image, chart, graph, or table but do not reproduce it in your paper, create a citation both in-text and on your Works Cited list. 

If the information is part of another format, for example a book, magazine article, encyclopedia, etc., cite the work it came from. For example if information came from a table in an article in National Geographic magazine, you would cite the entire magazine article.

Figure Numbers

The word figure should be abbreviated to Fig. Each figure should be assigned a figure number, starting with number 1 for the first figure used in the assignment. E.g., Fig. 1.

Images may not have a set title. If this is the case give a description of the image where you would normally put the title.

A figure refers to a chart, graph, image or photo. This is how to cite figures.

The caption for a figure begins with a description of the figure followed by the complete citation for the source the figure was found in. For example, if it was found on a website, cite the website. If it was in a magazine article, cite the magazine article.

• Label your figures starting at 1.
• Information about the figure (the caption) is placed directly below the image in your assignment.
• If the image appears in your paper the full citation appears underneath the image (as shown below) and does not need to be included in the Works Cited List. If you are referring to an image but not including it in your paper you must provide an in-text citation and include an entry in the Works Cited.

Fig. 1. Man exercising from: Green, Annie. "Yoga: Stretching Out." Sports Digest,  8 May 2006, p. 22. 

Fig. 2. Annakiki skirt from: Cheung, Pauline. "Short Skirt S/S/ 15 China Womenswear Commercial Update." WGSN.

Images: More Examples

In the works cited examples below, the first one is seeing the artwork in person, the second is accessing the image from a website, the third is accessing it through a database, and the last example is using an image from a book.

Viewing Image in Person

Hopper, Edward. Nighthawks . 1942, Art Institute of Chicago.

Accessing Image from a Website

Hopper, Edward. Nighthawks . 1942. Art Institute of Chicago, www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/111628 . 

Note : Notice the period after the date in the example above, rather than a comma as the other examples use. This is because the date refers to the painting's original creation, rather than to its publication on the website. It is considered an "optional element." 

Accessing Image from a Database

Hopper, Edward. Nighthawks . 1942, Art Institute of Chicago.  Artstor , https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/AWSS35953_35953_41726475 .

Using an Image from a Book

Hopper, Edward. Nighthawks . 1942, Art Institute of Chicago. Staying Up Much Too Late: Edward Hopper's Nighthawks and the Dark Side of the American Psyche , by Gordon Theisen, Thomas Dunne Books, 2006, p. 118.

Above the table, label it beginning at Table 1, and add a description of what information is contained in the table.

The caption for a table begins with the word Source, then the complete Works Cited list citation for the source the table was found in. For example, if it was found on a website, cite the website. If it was in a journal article, cite the journal article.

Information about the table (the caption) is placed directly below the table in your assignment.

If the table is not cited in the text of your assignment, you do not need to include it in the Works Cited list.

Variables in determining victims and aggressors

Source: Mohr, Andrea. "Family Variables Associated With Peer Victimization." Swiss Journal of Psychology,  vol .  65, no. 2, 2006, pp. 107-116.  Psychology Collection , doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1024/1421-0185.65.2.107.

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How to Cite a Graph in a Paper

Last Updated: March 18, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Megan Morgan, PhD . Megan Morgan is a Graduate Program Academic Advisor in the School of Public & International Affairs at the University of Georgia. She earned her PhD in English from the University of Georgia in 2015. There are 14 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 298,741 times.

Sometimes you may find it useful to include a graph from another source when writing a research paper. This is acceptable if you give credit to the original source. To do so, you generally provide a citation under the graph. The form this citation takes depends upon the citation style used in your discipline. Modern Language Association (MLA) style is used by English scholars and many humanities disciplines, while authors working in psychology, the social sciences and hard sciences often use the standards of the American Psychological Association (APA). Other humanities specialists and social scientists, including historians, use the Chicago/Turabian style, and engineering-related fields utilize the standards of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Consult your instructor before writing a paper to determine which citation style is required.

Citing a Graph in MLA Style

• For example, you might refer to a graph showing tomato consumption patterns this way: "Due to the increasing popularity of salsa and ketchup, tomato consumption in the US has risen sharply in recent years (see fig. 1)."

• Figures should be numbered in the order they appear; your first graph or other illustration is "Fig. 1," your second "Fig. 2," and so on.
• Do not italicize the word “Figure” or “Fig.” or the numeral.

• For example, “Fig. 1. Rise in tomato consumption in the US, 1970-2000...”

• “Fig. 1. Rise in tomato consumption in the US, 1970-2000. Graph from John Green...”

• You also italicize the title of a website, such as this: Graph from State Fact Sheets...

• “Fig. 1. Rise in tomato consumption in the US, 1970-2000. Graph from John Green, Growing Vegetables in Your Backyard', (Hot Springs: Lake Publishers, 2002).
• If the graph came from an online source, follow the MLA guidelines for citing an online source: give the website name, publisher, date of publication, media, date of access, and pagination (if any -- if not, type “n. pag.”).
• For example, if your graph came from the USDA website, your citation would look like this: “Fig. 1. Rise in tomato consumption in the US, 1970-2000. Graph from State Fact Sheets. USDA. 1 Jan 2015. Web. 4 Feb. 2015. n. pag.”

• Fig. 1. Rise in tomato consumption in the US, 1970-2000. Graph from John Green, Growing Vegetables in Your Garden , (Hot Springs: Lake Publishers, 2002), 43. Print." [6] X Research source
• If you give the complete citation information in the caption, you do not need to also include it in your Works Cited page.

Citing a Graph in APA Format

• For example, you could write: “As seen in Figure 1, tomato consumption has risen sharply in the past three decades.”

• Figures should be numbered in the order they appear; your first graph or other illustration is Figure 1 , the second is Figure 2 , etc.
• If the graph has an existing title, give it in “sentence case.” This means you only capitalize the first letter of the first word in the sentence, as well as the first letter after a colon.

• For example: Figure 1. Rise in tomato consumption,1970-2000.
• Use sentence case for the description too.

• If the graph you’re presenting is your original work, meaning you collected all the data and compiled it yourself, you don’t need this phrase.
• For example: Figure 1. Rise in tomato consumption,1970-2000. Reprinted from...

• For example: Figure 1. Rise in tomato consumption,1970-2000. Reprinted from Growing Vegetables in Your Backyard (p. 43),

• For example: Figure 1. Rise in tomato consumption,1970-2000. Reprinted from Growing Vegetables in Your Backyard (p. 43), by J. Green, 2002, Hot Springs: Lake Publishers.

• Figure 1. Rise in tomato consumption, 1970-2000. Reprinted from Growing Vegetables in Your Backyard (p. 43), by J. Green, 2002, Hot Springs: Lake Publishers. Copyright 2002 by the American Tomato Growers' Association. Reprinted with permission. [13] X Research source

Citing a Graph Using Chicago/Turabian Standards

• For example, “Fig. 1. Rise in tomato consumption..."

• Fig. 1. Rise in tomato consumption (Graph by American Tomato Growers' Association. In Growing Vegetables in Your Backyard . John Green. Hot Springs: Lake Publishers, 2002, 43). [18] X Research source

Citing a Graph in IEEE Format

• If this marks the first time you've used this source, assign it a new number.
• If you've already used this source, refer back to the original source number.
• In our example, let's say this is the fifth source used in your paper. Your citation, then, will begin with a bracket and then "5": "[5..."

• TOMATO CONSUMPTION FIGURES [5, p. 43].
• Be sure to list complete source information in your endnotes. [21] X Research source

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You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_tables_figures_and_examples.html
• ↑ https://research.moreheadstate.edu/c.php?g=610039&p=4234946
• ↑ https://otis.libguides.com/mla_citations/images
• ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/14/
• ↑ https://aut.ac.nz.libguides.com/APA7th/figures
• ↑ https://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/cite-write/citation-style-guides/apa/tables-figures
• ↑ https://guides.himmelfarb.gwu.edu/c.php?g=27779&p=170358
• ↑ https://graduate.asu.edu/sites/default/files/chicago-quick-reference.pdf
• ↑ https://guides.unitec.ac.nz/chicagoreferencing/images
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/cmos_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html
• ↑ https://libguides.dickinson.edu/c.php?g=56073&p=360111
• ↑ https://guides.lib.monash.edu/c.php?g=219786&p=6610144
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/ieee_style/tables_figures_and_equations.html
• ↑ https://www.york.ac.uk/integrity/ieee.html

About This Article

To cite a graph in MLA style, refer to the graph in the text as Figure 1 in parentheses, and place a caption under the graph that says "Figure 1." Then, include a short description, such as the title of the graph, and list the authors first and last name, as well as the publication name, with the location, publisher, and year in parentheses. Finish the citation with the page number and resource format, which might be print or digital. If you want to cite a graph in APA, Chicago, or IEEE format, scroll down for tips from our academic reviewer. Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Harvard Referencing

• Summarising/Paraphrasing
• Citations/Direct Quotations
• Books (print or online)
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Figures & Graphs

Figures include diagrams and all types of graphs. An i m a ge,  photo, illustration or screenshot  displayed for scientific purposes is classed as a figure.

All figures in your paper must be referred to in the main body of the text. At the bottom of the figure is the title, explaining what the figure is showing and  the legend, i.e. an explanation of what the symbols, acronyms or  colours  mean.

In-text citation:

The in-text reference is placed beneath the legend and title with the heading 'Figure' and starts with a sequential figure number (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2). 

Figure 1: PHYSICAL PRODUCTION, selected commodities, Australia, 2010-11 to 2015-16 ( Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2017)

If the source is from a book or journal (print or electronic) or from a web document with page numbers, add the page number to the in-text citation. 

If the figure is altered in any way from the original source, add 'Modified from source', eg.

(Modified from source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2017)

In main text:

Production of sugar in Australia was estimated at 34 million tonnes in 2015-16 (Figure 1). 

Reference list:

References should be listed in the Harvard Referencing Style according to format. 

Australian Bureau of Statistics 2017, Crops and plantations , Retrieved: 24 February, 2018 from  http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Latestproducts/4632.0.55.001Main%20Features302015-16?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=4632.0.55.001&issue=2015-16&num=&view=

Tables are numerical values or text displayed in rows and columns.

Each table should be displayed with a brief explanatory title at the top. 

Number all tables in the order they appear in the text.

Table 27.4 Immunity to selected bacterial infections

( Source: Knox et al. 2014, p. 669. )

If the table is altered in any way from the original source, add 'Modified from source'.

(Modified from source: Knox et al.  2014,  p. 669. )

Some bacteria, like those that cause tuberculosis, have evolved the means of surviving and living within phagocytic macrophages (Table 27.4). 

As Table 27.4 shows, some bacteria , like those that cause tuberculosis, have evolved the means of surviving an d living within phagocytic macrophages. 

Knox, B., Ladiges, P., Evans, B. & Saint, R. 2014,  Biology: an Australian focus , 5th edn,  McGraw-Hill Education, North Ryde, NSW.

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Citing tables, figures & images: MLA (9th ed.) citation guide

This guide is based on the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 9th ed. and provides selected citation examples for common types of sources.

For more detailed information, please consult the full manual: available in print and online .

Referring to a table/figure/image, and inserting a table/figure/image have different guidelines; both will be covered in this section.

See pages 6-8 (section 1.7) in the Handbook for more information on citing tables and illustrations. 

For information on how to cite images on social media sites, see Citing websites and other online media .

Referring to visual materials

To refer to a table, figure, image etc. that is within a larger work, cite using normal MLA formatting with author, title, etc.

For example, if you are citing an image from an article, your works cited would be for the entire article. The in-text citation should clearly indicate the work you are referring to.

Image of a painting found in an edited print book

Parenthetical (in-text).

Evidence of an abstract portrait can be seen Lassnig’s 1948 painting The Reader (54).

Works cited

Lassnig, M. The Reader. Maria Lassnig - ways of being , edited by Beatrice von Bormann, Antonia Hoerschelmann, and Klaus Albrecht Schröder, 1948, p.54.

Table, found in an online journal article

It is within table 1 that we can see the breakdown of how big the sample size was per year (Riddell and Riddell 337).

Riddell, Chris, and W. Craig Riddell. “Interpreting Experimental Evidence in the Presence of Postrandomization Events: A Reassessment of the Self-Sufficiency Project.” Journal of Labor Economics , vol. 38, no. 4, Oct. 2020, pp. 873–914. https://doi.org/10.1086/706513.

Inserting visual materials into your work

According to the MLA guidelines, the use of tables/images/visual material in the body of your paper should be used sparingly . Determine if this medium will best suit your purposes and consider that an image is not a substitute for an explanation, but rather something that may enhance the reading of your paper. 

Place tables and illustrations as close as possible to the related text. Here are the key rules for inserting tables and other visual materials in your text:

• Above the table, label and number the table (e.g. Table 1, Table 2) on its own line
• Capitalize the title and the table.
• Place the source of the table and any notes in a caption immediately below the table, and double space throughout. 
• Do not capitalize the word ‘table’ when referring to it in your writing.

 Images and other visuals:

• E.g. a picture, map, diagram, graph, chart, etc.
• Musical illustrations are an exception: they are labeled "Ex" (short for example) instead of “Fig".
• Include a caption below the image that includes key information, or is a full citation.
• May be the full citation, or it can be shortened to the key information (using commas); the full citation can be found in the works cited list.
• If you provide full bibliographic details, punctuate the caption like a works cited entry, but do not invert the name of the author.
• If the caption provides complete information about the source and it is not cited anywhere else in the text, no works cited entry is needed.

An inserted table

In the 1992 sample, (see table 1) 9601 people were interviewed, a number which decreased to 6309 people in 2006 (Platt et al., 2010).

Table in body or paper

Sample Attrition by Year and Number of Interviews Completed, for Panel A and B

Alyssa Platt et al. “Alcohol-Consumption Trajectories and Associated Characteristics Among Adults Older Than Age 50.” Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs , vol. 71, no. 2, Mar. 2010, pp. 169–79, table 1, https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.2010.71.169.

Platt, Alyssa et al. “Alcohol-Consumption Trajectories and Associated Characteristics Among Adults Older Than Age 50.” Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, vol. 71, no. 2, Mar. 2010, pp. 169–79, table 1, https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.2010.71.169.

Photo found online

As illustrated in Three Planets Dance over La Silla (Beletsky), the phenomenon of 'syzygy' is when celestial bodies align in the sky (see fig. 1).

Image in body of paper 

Fig. 1. Yuri Beletsky, Three Planets Dance over La Silla , photograph, 2013.

Works cited 

Beletsky, Yuri. Three Planets Dance over La Silla. European Southern Observatory , 3 June 2013, www.eso.org/public/images/potw1322a/. Accessed 22 Mar. 2019.

Image with full bibliographic information in the caption

Fig. 1 Fred Davis, Haida Angel. Topographies : Aspects of Recent B.C. Art , edited by Grant Arnold, Monika Kin Gagnon, Doreen Jensen. Vancouver Art Gallery, 1996.

Still using MLA 8?

We've now updated our citation guides to MLA 9, but you can still use the printable version of our MLA 8 citation guide. 

Need more help? Check our Ask a Librarian services .

Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission.

• Why Scientific Fraud Is Suddenly Everywhere

Junk science has been forcing a reckoning among scientific and medical researchers for the past year, leading to thousands of retracted papers. Last year, Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne resigned amid reporting that some of his most high-profile work on Alzheimer’s disease was at best inaccurate. (A probe commissioned by the university’s board of trustees later exonerated him of manipulating the data).

But the problems around credible science appear to be getting worse. Last week, scientific publisher Wiley decided to shutter 19 scientific journals after retracting 11,300 sham papers. There is a large-scale industry of so-called “paper mills” that sell fictive research, sometimes written by artificial intelligence, to researchers who then publish it in peer-reviewed journals — which are sometimes edited by people who had been placed by those sham groups. Among the institutions exposing such practices is Retraction Watch, a 14-year-old organization co-founded by journalists Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus. I spoke with Oransky about why there has been a surge in fake research and whether fraud accusations against the presidents of Harvard and Stanford are actually good for academia.

Give me a sense of how big a problem these paper mills are. 

I’ll start by saying that paper mills are not the problem; they are a symptom of the actual problem. Adam Marcus, my co-founder, had broken a really big and frightening story about a painkiller involving scientific fraud , which led to dozens of retractions. That’s what got us interested in that. There were all these retractions, far more than we thought but far fewer than there are now. Now, they’re hiding in plain sight.

That was 2010. Certainly, AI has accelerated things, but we’ve known about paper mills for a long time. Everybody wanted to pretend all these problems didn’t exist. The problems in scientific literature are long-standing, and they’re an incentive problem. And the metrics that people use to measure research feed a business model — a ravenous sort of insatiable business model. Hindsight is always going to be 20/20, but a lot of people actually were predicting what we’re seeing now.

Regarding your comment that paper mills are symptoms of a larger problem, I read this story in Science and was struck by the drive for credentialing — which gets you better jobs, higher pay, and more prestige. In academia, there aren’t enough jobs; are the hurdles to these jobs impossibly high, especially for people who may be smart but are from China or India and may not have entry into an American or European university? 

I actually would go one step higher. When you say there aren’t enough jobs, it’s because we’re training so many Ph.D.’s and convincing them all that the only way to remain a scientist is to stay in academia. It’s not, and that hasn’t been true for a long time. So there’s definitely a supply-and-demand problem, and people are going to compete.

You may recall the story about high-school students who were paying to get medical papers published in order to get into college. That’s the sort of level we’re at now. It’s just pervasive. People are looking only at metrics, not at actual papers. We’re so fixated on metrics because they determine funding for a university based on where it is in the rankings. So it comes from there and then it filters down. What do universities then want? Well, they want to attract people who are likely to publish papers. So how do you decide that? “Oh, you’ve already published some papers, great. We’re gonna bring you in.” And then when you’re there, you’ve got to publish even more.

You’re replacing actual findings and science and methodology and the process with what I would argue are incredibly misleading — even false — metrics. Paper mills are industrializing it. This is like the horse versus the steam engine.

So they’re Moneyballing it. 

Absolutely. They’ve Moneyballed it with a caveat: Moneyball sort of worked. The paper mills have metricized it, which is not as sexy to say. If you were to isolate one factor, citations matter the most, and if you look at the ranking systems, it’s all right there. The Times Higher Education world-university rankings , U.S. News — look at whichever you want, and somewhere between like 30 percent and 60 percent of those rankings are based on citations. Citations are so easy to game. So people are setting up citation cartels: “Yes, we will get all of our other clients to cite you, and nobody will notice because we’re doing it in this algorithmic, mixed-up way.” Eventually, people do notice, but it’s the insistence on citations as the coin of the realm that all of this comes from.

Your work gets to the heart of  researchers’ integrity. Do you feel like you’re a pariah in the scientific community?

I’m a volunteer. Adam is paid a very small amount. We use our funding to pay two reporters and then two people work on our database side. We approach these things journalistically; we don’t actually identify the problems ourselves. It’s very, very rare for us to do that. Even when it may appear that way on a superficial read — we’ve broken some stories recently about clear problems in literature — it’s always because a source showed us the way. Sometimes those sources want to be named, sometimes they don’t.

We’ve been doing this for 14 years. There are various ways to look at what the scientific community thinks of us. We’re publishing 100 posts a year about people committing bad behavior and only getting, on average, one cease-and-desist letter a year. We have never been sued, but we do carried defamation insurance. Our work is cited hundreds of times in the scientific literature. I definitely don’t feel like a pariah. Me saying I’m a pariah would be a little bit like, you know, someone whose alleged cancellation has promoted them to the top of Twitter.

People are unhappy that we have do what we do. If you talk to scientists, the things we’re exposing or others are exposing are well known to them. Because of the structures, the hierarchies, and the power differentials in science, it’s very difficult for them as insiders to blow the whistle. There’s a book out by Carl Elliott about whistleblowers , mostly in the sort of more clinical fields. That’s the vulnerable position. That’s where you end up being a pariah even though you should be considered a hero or heroine.

Are some fields better at policing their own research than others?

Yes. Going back to the origin story of Retraction Watch, Adam broke a story about this guy named Scott Reuben, who came from anesthesiology. We have a leaderboard of the people with the most retractions in the world, and at least three out of the top ten right now are anesthesiologists. That is a much higher percentage than one might expect. Some people may say, “Oh, does anesthesiology have a problem?” No, in fact, anesthesiology has been doing something about this arguably longer than any other field has.

What is it about anesthesiology that makes it so anesthesiologists are more willing to scrutinize the work in their own field?

It had a crisis earlier than others, and it’s small. Journal editors are generally considered pretty august personages, leaders in the field. They got together and it was like a collective action by the journal editors when they realized they had problems. I’m not saying anesthesiologists are better, but they’re a more tight-knit community, which I do think is important. The same thing happened in social psychology and in psychology writ large. There’s a higher number than you would expect of people on leaderboards in that field. So it’s a question of, When did they get there, and how did they react to it? There are fields that haven’t actually gotten there, even though it’s been a while. So maybe there are some sociologists who could tell you better than me why that might be the case.

That wasn’t the reason I expected. I thought you would say something along the lines of, well, it’s life or death and anesthesiologists don’t want to see people dying on the table. 

If anything, sometimes when the stakes are higher, fields are more resistant.

There’s a guy named Ben Mol. Ben is an OB/GYN, and he is a force to be reckoned with. Fascinating character. He’s a pit bull, and he has found tons and tons of problems in the OB/GYN literature. I would characterize the leaders in that field now as still a bit more reluctant to engage with these issues than some of the other fields I mentioned.

Can you tell me how you go about authenticating real language from AI, especially in papers that can be hard to parse and are laden with jargon to begin with? 

We rely on experts. We’re not really doing that ourselves. You don’t need to be an expert; you just need to know how to use Ctrl+F if you see certain phrases in a paper. And by the way, a lot of journals are perfectly fine with people using chat GPT and other kinds of AI. It’s just whether you disclose it or not. These are cases where they didn’t disclose it.

With the resignation of Stanford’s and Harvard’s presidents, do you worry about the way the general public has been using these tools?

The fact that they’re giving speeding tickets to certain groups of people doesn’t mean we’re not all speeding. It means they’re getting targeted in, I would argue, an unfair way. We’re in a great reckoning with Harvard’s Claudine Gay being the key example. Former Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne is not an example of that. The targeting is a concern. And clearly, there are false positives. The flip side of this is that AI is being used to find these problems.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The story was updated to include that a probe found that Tessier-Lavigne didn’t manipulate data.

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• Open access
• Published: 21 May 2024

The bright side of sports: a systematic review on well-being, positive emotions and performance

• David Peris-Delcampo 1 ,
• Antonio Núñez 2 ,
• Paula Ortiz-Marholz 3 ,
• Aurelio Olmedilla 4 ,
• Enrique Cantón 1 ,
• Javier Ponseti 2 &
• Alejandro Garcia-Mas 2  

BMC Psychology volume  12 , Article number:  284 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

79 Accesses

Metrics details

The objective of this study is to conduct a systematic review regarding the relationship between positive psychological factors, such as psychological well-being and pleasant emotions, and sports performance.

This study, carried out through a systematic review using PRISMA guidelines considering the Web of Science, PsycINFO, PubMed and SPORT Discus databases, seeks to highlight the relationship between other more ‘positive’ factors, such as well-being, positive emotions and sports performance.

The keywords will be decided by a Delphi Method in two rounds with sport psychology experts.

Participants

There are no participants in the present research.

The main exclusion criteria were: Non-sport thema, sample younger or older than 20–65 years old, qualitative or other methodology studies, COVID-related, journals not exclusively about Psychology.

Main outcomes measures

We obtained a first sample of 238 papers, and finally, this sample was reduced to the final sample of 11 papers.

The results obtained are intended to be a representation of the ‘bright side’ of sports practice, and as a complement or mediator of the negative variables that have an impact on athletes’ and coaches’ performance.

Conclusions

Clear recognition that acting on intrinsic motivation continues to be the best and most effective way to motivate oneself to obtain the highest levels of performance, a good perception of competence and a source of personal satisfaction.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

In recent decades, research in the psychology of sport and physical exercise has focused on the analysis of psychological variables that could have a disturbing, unfavourable or detrimental role, including emotions that are considered ‘negative’, such as anxiety/stress, sadness or anger, concentrating on their unfavourable relationship with sports performance [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ], sports injuries [ 5 , 6 , 7 ] or, more generally, damage to the athlete’s health [ 8 , 9 , 10 ]. The study of ‘positive’ emotions such as happiness or, more broadly, psychological well-being, has been postponed at this time, although in recent years this has seen an increase that reveals a field of study of great interest to researchers and professionals [ 11 , 12 , 13 ] including physiological, psychological, moral and social beneficial effects of the physical activity in comic book heroes such as Tintin, a team leader, which can serve as a model for promoting healthy lifestyles, or seeking ‘eternal youth’ [ 14 ].

Emotions in relation to their effects on sports practice and performance rarely go in one direction, being either negative or positive—generally positive and negative emotions do not act alone [ 15 ]. Athletes experience different emotions simultaneously, even if they are in opposition and especially if they are of mild or moderate intensity [ 16 ]. The athlete can feel satisfied and happy and at the same time perceive a high level of stress or anxiety before a specific test or competition. Some studies [ 17 ] have shown how sports participation and the perceived value of elite sports positively affect the subjective well-being of the athlete. This also seems to be the case in non-elite sports practice. The review by Mansfield et al. [ 18 ] showed that the published literature suggests that practising sports and dance, in a group or supported by peers, can improve the subjective well-being of the participants, and also identifies negative feelings towards competence and ability, although the quantity and quality of the evidence published is low, requiring better designed studies. All these investigations are also supported by the development of the concept of eudaimonic well-being [ 19 ], which is linked to the development of intrinsic motivation, not only in its aspect of enjoyment but also in its relationship with the perception of competition and overcoming and achieving goals, even if this is accompanied by other unpleasant hedonic emotions or even physical discomfort. Shortly after a person has practised sports, he will remember those feelings of exhaustion and possibly stiffness, linked to feelings of satisfaction and even enjoyment.

Furthermore, the mediating role of parents, coaches and other psychosocial agents can be significant. In this sense, Lemelin et al. [ 20 ], with the aim of investigating the role of autonomy support from parents and coaches in the prediction of well-being and performance of athletes, found that autonomy support from parents and coaches has positive relationships with the well-being of the athlete, but that only coach autonomy support is associated with sports performance. This research suggests that parents and coaches play important but distinct roles in athlete well-being and that coach autonomy support could help athletes achieve high levels of performance.

On the other hand, an analysis of emotions in the sociocultural environment in which they arise and gain meaning is always interesting, both from an individual perspective and from a sports team perspective. Adler et al. [ 21 ] in a study with military teams showed that teams with a strong emotional culture of optimism were better positioned to recover from poor performance, suggesting that organisations that promote an optimistic culture develop more resilient teams. Pekrun et al. [ 22 ] observed with mathematics students that individual success boosts emotional well-being, while placing people in high-performance groups can undermine it, which is of great interest in investigating the effectiveness and adjustment of the individual in sports teams.

There is still little scientific literature in the field of positive emotions and their relationship with sports practice and athlete performance, although their approach has long had its clear supporters [ 23 , 24 ]. It is comforting to observe the significant increase in studies in this field, since some authors (e.g [ 25 , 26 ]). . , point out the need to overcome certain methodological and conceptual problems, paying special attention to the development of specific instruments for the evaluation of well-being in the sports field and evaluation methodologies.

As McCarthy [ 15 ] indicates, positive emotions (hedonically pleasant) can be the catalysts for excellence in sport and deserve a space in our research and in professional intervention to raise the level of athletes’ performance. From a holistic perspective, positive emotions are permanently linked to psychological well-being and research in this field is necessary: firstly because of the leading role they play in human behaviour, cognition and affection, and secondly, because after a few years of international uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic and wars, it seems ‘healthy and intelligent’ to encourage positive emotions for our athletes. An additional reason is that they are known to improve motivational processes, reducing abandonment and negative emotional costs [ 11 ]. In this vein, concepts such as emotional intelligence make sense and can help to identify and properly manage emotions in the sports field and determine their relationship with performance [ 27 ] that facilitates the inclusion of emotional training programmes based on the ‘bright side’ of sports practice [ 28 ].

Based on all of the above, one might wonder how these positive emotions are related to a given event and what role each one of them plays in the athlete’s performance. Do they directly affect performance, or do they affect other psychological variables such as concentration, motivation and self-efficacy? Do they favour the availability and competent performance of the athlete in a competition? How can they be regulated, controlled for their own benefit? How can other psychosocial agents, such as parents or coaches, help to increase the well-being of their athletes?

This work aims to enhance the leading role, not the secondary, of the ‘good and pleasant side’ of sports practice, either with its own entity, or as a complement or mediator of the negative variables that have an impact on the performance of athletes and coaches. Therefore, the objective of this study is to conduct a systematic review regarding the relationship between positive psychological factors, such as psychological well-being and pleasant emotions, and sports performance. For this, the methodological criteria that constitute the systematic review procedure will be followed.

Materials and methods

This study was carried out through a systematic review using PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews) guidelines considering the Web of Science (WoS) and Psycinfo databases. These two databases were selected using the Delphi method [ 29 ]. It does not include a meta-analysis because there is great data dispersion due to the different methodologies used [ 30 ].

The keywords will be decided by the Delphi Method in two rounds with sport psychology experts. The results obtained are intended to be a representation of the ‘bright side’ of sports practice, and as a complement or mediator of the negative variables that have an impact on athletes’ and coaches’ performance.

It was determined that the main construct was to be psychological well-being, and that it was to be paired with optimism, healthy practice, realisation, positive mood, and performance and sport. The search period was limited to papers published between 2000 and 2023, and the final list of papers was obtained on February 13 , 2023. This research was conducted in two languages—English and Spanish—and was limited to psychological journals and specifically those articles where the sample was formed by athletes.

Each word was searched for in each database, followed by searches involving combinations of the same in pairs and then in trios. In relation to the results obtained, it was decided that the best approach was to group the words connected to positive psychology on the one hand, and on the other, those related to self-realisation/performance/health. In this way, it used parentheses to group words (psychological well-being; or optimism; or positive mood) with the Boolean ‘or’ between them (all three refer to positive psychology); and on the other hand, it grouped those related to performance/health/realisation (realisation; or healthy practice or performance), separating both sets of parentheses by the Boolean ‘and’’. To further filter the search, a keyword included in the title and in the inclusion criteria was added, which was ‘sport’ with the Boolean ‘and’’. In this way, the search achieved results that combined at least one of the three positive psychology terms and one of the other three.

Results (first phase)

The mentioned keywords were cross-matched, obtaining the combination with a sufficient number of papers. From the first research phase, the total number of papers obtained was 238. Then screening was carried out by 4 well-differentiated phases that are summarised in Fig.  1 . These phases helped to reduce the original sample to a more accurate one.

Phases of the selection process for the final sample. Four phases were carried out to select the final sample of articles. The first phase allowed the elimination of duplicates. In the second stage, those that, by title or abstract, did not fit the objectives of the article were eliminated. Previously selected exclusion criteria were applied to the remaining sample. Thus, in phase 4, the final sample of 11 selected articles was obtained

Results (second phase)

The first screening examined the title, and the abstract if needed, excluding the papers that were duplicated, contained errors or someone with formal problems, low N or case studies. This screening allowed the initial sample to be reduced to a more accurate one with 109 papers selected.

Results (third phase)

This was followed by the second screening to examine the abstract and full texts, excluding if necessary papers related to non-sports themes, samples that were too old or too young for our interests, papers using qualitative methodologies, articles related to the COVID period, or others published in non-psychological journals. Furthermore, papers related to ‘negative psychological variables’’ were also excluded.

Results (fourth phase)

At the end of this second screening the remaining number of papers was 11. In this final phase we tried to organise the main characteristics and their main conclusions/results in a comprehensible list (Table  1 ). Moreover, in order to enrich our sample of papers, we decided to include some articles from other sources, mainly those presented in the introduction to sustain the conceptual framework of the concept ‘bright side’ of sports.

The usual position of the researcher of psychological variables that affect sports performance is to look for relationships between ‘negative’ variables, first in the form of basic psychological processes, or distorting cognitive behavioural, unpleasant or evaluable as deficiencies or problems, in a psychology for the ‘risk’ society, which emphasises the rehabilitation that stems from overcoming personal and social pathologies [ 31 ], and, lately, regarding the affectation of the athlete’s mental health [ 32 ]. This fact seems to be true in many cases and situations and to openly contradict the proclaimed psychological benefits of practising sports (among others: Cantón [ 33 ], ; Froment and González [ 34 ]; Jürgens [ 35 ]).

However, it is possible to adopt another approach focused on the ‘positive’ variables, also in relation to the athlete’s performance. This has been the main objective of this systematic review of the existing literature and far from being a novel approach, although a minority one, it fits perfectly with the definition of our area of knowledge in the broad field of health, as has been pointed out for some time [ 36 , 37 ].

After carrying out the aforementioned systematic review, a relatively low number of articles were identified by experts that met the established conditions—according to the PRISMA method [ 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 ]—regarding databases, keywords, and exclusion and inclusion criteria. These precautions were taken to obtain the most accurate results possible, and thus guarantee the quality of the conclusions.

The first clear result that stands out is the great difficulty in finding articles in which sports ‘performance’ is treated as a well-defined study variable adapted to the situation and the athletes studied. In fact, among the results (11 papers), only 3 associate one or several positive psychological variables with performance (which is evaluated in very different ways, combining objective measures with other subjective ones). This result is not surprising, since in several previous studies (e.g. Nuñez et al. [ 41 ]) using a systematic review, this relationship is found to be very weak and nuanced by the role of different mediating factors, such as previous sports experience or the competitive level (e.g. Rascado, et al. [ 42 ]; Reche, Cepero & Rojas [ 43 ]), despite the belief—even among professional and academic circles—that there is a strong relationship between negative variables and poor performance, and vice versa, with respect to the positive variables.

Regarding what has been evidenced in relation to the latter, even with these restrictions in the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the filters applied to the first findings, a true ‘galaxy’ of variables is obtained, which also belong to different categories and levels of psychological complexity.

A preliminary consideration regarding the current paradigm of sport psychology: although it is true that some recent works have already announced the swing of the pendulum on the objects of study of PD, by returning to the study of traits and dispositions, and even to the personality of athletes [ 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ], our results fully corroborate this trend. Faced with five variables present in the studies selected at the end of the systematic review, a total of three traits/dispositions were found, which were also the most repeated—optimism being present in four articles, mental toughness present in three, and finally, perfectionism—as the representative concepts of this field of psychology, which lately, as has already been indicated, is significantly represented in the field of research in this area [ 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 ]. In short, the psychological variables that finally appear in the selected articles are: psychological well-being (PWB) [ 53 ]; self-compassion, which has recently been gaining much relevance with respect to the positive attributional resolution of personal behaviours [ 54 ], satisfaction with life (balance between sports practice, its results, and life and personal fulfilment [ 55 ], the existence of approach-achievement goals [ 56 ], and perceived social support [ 57 ]). This last concept is maintained transversally in several theoretical frameworks, such as Sports Commitment [ 58 ].

The most relevant concept, both quantitatively and qualitatively, supported by the fact that it is found in combination with different variables and situations, is not a basic psychological process, but a high-level cognitive construct: psychological well-being, in its eudaimonic aspect, first defined in the general population by Carol Ryff [ 59 , 60 ] and introduced at the beginning of this century in sport (e.g., Romero, Brustad & García-Mas [ 13 ], ; Romero, García-Mas & Brustad [ 61 ]). It is important to note that this concept understands psychological well-being as multifactorial, including autonomy, control of the environment in which the activity takes place, social relationships, etc.), meaning personal fulfilment through a determined activity and the achievement or progress towards goals and one’s own objectives, without having any direct relationship with simpler concepts, such as vitality or fun. In the selected studies, PWB appears in five of them, and is related to several of the other variables/traits.

The most relevant result regarding this variable is its link with motivational aspects, as a central axis that relates to different concepts, hence its connection to sports performance, as a goal of constant improvement that requires resistance, perseverance, management of errors and great confidence in the possibility that achievements can be attained, that is, associated with ideas of optimism, which is reflected in expectations of effectiveness.

If we detail the relationships more specifically, we can first review this relationship with the ‘way of being’, understood as personality traits or behavioural tendencies, depending on whether more or less emphasis is placed on their possibilities for change and learning. In these cases, well-being derives from satisfaction with progress towards the desired goal, for which resistance (mental toughness) and confidence (optimism) are needed. When, in addition, the search for improvement is constant and aiming for excellence, its relationship with perfectionism is clear, although it is a factor that should be explored further due to its potential negative effect, at least in the long term.

The relationship between well-being and satisfaction with life is almost tautological, in the precise sense that what produces well-being is the perception of a relationship or positive balance between effort (or the perception of control, if we use stricter terminology) and the results thereof (or the effectiveness of such control). This direct link is especially important when assessing achievement in personally relevant activities, which, in the case of the subjects evaluated in the papers, specifically concern athletes of a certain level of performance, which makes it a more valuable objective than would surely be found in the general population. And precisely because of this effect of the value of performance for athletes of a certain level, it also allows us to understand how well-being is linked to self-compassion, since as a psychological concept it is very close to that of self-esteem, but with a lower ‘demand’ or a greater ‘generosity’, when we encounter failures, mistakes or even defeats along the way, which offers us greater protection from the risk of abandonment and therefore reinforces persistence, a key element for any successful sports career [ 62 ].

It also has a very direct relationship with approach-achievement goals, since precisely one of the central aspects characterising this eudaimonic well-being and differentiating it from hedonic well-being is specifically its relationship with self-determined and persistent progress towards goals or achievements with incentive value for the person, as is sports performance evidently [ 63 ].

Finally, it is interesting to see how we can also find a facet or link relating to the aspects that are more closely-related to the need for human affiliation, with feeling part of a group or human collective, where we can recognise others and recognise ourselves in the achievements obtained and the social reinforcement of those themselves, as indicated by their relationship with perceived social support. This construct is very labile, in fact it is common to find results in which the pressure of social support is hardly differentiated, for example, from the parents of athletes and/or their coaches [ 64 ]. However, its relevance within this set of psychological variables and traits is proof of its possible conceptual validity.

Analysing the results obtained, the first conclusion is that in no case is an integrated model based solely on ‘positive’ variables or traits obtained, since some ‘negative’ ones appear (anxiety, stress, irrational thoughts), affecting the former.

The second conclusion is that among the positive elements the variable coping strategies (their use, or the perception of their effectiveness) and the traits of optimism, perfectionism and self-compassion prevail, since mental strength or psychological well-being (which also appear as important, but with a more complex nature) are seen to be participated in by the aforementioned traits.

Finally, it must be taken into account that the generation of positive elements, such as resilience, or the learning of coping strategies, are directly affected by the educational style received, or by the culture in which the athlete is immersed. Thus, the applied potential of these findings is great, but it must be calibrated according to the educational and/or cultural features of the specific setting.

Limitations

The limitations of this study are those evident and common in SR methodology using the PRISMA system, since the selection of keywords (and their logical connections used in the search), the databases, and the inclusion/exclusion criteria bias the work in its entirety and, therefore, constrain the generalisation of the results obtained.

Likewise, the conclusions must—based on the above and the results obtained—be made with the greatest concreteness and simplicity possible. Although we have tried to reduce these limitations as much as possible through the use of experts in the first steps of the method, they remain and must be considered in terms of the use of the results.

Future developments

Undoubtedly, progress is needed in research to more precisely elucidate the role of well-being, as it has been proposed here, from a bidirectional perspective: as a motivational element to push towards improvement and the achievement of goals, and as a product or effect of the self-determined and competent behaviour of the person, in relation to different factors, such as that indicated here of ‘perfectionism’ or the potential interference of material and social rewards, which are linked to sports performance—in our case—and that could act as a risk factor so that our achievements, far from being a source of well-being and satisfaction, become an insatiable demand in the search to obtain more and more frequent rewards.

From a practical point of view, an empirical investigation should be conducted to see if these relationships hold from a statistical point of view, either in the classical (correlational) or in the probabilistic (Bayesian Networks) plane.

The results obtained in this study, exclusively researched from the desk, force the authors to develop subsequent empirical and/or experimental studies in two senses: (1) what interrelationships exist between the so called ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ psychological variables and traits in sport, and in what sense are each of them produced; and, (2) from a global, motivational point of view, can currently accepted theoretical frameworks, such as SDT, easily accommodate this duality, which is becoming increasingly evident in applied work?

Finally, these studies should lead to proposals applied to the two fields that have appeared to be relevant: educational and cultural.

Application/transfer of results

A clear application of these results is aimed at guiding the training of sports and physical exercise practitioners, directing it towards strategies for assessing achievements, improvements and failure management, which keep them in line with well-being enhancement, eudaimonic, intrinsic and self-determined, which enhances the quality of their learning and their results and also favours personal health and social relationships.

Data availability

There are no further external data.

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Conceptualization, AGM, EC and ANP.; planification, AO; methodology, ANP, AGM and PO.; software, ANP, DP and PO.; validation, ANP and PO.; formal analysis, DP, PO and ANP; investigation, DP, PO and ANP.; resources, DVP and JP; data curation, AO and DP.; writing—original draft preparation, ANP, DP and AGM; writing—review and editing, EC and JP.; visualization, ANP and PO.; supervision, AGM.; project administration, DP.; funding acquisition, DP and JP. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Peris-Delcampo, D., Núñez, A., Ortiz-Marholz, P. et al. The bright side of sports: a systematic review on well-being, positive emotions and performance. BMC Psychol 12 , 284 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-01769-8

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Computer Science > Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition

Title: nubbledrop: a simple way to improve matching strategy for prompted one-shot segmentation.

Abstract: Driven by large data trained segmentation models, such as SAM , research in one-shot segmentation has experienced significant advancements. Recent contributions like PerSAM and MATCHER , presented at ICLR 2024, utilize a similar approach by leveraging SAM with one or a few reference images to generate high quality segmentation masks for target images. Specifically, they utilize raw encoded features to compute cosine similarity between patches within reference and target images along the channel dimension, effectively generating prompt points or boxes for the target images a technique referred to as the matching strategy. However, relying solely on raw features might introduce biases and lack robustness for such a complex task. To address this concern, we delve into the issues of feature interaction and uneven distribution inherent in raw feature based matching. In this paper, we propose a simple and training-free method to enhance the validity and robustness of the matching strategy at no additional computational cost (NubbleDrop). The core concept involves randomly dropping feature channels (setting them to zero) during the matching process, thereby preventing models from being influenced by channels containing deceptive information. This technique mimics discarding pathological nubbles, and it can be seamlessly applied to other similarity computing scenarios. We conduct a comprehensive set of experiments, considering a wide range of factors, to demonstrate the effectiveness and validity of our proposed method. Our results showcase the significant improvements achieved through this simmple and straightforward approach.

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