One Editor’s Tip for the Uniform Handling of Image Attributions

Editors: Simplify your job; try to get your writers to follow this straightforward system

I am a writer | credit: Ramdion | Needpix (royalty free)

As an editor first for the Illumination publications, then for Politically Speaking, I found the most challenging task to be getting the writers to attribute their images consistently and sufficiently, especially when using images from sources other than Unsplash.

The attribution scheme (universally sufficient)

I wanted an attribution scheme that conveyed the maximum information to the reader in the shortest space. It needed to look crisp, clean, and professional, to be uniformly applicable across all images from whatever source, and to satisfy every Medium publication’s requirements.

The scheme I devised is:

<image name> | credit: <photographer’s name> | <source site> (<license designator>)

Where:
<> denotes a hyperlink.

• “Image name” (whatever name I choose to give it in context) links to the page on which one finds the image. Making this a hyperlink is not a Medium requirement, but I do it as a service to the reader and a convenience to myself in case either of us should wish to…