Textual Attributions: how and where?
There is not one current best practice for how to include attributions in OER. Image attributions can be found:
- In an image caption
- At the end of the chapter in an “image credits” section
- At the end of the book, in a back matter section titled “image credits,” which is broken up by chapter.
Text attributions are also varied. Common practices include:
- Listing general attributions in an acknowledgements section
- At the end of a chapter in an “attributions” or “credits” section
- At the end of the book, in a back matter section titled “attributions” or “credits,” which is broken up by chapter.
VIVA’s Recommended Best Practice
VIVA’s priority is ensuring attributions are clear. Thus, we will accept any option as long as it is clear what text was reused or adapted and from where. However, we recommend a new method: citing text attributions alongside the reused or adapted text. For example:
Content in this chapter was adapted from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2018) and the HSC Public Health Agency (Arnold et al., 2020).
You can see this method in place in Community and Public Health Nursing: A Call to Action, in all formats of the text (Pressbooks, ePUB, and PDF).
Notes about this method:
- Use a textbox. In Pressbooks, we recommend the “Standard” textbox to differentiate it from pedagogical elements of your text.
- Begin the sentence by referencing what the attribution applies to: Was this the whole chapter? Or only this section?
- Be clear if the work is “adapted” (i.e., changes have been made) or “reused” (i.e., no changes have been made).
- We recommend including a short citation following the selected citation style, and then including a full citation in the chapter or book citation list. However, using a full citation here is also a viable option.
VIVA plans to use this method for our supported books moving forward.
