Do I need to cite an artwork? How would I do it? Is permission needed? In my academic paper, I have well over 100 figures, and would like to use an artwork I found online in one of my figures - it is not published in any book, it is just something they made and posted online. I would be using 1/6th of the author's artwork figure, and it would be so heavily modified it would barely be recognizable. The modified artwork would take up 1/40th the space of 1 such diagram (out of 100+) and used once only, it is a minor element of my figure.

(1) Do I need to cite the artwork in this case?

(2) Can you give any guideline on when an artwork citation is needed?

(3) Am I required to get permission from the author, or is it a courtesy to the author only?

(4) How would one cite an artwork in their dissertation?
Simply contact artwork's author (since the artwork wasn't published, the author is copyright holder, otherwise it usually would be the publisher), requesting permission to adapt the artwork. I suggest sending the author planned version, so that any potential issues can be assessed and addressed.

(1) I'd say Yes. The citation is usually located below or above the figure in the following form:


  (Adapted from “The DeLone and McLean model of information systems success: A ten-year update.”, by DeLone and McLean, 2003, Journal of
  Management Information Systems, 19(4), p. 24. Copyright 2003 by M.E.
  Sharpe, Inc. Adapted with permission.).


(2) Since artwork is someone's intellectual property artifact, protected by copyright, it is usually (for an exception, see fair use in the next point) required to cite the artwork (as any other such artifact) to properly credit its authors. The format of citation depends on the publication style you're using (my example above is based on APA Style).

(3) You're required to get permission, unless you want to risk by using the fair use legal doctrine.

(4) If the artwork is part of a figure, see example above; otherwise, other relevant standard citation guidelines for visual elements apply, based on the publication style you use.