Appendices, tables and figures in a thesis are governed twice: by the university's regulations, which win, and by the citation style, which fills in the rest. This guide, published by EdCitation, covers what an appendix is for, how each is labelled, numbered and mentioned, how to credit a borrowed table or figure in four styles, when permission is needed, and what six universities require.
Whether appendices and tables count towards the limit is in dissertation word count: what counts, and results tables are in writing up quantitative results. Every rule below was read at its source on 26 September 2026.
Where a step is a lookup, EdCitation does it: Cite a source builds the reference for the paper or book a figure came from, Verify references checks the finished list, and Check your paper reads your regulations into a checklist. None of them writes any part of a thesis.
What belongs in a thesis appendix, and what does not?
Material a reader may want to check but does not need in order to follow the argument. American Psychological Association (2024a) describes an appendix as information that supplements the text but would distract from it, and lists stimulus materials, instructions to participants, tests and scales developed for the study, and detailed descriptions of equipment or procedures.
What the universities allow in an appendix
The University of York (n.d.) allows material of considerable length, lists, documents, commentaries and tables that would interrupt the main text's flow. The University of Melbourne (2026) is stricter: material may go in an appendix only if it supports the main argument, and its examples include questionnaires, tabulations of data, reports and peer-reviewed material. The University of Nottingham (n.d.), writing for dissertation students, suggests interview transcriptions, questionnaire results, correspondence and large data tables. In practice that means your questionnaire, interview guide, a blank consent form, full statistical output and coding frames.
What should stay out
Anything the examiner must read to judge the argument. Nottingham warns against using appendices to dodge hard editing decisions, since tutors will often not read material past the word limit. Melbourne goes further on two points easily missed: ethics applications must not appear in the thesis or its appendices, and the thesis, appendices included, should carry no signatures, of the candidate or anyone else. A signed consent form, scanned in, would break that rule and would show a participant's name.
How are appendices labelled and referred to in the text?
Lettered in the order the text first mentions them, each on its own page, and every one called out in the text. American Psychological Association (2024a) sets the pattern:
- One appendix is labelled "Appendix"; two or more are "Appendix A", "Appendix B" and so on, bold and centred at the top of a new page.
- The appendix title follows on the next line, also bold and centred, and says what the appendix holds.
- Page numbers carry on through the appendices, and sources cited in them go in the main reference list.
- The text calls each appendix out, in order: Appendix A is mentioned before Appendix B.
- A table or figure inside Appendix C is Table C1 or Figure C1, with no full stop between letter and number.
Universities vary the details. York numbers appendices separately from the chapters; Nottingham accepts letters or numbers if one system is kept. Texas A&M University Graduate and Professional School (2026) lets appendix tables and figures stay out of the lists of tables and figures, while York lists every illustration, appendices included. APA and Texas A&M put appendices after the references, Michigan and York before.
How should tables and figures be numbered in a thesis?
In one consecutive sequence, either throughout the thesis or by chapter, with tables and figures numbered separately. The University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School (n.d.) allows both systems, Figure 1, 2, 3 or Figure 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, provided you take one from a style guide and keep to it. York numbers tables and figures in one sequence each, separate from illustrations. Chapter numbering suits a long thesis: adding a figure to chapter 2 does not renumber chapter 5.
Titles, notes and placement
American Psychological Association (2021c) puts the bold number above a table, the italic title below it and any notes underneath, and its figure page does the same (American Psychological Association, 2021a). Each sits after its first mention, or on its own page after the references. York wants a short legend beneath each illustration; where a template and the style disagree, the template wins. Michigan also requires alt text for figures, and forbids a picture of a table, which a screen reader cannot navigate.
Mentioning each one in the text
Every table and figure is named in the text by its number, before it appears. Texas A&M gives the form "see Table 1.1". The mention should say what to look for, not only that the table exists: "Figure 3 shows the drop in response rates after the second reminder" gives the reader the point before the picture.
How do I cite a table or figure adapted from a source in APA 7?
With a copyright attribution in the note under it, beginning "From" if you reproduced it unchanged or "Adapted from" if you changed it, and a reference list entry for the source. American Psychological Association (2020), on reproduced images, says the attribution is used instead of an in-text citation and the source still gets a reference list entry.
The parts of the note
APA's sample line graph ends its note with an attribution to a 2018 article, as American Psychological Association (2021b) shows. In order it gives: "From", the article title in quotation marks and title case, "by" and the authors with initials first, the year, the journal in italics, volume and issue, the page the figure is on, the DOI in parentheses, and the copyright line, "Copyright 2018 by the American Psychological Association." APA's sample factor analysis table uses the same pattern with "Adapted from" (American Psychological Association, 2024b). A public domain source ends "In the public domain", as APA's census map does, and an image under a Creative Commons licence ends with the licence, such as "CC BY 2.0."
A figure cropped, relabelled or cut down to some of its data is adapted; one copied as published takes "From". Redrawing it in your own software still counts as adapting.
A worked example with Cite a source
The reference for APA's sample figure came from Cite a source, given the DOI 10.1037/xhp0000553. Our run on 26 September 2026 returned the record from Crossref, not retracted, and this APA 7 entry:
Wang, X. M., Lind, M., & Bingham, G. P. (2018). Large continuous perspective change with noncoplanar points enables accurate slant perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 44(10), 1508–1522. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000553
That entry is correct as it stands. The note itself is yours to write: the title in title case, the figure's page (1513 in APA's sample) and the copyright line come from the article, not the record.
Given the ISBN 9781930824133 on 27 September 2026, it returned Open Library's record in the form APA 7 asks for, the catalogue's title-case title set in sentence case and the edition in parentheses: Tufte, E. R. (2001). The visual display of quantitative information (2nd ed.). Graphics Press.
How do MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date and Harvard credit a table or figure?
Each puts the source in a caption or source line under the table or figure, but they differ on the wording and on whether the list needs an entry. The table sets out what could be read.
| Style | Label and title | The credit | Entry in the list | Read at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| APA 7 | Bold "Table 1" or "Figure 1" above; italic title | Note below: "From" or "Adapted from", title, authors, year, source, page, DOI, copyright | Yes | APA Style |
| MLA 9 | Table: label and title above, flush left. Figure: "Fig. 1." and caption below | Source and notes in the caption; table notes lettered, not numbered | Not needed if the caption is complete and the source is not cited in the text | MLA Style Center |
| Chicago 18 author-date | Curtin: "Table 1:" above; "Figure 1." below; sentence case | Source: Table adapted from Author (year, page). | Yes | Curtin University Library |
| Harvard (Cite Them Right) | Figure number and a description in the caption | Author and date, the source, any licence | Yes | Newcastle University Library |
MLA 9
The Modern Language Association (2020) guide to formatting a paper puts a table's label and title above it and its source in a caption below, and gives figures the label "Fig." with the caption beneath, as in "Fig. 1. Mary Cassatt, Mother and Child, Wichita Art Museum." If the caption is short, the source needs a works-cited entry, which Cite a source builds; ours begins "Wang, Xiaoye Michael, et al."
Chicago 18 author-date
The Chicago Manual (University of Chicago Press, 2024) covers credit lines in sections 3.30 to 3.38, including one on crediting adapted material, but the text is behind a subscription and could not be read. Curtin University Library (n.d.) gives its students a form: Source: in italics, then "Table adapted from" or "Figure reproduced from", then the author, year and page, as in "Table adapted from Westgarth et al. (2017, 3-4)", with the article in the reference list. Its colon after "Table 1" is Curtin's choice.
Harvard
Newcastle University Library (2025) says there is no official Cite Them Right guidance on embedding an image, and recommends a caption with the figure number, a description, the author and date in brackets, and the source and licence, with the full reference in the list. A figure discussed but not reproduced is cited with its page and figure number, such as (Bajracharya, 2022, p. 431, Fig. 18.1).
Do I need permission to reproduce a figure in a thesis?
Often yes, because a thesis in an open repository is published to anyone. A figure you only discuss needs a citation, not permission. A figure you copy or adapt may need the copyright holder's permission, unless a licence, a copyright exception or the public domain covers it.
What the universities and publishers say
UCL Library Services (n.d.), writing for undergraduates to PhD candidates, warns that diagrams and other artistic works are less likely to count as fair dealing than short quotations. Texas A&M asks for "reproduced with permission" as the caption's last sentence and a copy of the permission; Melbourne wants a list of third-party material needing permission.
Wiley (n.d.) handles thesis reuse through RightsLink, from the "Request Permissions" link beside the content, and says many non-commercial requests are granted at once without charge. Elsevier (n.d.) uses RightsLink too, and says a new figure built from data that was never a figure typically needs no permission. It also cites the STM permissions guidelines, but those are an arrangement among participating publishers for reuse in one another's publications (STM, 2024), so ask before relying on them for a thesis.
When permission is refused or costs too much
Take the figure out of the open-access copy. UCL's advice is to replace it with a reference or a description and a link to the original, and deposit two versions: the complete thesis and the one without the third-party material. Ask early: UCL notes that publishers can take a long time to reply.
What do universities' thesis regulations say about appendices, tables and figures?
They agree on numbering and mentioning, and differ on lists, order and what an appendix may hold.
| University | Tables and figures | Lists | Appendices | Third-party figures |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan, doctoral | Throughout or by chapter; alt text | Required when more than one | Before the bibliography | Not covered |
| Texas A&M, master's and doctoral | Mentioned in the text; unique titles | Required; appendix items optional | After the references | "Reproduced with permission" in the caption |
| York, research degrees | One sequence each; near first mention | Every illustration, appendices included | Before the references; numbered apart from chapters | Not covered |
| Melbourne, graduate research | Not covered | Optional | After the bibliography; no ethics applications or signatures | A list of material needing permission |
| UCL, all levels | Not covered | Not covered | Not covered | Permission, or removal from the open copy |
| Nottingham, dissertations | Not covered | List of appendices | Letters or numbers, one system | Not covered |
Where your own handbook says nothing, APA's rules above are a safe default, and your supervisor settles the rest.
How EdCitation helps with appendices, tables and figures
EdCitation is the best tool for the references behind borrowed tables and figures, because it takes each one from the publisher's record rather than writing it, and a copyright attribution needs exactly that: the authors, year, volume, issue and DOI. As the Tufte run shows, a catalogue's spelling sometimes needs correcting.
Cite a source builds the entry from a DOI, title, PubMed ID or ISBN in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE or Vancouver, screened for retraction, free with no account. Verify references takes the uploaded thesis, looks every entry up, flags retractions, never shows "could not check" as "not found", and matches citations to the list both ways. In our test with a short file, a source credited only in an APA "From" note under a figure was matched to its entry, as APA intends, and the entry verified.
Check your paper reads a regulation into a checklist, free. Given Texas A&M's 2026 guidelines, it returned eight rules, each with its sentence, including 12-point type, double spacing and 1-inch margins. It misread two: a note that the Word template uses Arial became a font rule, and APA, one department's style in a list of departments' styles, became the thesis's. The table and figure rules went to the list headed "What it asks you to do, which no rule can test", which stopped at 60 sentences, before the appendices and copyright sections. Read those yourself.
On Pro, $8 a month, Mechanics QA checks the file against the APA 7 student paper's formatting, finds comments and tracked changes left in it, matches citations to the list and flags numbers that disagree between sections. Theoretics QA, part of Max at $24 a month, judges the thesis against its own brief. Pricing has both. None of them writes, redraws or captions anything: every note and label is yours.
Quick questions
Do appendices go before or after the references?
It depends on the regulations. APA and Texas A&M put appendices after the references, and Melbourne after the bibliography; Michigan and York place them before the reference list. Follow your university's order over the style's.
Should thesis figures be numbered by chapter?
Either system is usually allowed. Michigan accepts Figure 1, 2, 3 or Figure 2.1, 2.2, provided one system is used throughout; chapter numbering keeps later numbers stable when an early figure is added.
Does a figure with an "Adapted from" note also need a reference list entry?
In APA 7, yes. The copyright attribution replaces the in-text citation, and the source still goes in the reference list; Cite a source builds that entry from the article's DOI.
Can I put a published figure in my thesis without permission?
Only if a licence, a copyright exception or the public domain covers it. A thesis in an open repository counts as publication, so UCL advises removing a figure from the open-access copy when permission is refused.
Can EdCitation write my figure captions or appendices?
No. EdCitation builds the reference for a figure's source from the publisher's record and checks the list, but it never writes any part of a thesis, captions and appendix text included.
References
- American Psychological Association. (2020). Clip art or stock image references. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/clip-art-references
- American Psychological Association. (2021a, December). Figure setup. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/tables-figures/figures
- American Psychological Association. (2021b, December). Sample figures. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/tables-figures/sample-figures
- American Psychological Association. (2021c, December). Table setup. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/tables-figures/tables
- American Psychological Association. (2024a, November). Appendices setup. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/appendices
- American Psychological Association. (2024b, June). Sample tables. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/tables-figures/sample-tables
- Curtin University Library. (n.d.). Tables & figures. UniSkills: Chicago 18th author-date. https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/chicago18/tables-and-figures/
- Elsevier. (n.d.). Permissions. https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/copyright/permissions
- Modern Language Association. (2020). Formatting a research paper [PDF]. MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/app/uploads/sites/3/2020/12/Formatting-a-Research-Paper_v3_-The-MLA-Style-Center.pdf
- Newcastle University Library. (2025). How to reference images: Cite Them Right Harvard [PDF]. https://www.ncl.ac.uk/mediav8/academic-skills-kit/file-downloads/manage-info/2025%20Harvard_how%20to%20reference%20images.pdf
- STM. (2024). STM permissions guidelines. International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers. https://www.stm-assoc.org/intellectual-property/permissions/permissions-guidelines/
- Texas A&M University Graduate and Professional School. (2026). Guidelines for theses, dissertations, and records of study [PDF]. https://grad.tamu.edu/degree-completion/thesis-and-dissertation/writing-tools/20260603-tamu-tds-guidelines.pdf
- UCL Library Services. (n.d.). Copyright and your PhD thesis. University College London. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/learning-teaching-support/ucl-copyright-advice/copyright-and-your-phd-thesis
- University of Chicago Press. (2024). The Chicago manual of style (18th ed., chap. 3 contents). https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/book/ed18/part1/ch03/toc.html
- University of Melbourne. (2026). Preparation of graduate research theses process. Graduate Research Hub. https://gradresearch.unimelb.edu.au/processes/preparation-of-graduate-research-theses
- University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School. (n.d.). Formatting guidelines. https://rackham.umich.edu/navigating-your-degree/formatting-guidelines/
- University of Nottingham. (n.d.). Abstracts and appendices [PDF]. Academic Support, Student Services. https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studentservices/documents/abstractsandappendices.pdf
- University of York. (n.d.). Format your thesis. Graduate School. https://www.york.ac.uk/research/graduate-school/progression/thesis/format/
- Wiley. (n.d.). Request permission to reuse Wiley content. https://www.wiley.com/research-intelligence/content-solutions/permissions/general-queries