Map Attribution and Data Citation

Last updated: October 2025

This guide provides essential information on how to properly attribute map tiles, cite spatial datasets, and acknowledge data sources in your research, publications, and reports.

Why This Matters

Proper attribution and citation are required for:

• Legal compliance: Most tile providers and data sources have legally binding attribution requirements
• Academic integrity: Spatial data deserves the same citation standards as other research materials
• Institutional responsibility: AU has enterprise licenses that require proper use acknowledgement
• Reproducibility: Other researchers need to know exactly what data and sources you used

Map Tile Attribution

Never Remove Attribution

All maps must include:

• Attribution to the tile provider or basemap source
• Attribution to underlying data sources (e.g., OpenStreetMap contributors)
• Copyright symbols and year where required

Common Tile Provider Requirements

OpenStreetMap-based tiles

Includes: CartoDB/CARTO, Stamen, Thunderforest

Required attribution: "© OpenStreetMap contributors"

License: ODbL (Open Database License)

Example:

Map tiles by CARTO, under CC BY 3.0. Data by OpenStreetMap, under ODbL.

CARTO (CartoDB)

Popular for neutral basemaps (Positron, Voyager, Dark Matter)

Required attribution: "© CARTO" and "© OpenStreetMap contributors"

Example for CartoDB.PositronNoLabels:

© CARTO, © OpenStreetMap contributors

Esri Basemaps

Required attribution: Copy the attribution text from the bottom of the map viewer

Typically includes: "Esri, [list of data providers]"

Important: Never crop out this attribution from exported maps

Google Maps

Required attribution: "Map data ©[year] Google"

Note: Terms of service prohibit most academic reproduction without additional licensing

Stamen Design

Required attribution:

Map tiles by Stamen Design, under CC BY 3.0. Data by OpenStreetMap, under ODbL.

Format-Specific Attribution Guidelines

Interactive Web Maps (Leaflet, Shiny, etc.)

Place attribution in the bottom-right corner using standard controls:

# R - Leaflet example
library(leaflet)

leaflet() %>%
  addProviderTiles(providers$CartoDB.PositronNoLabels,
    options = providerTileOptions(
      attribution = "© CARTO, © OpenStreetMap contributors"
    ))

Static Maps in Publications

Include attribution in the figure caption:

Figure 1. Study area showing sample locations in Denmark. 
Map tiles © CARTO. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Presentation Slides

Attribution can appear in smaller text at the map edge or in the slide footer

Spatial Dataset Citation

Essential Citation Elements

Every spatial dataset citation should include:

• Author/Creator – Who created the data
• Title – Name of the dataset
• Date – Year of publication or data collection
• Version/Edition – If applicable
• Publisher – Organization that released the data
• Format – File type (shapefile, GeoTIFF, etc.)
• Persistent Identifier – DOI or stable URL
• Access date – When you accessed the data

Citation Formats by Journal Style

Ecology Journal Style

Author(s). Year. Dataset title. Version [if applicable]. 
Publisher/Repository. DOI or URL. Accessed: date.

Example:

European Environment Agency. 2018. Corine Land Cover 2018 
(Vector 100m), Europe, version 2020_20u1. Copernicus Land 
Monitoring Service. land.copernicus.eu/pan-european/
corine-land-cover/clc2018. Accessed: 15 March 2024.

APA Style

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of dataset (Version X) [Data set]. 
Publisher. DOI or URL

Example:

U.S. Geological Survey. (2019). National Hydrography Dataset 
(NHD) - High Resolution [Data set]. 
www.usgs.gov/national-hydrography/

Common Spatial Data Sources - Citation Examples

OpenStreetMap Data

OpenStreetMap contributors. 2024. Planet dump retrieved from 
planet.openstreetmap.org. 
www.openstreetmap.org. Accessed: 10 October 2024.

Sentinel Satellite Data

European Space Agency. 2023. Sentinel-2 Level-2A imagery, 
tile 32UME, acquired 15 June 2023. Copernicus Open Access Hub. 
scihub.copernicus.eu. Accessed: 20 June 2023.

GBIF Species Occurrence Data

GBIF.org. 2024. GBIF Occurrence Download. 
doi.org/10.15468/dl.xxxxx. Accessed: 5 August 2024.

WorldClim Climate Data

Fick, S.E., and R.J. Hijmans. 2017. WorldClim 2: new 1-km 
spatial resolution climate surfaces for global land areas. 
International Journal of Climatology 37:4302-4315. 
Data available at: www.worldclim.org

Danish National Data (Kortforsyningen/Datafordeleren)

Styrelsen for Dataforsyning og Infrastruktur. 2023. 
GeoDanmark orthophoto 2023, 12.5 cm resolution. 
Datafordeleren. datafordeler.dk. 
Accessed: 12 April 2024.

Data from Repositories (Dryad, Figshare, Zenodo)

When datasets have DOIs:

Smith, J., Jones, A., & Brown, K. (2023). Spatial distribution 
of bumblebee colonies across Denmark 2018-2022 (Version 1.2) 
[Data set]. Dryad. doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xxxxx

Derived or Modified Datasets

If you process or modify spatial data, cite the original source AND describe your modifications:

In methods:

Original 44 Corine land cover classes were aggregated into 
five functional categories (urban, agriculture, forest, 
wetland, other) following the classification scheme of 
Smith et al. (2020).

Data Availability Statements

Many journals now require Data Availability Statements. For spatial data:

Example (publicly available data):

Spatial data used in this study are publicly available from 
the following sources: land cover data from the European 
Environment Agency (https://land.copernicus.eu/), elevation 
data from Datafordeleren (https://datafordeler.dk/), and 
species occurrence records from GBIF (https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.xxxxx).

Example (with code archive):

All data and R code used for spatial analysis are archived 
at Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.xxxxx).

Citing Software and Tools

Spatial analysis software should also be cited:

QGIS:

QGIS Development Team. 2024. QGIS Geographic Information System. 
Open Source Geospatial Foundation Project. qgis.org

ArcGIS:

Esri. 2023. ArcGIS Pro (Version 3.1). Esri Inc. 
www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-pro/

R packages (example - sf):

Pebesma, E. 2018. Simple features for R: standardized support 
for spatial vector data. The R Journal 10:439-446.

Quick Reference Table

Source Type	Required Attribution	Where to Place	License
OpenStreetMap	© OpenStreetMap contributors	On map or caption	ODbL
CARTO/CartoDB	© CARTO, © OSM contributors	On map or caption	CC BY 3.0 / ODbL
Esri basemaps	Copy from map viewer	On map or caption	Varies
Stamen	© Stamen Design, © OSM	On map or caption	CC BY 3.0 / ODbL
Google Maps	Map data ©[year] Google	On map	Restricted

Resources

• Leaflet Provider Preview: https://leaflet-extras.github.io/leaflet-providers/preview/ - Check attribution requirements for tile providers
• OpenStreetMap Copyright: https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright
• AU Geodata Collection: Internal AU geodata resources

Questions or Need Help?

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Prepared by: AU GIS Committee
Last updated: October 2025
For updates or corrections to this page, contact [email protected]