Inquiry About Image Licensing and Attribution for Research Purposes

[pedroufop]

Hi! I am a researcher currently working on a project that involves the use of datasets from iNaturalist, particularly the dataset referenced in the 2017 iNaturalist competition. I am writing to inquire about the appropriate way to handle licensing and attribution for the images used in my research.

From my understanding, each image on iNaturalist may have a different license, and I want to ensure that I comply with all necessary requirements when citing these images in my academic article. Many research papers that utilize iNaturalist data only cite the 2017 competition dataset, without attributing individual image authors. However, I would like to confirm whether this is sufficient, or if there are additional steps I should take to properly credit the authors of the images included in the dataset.

Is it acceptable to cite only the 2017 competition dataset article when using iNaturalist data in my research, or should I individually credit the authors of each image used, depending on their licenses? If individual attribution is required, is there a recommended method for efficiently citing the creators of the images in large datasets?

Thanks!

[patrmcgown]

Depends on the license each user sets. Mine for example are free to use with attribution for non-commercial uses. When in doubt message the uploader. There should be a copyright in each photo you can click to take you too an explanation of which license option was selected.

[gcwarbler]

Q: Are you expecting to reproduce the images in some publication? That would require the attributions for each (re)published image. If you are only going to publish compiled stats or analysis of the accumulated observations that would not require individual attribution. But as staff has pointed out elsewhere, it would be desirable to download iNat data from the GBIF site and cite the appropriate dataset from that secondary source.

[cthawley]

Agreed. If you are just using the dataset itself (including the images within the dataset), you can generally cite the dataset alone. If you are going to publish or redistribute the images yourself in some way, you’d need to cite them appropriately for each.