Do I need to cite sources on the slides themselves, or is a references slide enough?

Both. The slide where you use a source carries the in-text citation, and the last slide carries the full entry, exactly as a paper has in-text citations and a reference list. The MLA Style Center says the works-cited list may be the final slide; it does not say the final slide replaces the on-slide pointer. A references slide alone leaves the audience unable to tell which claim came from which source.

How do I cite an image on a PowerPoint slide in APA?

Put a note under the image. The official Flickr sample is: Note. From Lava [Photograph], by Denali National Park and Preserve, 2013, Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/denalinps/8639280606/). CC BY 2.0. Add the matching Denali 2013 reference on the References slide. In a presentation the figure number and title are optional, but the copyright note is required when the licence needs credit. Built-in PowerPoint clip art, and any stock file whose licence says "no attribution required," need neither.

Do images in a presentation need a Works Cited entry in MLA?

Only if you discuss the image as evidence. The MLA Style Center (15 May 2019) says an image that is purely illustrative can carry its full publication details in the caption with no Works Cited entry. An image you analyse gets a short caption and a full entry on the Works Cited slide. The handbook caption sample is Fig. 1. Mary Cassatt, Mother and Child, Wichita Art Museum.

How do I use Chicago footnotes in a presentation?

Put the superscript number on the slide and the note text at the foot of the same slide, since the audience cannot turn to a notes page. Use a full note the first time — 1. Charles Yu, Interior Chinatown (Pantheon Books, 2020), 45. — and a shortened note afterwards. End with a bibliography slide. Chicago author-date, with (Yu 2020, 45) on the slide, is an equally valid alternative. Do not mix the two systems in one deck.

What font size should citations be on a slide?

No style manual sets one. APA Style says font size, amount of text, colour, and animations are up to writers. The test is whether the back row can read the citation. A parenthetical inside a bullet stays the same size as the bullet. Image credits and Chicago notes at the foot of a slide work at 14 to 18 points, and a references slide at 16 to 20 points, split across two slides before going smaller.

How do I cite a video clip that I play during the presentation?

Cite the video on the slide with a timestamp for the passage you played. APA 7 §8.28 uses (Cuddy, 2012, 2:12). MLA uses a time or a slide number, as in (slide 2). Chicago's official TED shortened note is Cowan, "Green Hydrogen," at 6:09–17; author-date is (Cowan 2022, at 6:09–17). Add the video to the References, Works Cited, or bibliography slide.

Can I put the citations in the speaker notes instead of on the slides?

No. Speaker notes are invisible to the audience and are usually stripped when the deck is exported or shared as a PDF. Use them to remind yourself to name the source out loud, and keep the citation on the slide.

How do I cite a presentation someone else gave?

If the slides are online, cite them by author, date, italic title, a description such as [PowerPoint slides], the site, and the URL. The official APA public sample is Jones (2016) on SlideShare; the official classroom sample is Mack and Spake (2018) on Canvas@FNU. MLA's official LMS sample is Carson, Sandy. Introduction to Digital Humanities. Blackboard, uploaded by Carson, 20 Oct. 2019, blackboard.ucla.edu/. PowerPoint presentation. If nothing was recorded or posted, APA treats the talk as a personal communication.

Do I need hanging indents on a References slide?

Yes when the software allows them, because the slide is still a reference list, a works-cited list, or a bibliography. PowerPoint and Google Slides both expose first-line and hanging indentation in the paragraph settings. If hanging indents break the layout at a readable size, split the list across two slides rather than dropping the indent and shrinking the type.

Cite Sources in a Presentation: APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 [2026]

Quick Answer: Cite on the Slide, Then List the Source at the End

Cite on the slide where the borrowed idea, quotation, image, or clip appears, using the same in-text form your style uses in a paper. Then end the deck with a References, Works Cited, or Bibliography slide in the same format as the end of a paper. An image gets its credit directly under the image, not only on the final slide. Saying the source out loud does not replace either step. The slide has to carry the citation because the slide is what gets shared as a PDF.

Templates (swap in the author, year, title, and locator from your list)

APA 7 on the slide:

Paraphrased point (Author, Year). "Quoted words" (Author, Year, p. X).

APA 7 image credit under the image:

Note. From Title of Image [Photograph], by A. Author, Year, Site Name (https://xxxxx). CC BY 4.0.

APA 7 final slide:

References — the same entries, alphabetical, as at the end of a paper

MLA 9 on the slide:

Paraphrased point (Author X). "Quoted words" (Author X).

MLA 9 image caption:

Fig. 1. First Name Author, Title of Image, Year, Site Name, URL.

MLA 9 final slide:

Works Cited — alphabetical, in the same format as a paper

Chicago 18 on the slide (notes):

Quoted or paraphrased point.¹ — with 1. Author, Title (Publisher, Year), X. at the foot of the slide

Chicago 18 on the slide (author-date):

Paraphrased point (Author Year, X).

Chicago 18 final slide:

Bibliography or References — alphabetical, in the same format as a paper

This page is about citing on slides, not citing a talk in a paper

Two jobs share the word presentation and they are not the same page. This URL tells you how to put a parenthetical, a caption, or a note on your slide. The how-to-cite pages tell you how to list someone else's deck in your paper. Do not flatten them.

Use this page when you are building a PowerPoint or Google Slides deck and need an on-slide citation, an image credit, a clip timestamp, or a readable final list.
Use how to cite presentation slides in APA, MLA, or Chicago when the source itself is a deck you opened.
Use how to cite a lecture or PowerPoint in APA when recoverability decides whether Mack and Spake go in the reference list or a live talk stays a personal communication.
Use how to cite course materials in MLA when the file lives on Blackboard or Canvas and the Style Center's Carson line is the model.
Use how to cite a reproduced figure or table when the figure is going into a paper, not onto a projected slide.

Three places a citation can live in a deck

Every source in a presentation needs to be found twice: once where it is used, and once in a list at the end. Speaker notes are a third place, and they are the wrong one for the citation itself. The audience never sees them, and a shared PDF of the deck usually drops them. Use speaker notes to remind yourself to say the source's name, not to hold the citation.

On the slide, next to the borrowed material. A parenthetical after a bullet, a caption under an image, a short note at the foot of the slide. This is the in-text citation.
On the final slide or slides. A References, Works Cited, or Bibliography slide with every source in full. This is the end list.
In speaker notes, as a prompt. Optional. A line such as "Say: this is from Niepel and colleagues, 2025." It never replaces the two above.

APA Style is explicit that slide design is not part of the manual. The PowerPoint page reprinted by Alamo Colleges on 29 May 2026 says the citation rules travel to the deck and the typography decisions stay with you:

APA Style on PowerPoint design (Alamo reprint, 29 May 2026)

Writers creating PowerPoint presentations in APA Style should present information clearly and concisely. Many APA Style guidelines can be applied to presentations (e.g., the guidance for crediting sources, using bias-free language, and writing clearly and concisely).

However, decisions about font size, amount of text on a slide, color scheme, use of animations, and so on are up to writers; these details are not specified as part of APA Style.

APA 7: author-date on the slide, References at the end

APA has no separate rulebook for presentations. The Publication Manual rules for author-date citations and reference lists apply as written. The one adjustment is that slides are made of bullet points, and a bullet often has no closing period. Put the citation at the end of the bullet either way. If the bullet ends with a period, the citation goes before it, exactly as in a sentence.

Citing on the slide

Use the official demonstration strings, not invented articles. The Common Reference Examples Guide (3 March 2026) supplies Niepel et al. for a journal article and Levenson et al. for a book. Section 8.12 supplies the alphabetical group. Section 8.28 supplies the Cuddy timestamp for a quotation from a talk.

APA 7, official in-text forms on a content slide

Paraphrase in a bullet (Niepel et al., Common Reference Examples):

• State academic self-concept varies with students' trait expectancies and values (Niepel et al., 2025)

Official §8.28 quotation with a timestamp:

People make "sweeping inferences and judgments from body language" (Cuddy, 2012, 2:12).

Narrative citation in a slide heading:

Levenson et al. (2025): deliberate practice in emotionally focused couple therapy

Two or more works, official §8.12 order:

(Adams et al., 2019; Shumway & Shulman, 2015; Westinghouse, 2017)

Use the ampersand inside parentheses and the word and in running text, as in a paper. Order multiple sources inside one parenthetical alphabetically and separate them with semicolons; that grouping rule is spelled out on how to cite multiple sources in one citation. A quotation needs a page or a timestamp; a paraphrase does not require one, though APA encourages a locator when it helps the reader find the passage.

The References slide

Title the slide References, list the entries alphabetically, and format each one exactly as you would at the end of a paper. Keep the hanging indent when the software allows it; both PowerPoint and Google Slides expose indentation in the paragraph settings. If the list does not fit at a readable size, continue on a second slide titled References (continued) rather than shrinking the type. Every source cited on a slide appears here, and every image you credited under a figure appears here too — unless the license is the APA clip-art exception below.

APA 7, official entries for a References slide

Above The Noise. (2017, October 18). Can procrastination be a good thing? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQMwmBNNOnQ

Denali National Park and Preserve. (2013). Lava [Photograph]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/denalinps/8639280606/

Levenson, H., Jinich, S., Vaz, A., & Rousmaniere, T. (2025). Deliberate practice in emotionally focused couple therapy. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000436-000

Niepel, C., Hausen, J. E., Weber, A. M., & Möller, J. (2025). Understanding mean-level and intraindividual variability in state academic self-concept: The role of students’ trait expectancies and values. Journal of Educational Psychology, 117(5), 772–788. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000946

Images on slides: the copyright attribution

APA treats an image you reproduce as a figure. A reproduced figure needs two things when the license requires credit: a copyright attribution in the figure note, under the image, and a matching entry in the reference list. The APA figure guidelines give the attribution pattern: From or Adapted from, the title, by the creator, the year, the site, the URL in parentheses, and then the copyright status. On a slide, the figure number and title are usually dropped. The clip-art page reprinted by Alamo states the presentation cutoff in one sentence:

APA Style clip-art page (Alamo reprint) on slides versus papers

The guidelines also apply to both students and professionals and to both papers and PowerPoint presentations.

In a presentation, the figure number and title are optional but the note containing the copyright attribution is required.

If the license associated with clip art or a stock image states “no attribution required,” then do not provide an APA Style reference, in-text citation, or copyright attribution.

Although for most images you must look at the license on a case-by-case basis, images and clip art from programs such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint can be used without attribution.

Official APA 7 Lava figure (Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

Note. From Lava [Photograph], by Denali National Park and Preserve, 2013, Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/denalinps/8639280606/). CC BY 2.0.

Matching reference-list entry:

Denali National Park and Preserve. (2013). Lava [Photograph]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/denalinps/8639280606/

Parenthetical citation if you mention the image without reprinting it:

(Denali National Park and Preserve, 2013)

Two exceptions save you work, and both come from that same official page. Built-in Word or PowerPoint clip art needs no citation and no attribution, because the software licence already covers it. A Pixabay or similar file whose deed says "no attribution required" also needs none. Images from stock sites such as Getty, iStock, or a Creative Commons Flickr file that does require credit need the note and the reference entry. Unsplash and Pexels often say attribution is optional, not forbidden; optional is not the same as "no attribution required." If the deed is silent, cite the file. The image citation guide has the museum, database, and social-media patterns.

Charts and video clips

A chart copied from a paper is a figure and takes the same From or Adapted from note, with the article's page number. That string is a template unless you are copying an official figure note. A chart you drew from someone else's numbers is your figure, so credit the data in the note with an ordinary citation. A video clip embedded or linked on a slide is cited like any audiovisual work, with a timestamp as the locator; see how to cite a YouTube video in APA.

APA 7, charts and clips — official strings plus one labelled template

Template, chart reproduced from an article (not an official note):

Note. Adapted from "Title of Article," by I. I. Surname and I. I. Surname, Year, Journal Title, Volume(Issue), p. X (https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx). Copyright Year by Copyright Holder.

Template, chart you built from published data:

Note. Data from Niepel et al. (2025, Table 1).

Official YouTube reference (Common Reference Examples):

Above The Noise. (2017, October 18). Can procrastination be a good thing? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQMwmBNNOnQ

Clip on the slide, official §8.28 locator:

(Cuddy, 2012, 2:12)

MLA 9: author-page on the slide, Works Cited at the end

MLA's advice for presentations is short and comes from the Style Center itself. The 15 May 2019 post How do I cite photographs or other images that I use in a PowerPoint presentation or web project? is the page this section follows. Text sources use the same in-text logic as a paper: the shortest pointer to the works-cited entry, plus a locator when you quote or paraphrase a specific place (MLA Handbook §§6.3–6.30).

MLA Style Center, images in a PowerPoint or web project (15 May 2019)

Cite an image used in a PowerPoint presentation or web project the same way you would cite it in a printed paper.

As the post explains, if the image is merely illustrative, provide full publication details in a caption. But if you refer to the source of the image elsewhere, the caption should provide only enough detail needed to key to a works-cited-list entry.

The list of works cited may be included as the final slide or as the last page of the web project.

Citing on the slide

The in-text citation is the author's surname and, when relevant, a page number, line number, or timestamp. It sits at the end of the bullet, before any closing period. The Style Center in-text overview (1 April 2021) uses Naomi Baron for the demonstration:

MLA 9, official in-text forms on a content slide

Parenthetical citation (Style Center):

At least one researcher has broken new ground on the subject (Baron).

Official quotation with a page:

According to Naomi Baron, reading is "just half of literacy. The other half is writing" (194).

Author and page together:

Reading is "just half of literacy. The other half is writing" (Baron 194).

Matching Works Cited entry:

Baron, Naomi S. “Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media.” PMLA, vol. 128, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 193–200.

Slide-number locator (Style Center, citing_slides, 2 March 2018):

Thomas Hart Benton’s panel Instruments of Power is part a larger mural (slide 1).

Images: caption or Works Cited entry

The Style Center draws one distinction that decides how much you write. An image that is purely illustrative gets its full publication details in the caption and no works-cited entry. An image you discuss as evidence gets a short caption that points to a full entry on the Works Cited slide. The caption itself follows the MLA figure-caption pattern (28 June 2017): the label Fig. and a number, then the creator and the work.

MLA 9, official image captions and slide-image entries

Official caption (Style Center / Handbook):

Fig. 1. Mary Cassatt, Mother and Child, Wichita Art Museum.

Image from a web slideshow (citing_slides, 2 March 2018):

Benton, Thomas Hart. Instruments of Power. 1930–31. The Met, Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/from-the-director/2012/benton/slideshow. Slide 1.

Image the presenter created, lecture you attended:

Smith, Ryan. “Goals of the Course.” English 204: African American Literature, 4 Apr. 2016, Evergreen State College, Olympia. Slide 2.

Image the presenter did not create:

Monet, Claude. Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies. 1899. Introduction to the History of Art, taught by Jane Ford, 4 Apr. 2016, Bates College, Lewiston. Slide 2.

Official quotation keyed to a slide number:

Smith indicates that one of the goals of the course is to “understand African American literature in all its variety” (slide 2).

The Works Cited slide

Title the slide Works Cited. Keep hanging indents if the software allows them. Split across slides before shrinking the type. Include every source you discussed. Leave off a purely illustrative image whose caption already carries the full details — that is the Style Center rule, not a local shortcut.

MLA 9, official Works Cited lines that belong on a final slide

Baron, Naomi S. “Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media.” PMLA, vol. 128, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 193–200.

Carson, Sandy. Introduction to Digital Humanities. Blackboard, uploaded by Carson, 20 Oct. 2019, blackboard.ucla.edu/. PowerPoint presentation.

Benton, Thomas Hart. Instruments of Power. 1930–31. The Met, Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/from-the-director/2012/benton/slideshow. Slide 1.

Chicago 18: notes on the slide, bibliography at the end

Chicago gives you a choice the other two styles do not. Notes-Bibliography puts a superscript number on the slide and the note at the foot of the same slide, with a bibliography slide at the end. Author-Date works like APA on the slide — name, year, locator — with a references slide at the end. The live Chicago citation guides cover both systems. Pick one for the whole deck. CMOS 18 no longer requires a place of publication in book citations (§14.30).

CMOS 18 Quick Guide on book notes

Note that a place of publication is no longer required in book citations (see CMOS 14.30).

Notes-Bibliography on a slide

Because the audience cannot flip to the end of a chapter, the note text belongs on the same slide as its number, in a smaller line at the bottom. Use a full note the first time a source appears and a shortened note after that — that pairing is CMOS, not a slide hack. Restarting the numbering on each slide so the numbers stay small is a working convention, not a CMOS paragraph. Many presenters skip the superscript and place the shortened note at the foot of the slide; that is acceptable in a talk as long as the bibliography slide carries the full entry. Do not put one number per source in the same sentence. CMOS §§13.31 and 13.61 put several sources in one note.

Chicago 18, official Quick Guide notes as they sit on a slide

Full note at the foot of the slide:

1. Charles Yu, Interior Chinatown (Pantheon Books, 2020), 45.

Second full note, same deck:

2. Amy J. Binder and Jeffrey L. Kidder, The Channels of Student Activism: How the Left and Right Are Winning (and Losing) in Campus Politics Today (University of Chicago Press, 2022), 117–18.

Shortened notes on a later slide:

3. Yu, Interior Chinatown, 48.

4. Binder and Kidder, Channels of Student Activism, 125.

Journal note with a DOI:

1. Hyeyoung Kwon, “Inclusion Work: Children of Immigrants Claiming Membership in Everyday Life,” American Journal of Sociology 127, no. 6 (2022): 1842–43, https://doi.org/10.1086/720277.

Author-date alternative on the slide:

(Yu 2020, 45)

(Binder and Kidder 2022, 117–18)

Images, charts, and clips in Chicago

Chicago credits a reproduced image in a credit line under the image: the creator, the italicised title, the year, the medium if useful, the source, and the licence or permission (CMOS 18 §§14.161–14.169 for related audiovisual forms). A chart made from someone else's data says so in its caption with a source line. A video clip is cited in a note like any video, with the timestamp of the passage you showed. The live Quick Guide sample is Vaitea Cowan's TED Talk; the shortened note uses at before the clock. Chicago's multimedia guide has the full film, podcast, and YouTube patterns.

Chicago 18, official clip plus labelled credit-line templates

Template, image credit line (not an official CMOS string):

Creator Name, Title of Work, Year, medium, Site or Museum, licence or permission.

Template, chart source line:

Source: Data from Kwon, “Inclusion Work,” table 1.

Official TED note (CMOS Quick Guide):

1. Vaitea Cowan, "How Green Hydrogen Could End the Fossil Fuel Era," TED Talk, Vancouver, BC, April 2022, 9 min., 15 sec., https://www.ted.com/talks/vaitea_cowan_how_green_hydrogen_could_end_the_fossil_fuel_era.

Official shortened note with timestamp:

Cowan, "Green Hydrogen," at 6:09–17.

Official YouTube lecture note:

2. Eric Oliver, "Why So Many Americans Believe in So Many ‘Crazy’ Things," moderated by Andrew McCall, virtual lecture, February 23, 2022, posted March 21, 2022, by University of Chicago, YouTube, 1:01:45, https://youtu.be/hfq7AnCF5bg.

Author-date locator for the same TED clip:

(Cowan 2022, at 6:09–17)

Chicago 18, official bibliography lines for the final slide

Binder, Amy J., and Jeffrey L. Kidder. The Channels of Student Activism: How the Left and Right Are Winning (and Losing) in Campus Politics Today. University of Chicago Press, 2022.

Cowan, Vaitea. "How Green Hydrogen Could End the Fossil Fuel Era." TED Talk, Vancouver, BC, April 2022. Video, 9 min., 15 sec. https://www.ted.com/talks/vaitea_cowan_how_green_hydrogen_could_end_the_fossil_fuel_era.

Kwon, Hyeyoung. “Inclusion Work: Children of Immigrants Claiming Membership in Everyday Life.” American Journal of Sociology 127, no. 6 (2022): 1818–59. https://doi.org/10.1086/720277.

Yu, Charles. Interior Chinatown. Pantheon Books, 2020.

Illustration or evidence? What each style asks for

An image, chart, or clip you only display

APA 7:

Copyright attribution under the image and a reference entry, unless the licence says "no attribution required" or the file is built-in Word or PowerPoint clip art.

MLA 9:

Full publication details in the caption; no Works Cited entry needed. That is the Style Center slide-deck rule.

Chicago 18:

A credit line under the image. A bibliography entry is optional for an illustration you do not discuss.

An image, chart, or clip you analyse as evidence

APA 7:

Attribution under the image, a citation wherever you discuss it, and a reference entry.

MLA 9:

Short caption that points to a full Works Cited entry; cite it in the text where you discuss it.

Chicago 18:

Credit line under the image, a note where you discuss it, and a bibliography entry.

Font sizes, placement, and readability

No style manual sets a slide font size. APA says so in the sentence quoted above. The standard is therefore legibility from the back of the room. A citation the audience cannot read is a citation that is not there. The numbers below are working conventions, not rules, and they are on the generous side because projectors and video calls both lose resolution.

Working sizes for citations on slides (conventions, not APA, MLA, or CMOS rules).
Element	Suggested size	Why
Body text on a content slide	24 pt or larger	The citation is sized relative to this
Parenthetical citation in a bullet	Same as the bullet	It is part of the sentence; do not shrink it
Image credit or Chicago note at the foot of the slide	14–18 pt	Smaller than body text, still readable when projected
References or Works Cited slide	16–20 pt	Split across slides before going smaller
Absolute floor	12 pt	Below this, nothing is legible from more than a few metres

Keep citations in the same font and colour as the surrounding text. A grey, tiny credit line reads as an afterthought and often fails contrast checks.
Put image credits directly under or beside the image, on the same slide. A credit on the last slide is not enough in APA and is confusing in MLA and Chicago.
Give the references slide a plain title (References, Works Cited, or Bibliography) and no decorative background that fights the text.
Do not cut a references slide to "selected sources." Every citation on a slide needs its entry, except the MLA illustrative-caption case and the APA no-attribution licence.
If the deck will be shared as a PDF, check the export once: speaker notes disappear and superscripts sometimes lose their formatting.
When a quotation runs long, use a whole slide for it and put the citation at the bottom of that slide, as you would for a block quotation. See how to format block quotes.

Citing a presentation that someone else gave

The reverse problem — citing a talk or a deck in your own paper — depends on what the reader can retrieve. A deck posted online is cited by its URL. A talk given at a conference is cited as a conference session. A slide file your instructor posted to Canvas is a classroom source. The official demonstration strings are Mack and Spake (APA LMS), Jones (APA SlideShare), Davidson (APA conference session), and Carson (MLA Blackboard). If nothing was recorded or posted, APA §8.9 treats the talk as a personal communication and keeps it out of the reference list. The Creating an APA Style reference list guide (23 February 2022) states that exception in one sentence.

Official samples for citing someone else's slides or talk

APA 7, classroom PowerPoint (Common Reference Examples §10.14):

Mack, R., & Spake, G. (2018). Citing open source images and formatting references for presentations [PowerPoint slides]. Canvas@FNU. https://fnu.onelogin.com/login

APA 7, public PowerPoint (Alamo / Style Center):

Jones, J. (2016, March 23). Guided reading: Making the most of it [PowerPoint slides]. SlideShare. https://www.slideshare.net/hellojenjones/guided-reading-making-the-most-of-it

APA 7, conference session (Common Reference Examples §10.5):

Davidson, R. J. (2019, August 8–11). Well-being is a skill [Conference session]. APA 2019 Convention, Chicago, IL, United States. https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/a5ea5d51/files/uploaded/APA2019_Program_190708.pdf

APA 7 parenthetical citations:

(Mack & Spake, 2018)

(Jones, 2016)

MLA 9, LMS PowerPoint (Style Center, 15 September 2020):

Carson, Sandy. Introduction to Digital Humanities. Blackboard, uploaded by Carson, 20 Oct. 2019, blackboard.ucla.edu/. PowerPoint presentation.

APA personal-communications exception (Creating an APA Style reference list, 23 February 2022):

An exception is personal communications, which are cited in the text of your paper but are not included in the reference list (see Section 8.9 in the seventh edition Publication Manual).

The full recoverability test, the untitled Canan lecture-notes line, and the classroom-or-intranet cutoff live on how to cite a lecture or PowerPoint in APA. Conference sessions have their own walkthrough at how to cite a conference paper in APA. An unrecorded talk you only heard is also covered on how to cite personal communications.

Quick comparison

Where each style puts each piece of a presentation citation.
Element	APA 7	MLA 9	Chicago 18
Citation in a bullet	(Author, Year) or (Author, Year, p. X)	(Author) or (Author X)	Superscript note on the slide, or (Author Year, X)
Two sources at once	(A & B, 2019; C, 2021), alphabetical, semicolons	(A; B) or (A 42; B 88), order is yours	One note with semicolons, or (A and B 2019; C 2021)
Image credit	Note. From Title, by A. Author, Year, Site (URL). Licence.	Fig. 1. Author, Title, Site.	Author, Title, Year, medium, Source, licence.
Does the image also need a list entry?	Yes, unless the licence says no attribution required	Only if you discuss it; caption can stand alone	If you discuss it; optional otherwise
Video clip locator	Timestamp: (Cuddy, 2012, 2:12)	Time or slide: (Baron 194) or (slide 2)	Duration and "at 6:09–17" in the note
Final slide title	References	Works Cited	Bibliography (notes) or References (author-date)
Hanging indent	Yes, where the software allows	Yes, where the software allows	Yes, where the software allows

Common mistakes

Citing only on the references slide. The audience sees a claim on slide 4 and a list on slide 30; the link between them is the on-slide citation.
Crediting an image with a bare URL. Every style wants the creator and the title; APA and Chicago also want the licence or copyright line.
Dropping the reference entry for images in APA because the credit is already under the picture. APA requires both unless the licence is the no-attribution case.
Writing a full MLA Works Cited entry for a decorative image whose caption already carries the details. The Style Center lets the caption stand alone.
Shrinking the references slide to 9-point type so it fits. Split it across two slides instead. APA does not set a slide type size; illegible type is still a failed citation.
Putting the citation only in the speaker notes. Notes are not part of the slide the audience sees or the PDF you share.
Using two Chicago systems in one deck: superscript notes on some slides and (Author Year) on others. Choose one.
Citing a video by its whole length when you played thirty seconds of it. Give the timestamp of what you showed: (Cuddy, 2012, 2:12) or Cowan, "Green Hydrogen," at 6:09–17.
Treating a talk you attended as a citable published work. If no recording or deck exists, APA calls it a personal communication. MLA and Chicago cite the in-person presentation with the venue and date.
Inventing a journal, a DOI, or a photograph to fill the slide. If you cannot verify the source, omit the example or use a labelled template.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to cite sources on the slides themselves, or is a references slide enough?: Both. The slide where you use a source carries the in-text citation, and the last slide carries the full entry, exactly as a paper has in-text citations and a reference list. The MLA Style Center says the works-cited list may be the final slide; it does not say the final slide replaces the on-slide pointer. A references slide alone leaves the audience unable to tell which claim came from which source.
How do I cite an image on a PowerPoint slide in APA?: Put a note under the image. The official Flickr sample is: Note. From Lava [Photograph], by Denali National Park and Preserve, 2013, Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/denalinps/8639280606/). CC BY 2.0. Add the matching Denali 2013 reference on the References slide. In a presentation the figure number and title are optional, but the copyright note is required when the licence needs credit. Built-in PowerPoint clip art, and any stock file whose licence says "no attribution required," need neither.
Do images in a presentation need a Works Cited entry in MLA?: Only if you discuss the image as evidence. The MLA Style Center (15 May 2019) says an image that is purely illustrative can carry its full publication details in the caption with no Works Cited entry. An image you analyse gets a short caption and a full entry on the Works Cited slide. The handbook caption sample is Fig. 1. Mary Cassatt, Mother and Child, Wichita Art Museum.
How do I use Chicago footnotes in a presentation?: Put the superscript number on the slide and the note text at the foot of the same slide, since the audience cannot turn to a notes page. Use a full note the first time — 1. Charles Yu, Interior Chinatown (Pantheon Books, 2020), 45. — and a shortened note afterwards. End with a bibliography slide. Chicago author-date, with (Yu 2020, 45) on the slide, is an equally valid alternative. Do not mix the two systems in one deck.
What font size should citations be on a slide?: No style manual sets one. APA Style says font size, amount of text, colour, and animations are up to writers. The test is whether the back row can read the citation. A parenthetical inside a bullet stays the same size as the bullet. Image credits and Chicago notes at the foot of a slide work at 14 to 18 points, and a references slide at 16 to 20 points, split across two slides before going smaller.
How do I cite a video clip that I play during the presentation?: Cite the video on the slide with a timestamp for the passage you played. APA 7 §8.28 uses (Cuddy, 2012, 2:12). MLA uses a time or a slide number, as in (slide 2). Chicago's official TED shortened note is Cowan, "Green Hydrogen," at 6:09–17; author-date is (Cowan 2022, at 6:09–17). Add the video to the References, Works Cited, or bibliography slide.
Can I put the citations in the speaker notes instead of on the slides?: No. Speaker notes are invisible to the audience and are usually stripped when the deck is exported or shared as a PDF. Use them to remind yourself to name the source out loud, and keep the citation on the slide.
How do I cite a presentation someone else gave?: If the slides are online, cite them by author, date, italic title, a description such as [PowerPoint slides], the site, and the URL. The official APA public sample is Jones (2016) on SlideShare; the official classroom sample is Mack and Spake (2018) on Canvas@FNU. MLA's official LMS sample is Carson, Sandy. Introduction to Digital Humanities. Blackboard, uploaded by Carson, 20 Oct. 2019, blackboard.ucla.edu/. PowerPoint presentation. If nothing was recorded or posted, APA treats the talk as a personal communication.
Do I need hanging indents on a References slide?: Yes when the software allows them, because the slide is still a reference list, a works-cited list, or a bibliography. PowerPoint and Google Slides both expose first-line and hanging indentation in the paragraph settings. If hanging indents break the layout at a readable size, split the list across two slides rather than dropping the indent and shrinking the type.

Generate the on-slide citation and the credit line

Build the parenthetical or note for each slide with the in-text generator. The image, YouTube, and hanging-indent tools produce the credit line and the matching reference entry for the final slide. Use the lecture guide when the source is someone else's deck rather than a citation on your deck.

In-text citation generator →Image citation generator →YouTube citation generator →Hanging indent formatter →

Quick Answer: Cite on the Slide, Then List the Source at the End

This page is about citing on slides, not citing a talk in a paper

Three places a citation can live in a deck

APA 7: author-date on the slide, References at the end

Citing on the slide

The References slide

Images on slides: the copyright attribution

Charts and video clips

MLA 9: author-page on the slide, Works Cited at the end

Citing on the slide

Images: caption or Works Cited entry

The Works Cited slide

Chicago 18: notes on the slide, bibliography at the end

Notes-Bibliography on a slide

Images, charts, and clips in Chicago

Illustration or evidence? What each style asks for

Font sizes, placement, and readability

Citing a presentation that someone else gave

Quick comparison

Common mistakes

Frequently asked questions

Generate the on-slide citation and the credit line

Related guides and official manuals