A great image attracts and excites readers. That’s why all the best newspapers always display incredible pictures.
This is what you can do to add a fantastic featured image to your post:
- Use Unsplash. Most of the content on Unsplash is fine to use without asking for permission. You can learn more about their license here.
- Take one yourself. Your phone is almost certainly good enough to capture a cool image of your surroundings. You might even already have an image on your phone that would make a great addition to your article.
- Make a great graph. If your post involves data analysis, spend some time making at least one graph truly unique. You can try R, Python, D3.js or Plotly.
If you decide to purchase a license for an image to be used in your article, please note that we only allow the use of images under a license that: (i) does not expire; and (ii) that can be used for commercial purposes on the TDS Publication. You are responsible for ensuring you comply with the license terms of use. You must also include a caption below the image, as follows, or as otherwise required by the license provider: “Image via [license provider’s name] under license to [your name].” Finally, please email us a copy of a receipt or other evidence of the purchased license, along with the corresponding license terms of use.
If you’ve chosen to create images for your article using an AI tool (like DALL·E 2, DALL·E, Midjourney, or Stable Diffusion, among others), it’s your responsibility to ensure that you’ve read, understood, and followed the tool’s terms. Any image you use on TDS must be licensed for commercial use, including AI-generated images. Not all AI tools permit images to be used for commercial purposes and some require payment to permit you to use the image.
The images you generate with AI tools cannot violate the copyright of other creators. If the AI generated image resembles or is identical to an existing copyrighted image or fictional character (like Harry Potter, Fred Flinstone etc.), you are not permitted to use it on TDS. Use your best judgment and avoid AI-generated images that copy or closely emulate another work. If in doubt, use an image search tool — like Google Lens, TinEye, or others — to check whether your images are too similar to an existing work. We may also ask that you provide details of the text prompts you used in the AI tool to confirm you did not use the names of copyrighted works.
Your text prompts cannot use the names of real people, nor can your images be used if they feature a real person (whether a celebrity, politician, or anyone else).
Please remember to cite the source of your images even if you aren’t legally obligated to do so. If you created an image yourself, you can add (Image by author) in the caption. Whichever way you decide to go, your image source should look like this:
Your image should both have the source and the link to that source. If you created an image yourself, you can add “Image by author”. If you’ve created an image that was lightly inspired by an existing image, please add the caption “Image by Author, inspired by source[include the link].” If you’ve edited an existing image, please make sure you have the right to use and edit that image and include the caption “Image by source[include the link], edited with permission by the author.”
Danger zone: Do not use images (including logos and gifs) you found online without explicit permission from the owner. Adding the source to an image doesn’t grant you the right to use it.
Where did you get your data?
The Towards Data Science team is committed to the creation of a respectful community of data science authors, researchers, and readers. For our authors, this means respecting the work of others, taking care to honor copyrights associated with images, published material, and data. Please always ensure that you have the right to collect, analyze, and present the data you’re using in your article.
There are plenty of great sources of data that are freely available. Try searching university databases, government open data sites, and international institutions, such as the UCI Irvine Machine Learning Repository, U.S. Government, and World Bank Open Data. And don’t forget about sites that hold specific data relating to fields like physics, astrophysics, earth science, sports, and politics like CERN, NASA, and FiveThirtyEight.
TDS is a commercial publication. Before submitting your article to us, please verify your dataset is licensed for commercial use, or obtain written permission to use it. Please note that not all the datasets on the websites we’ve listed are fine to use. No matter where you obtain your data, we advise you to double-check that the dataset permits commercial use.
If you aren’t confident you have the right to use it for commercial purposes, consider contacting the owner. Many authors receive a quick, positive response to a well-constructed email. Explain how you intend to use the data, share your article or idea, and provide a link to TDS. When you receive permission, please forward a copy to us at [email protected].
This is especially important if you plan to use web scraping to create your own dataset. If the website does not explicitly allow data scraping for commercial purposes, we strongly recommend that you contact the website owner for permission. Without explicit permission, we won’t be able to publish your work, so please forward us a copy via email.
And sometimes, simple works best! If you just want a dataset to explain how an algorithm works, you can always create an artificial or simulated dataset. Here’s a quick tutorial, and an article that uses a simulated dataset you might find helpful.
Please remember to add a link to the site where the dataset is stored, and credit the owner/creator in your article. Ideally, this is done on first mention of the dataset, or in a resource list at the end of the article. Please carefully follow any instructions relating to attribution that you find on the site. If you have created your own artificial or simulated dataset, it is important to mention that too.
We know interpreting a license can be challenging. It is your responsibility to be certain that you can present your data and findings in an article published with TDS, but if you’re stuck, please reach out to our editorial team for assistance. We would rather work with you in the early stages of your project than to have to decline your completed article due to a dataset license issue.
