An Infographic without properly mentioned sources is like a ship without a mast. Where do you get the data from? Are these stats and figures, your Infographic presents, authentic enough to be believed?
Infographics tend to jot down the necessary information from several infographic references. Sort them, arrange them and then present them in a visually pleasing way. Infographics are considered worst or best upon their content. And sources in Infographics play an important role here. As your Infographics are usually not the original source of the data presented, your readers would definitely look for the original sources of the data. That’s why you always need to cite the sources at the end.
Characteristics of infographics
Make sure your stats and figures are taken from an authentic source and mention these sources at the end of your Infographic. And if you don’t cite, it is a plagiarism – you simply steal someone else’s data.
Moreover, instead of collecting data from a third party journal or article track the original source and directly gather information from this source.
Also keep in mind that user-generated sites such as Wikipedia, Yahoo, Google aren’t the best sources to be cited. Of course, they are good to start searching information with. But the problem is you don’t always know where from the information came. So the facts stated there can be even wrong, thus being unfit as a formal source.
What makes a good infographic?
Always keep your sources brief and short. Try to grab your ideas and data from 2-3 sources. Too many sources make your Infographic a forever long list of charts and data, amidst which the prime point of the Infographic gets adrift. Scrolling down and down, your readers annoyingly put an end in viewing it. What benefit did you get out of that? Your purpose hasn’t been served. Instead, you botched up the whole idea. Too many sources hamper the flow of consistency in your content leading to information overload. Let’s get it straight and simple. Keep your source list short and precise and you will hit the bull’s eye!
However, Infographics indeed demand an extensive research and data collection. Therefore sometimes it is inevitable that the source list may exceed and may share the room with the visuals. In those cases simply create an URL that has all the sources. It will be easier for your readers to search the sources for themselves for more information. Alternatively, you can put the URLs in your visuals if space allows you to do so.
Also don’t forget that statistics, data, facts, and figures change day by day. It means that you have to keep your data up to date and include the most recent and updated data in your Infographic. Infographics using data that are not recent are considered stale, as readers want fresh and up to date data and stats, ideally not older than one year.
Thus it is clear that Infographics are incomplete without sources mentioned and the sources are futile if not authentic. While searching for content on the web it should be kept it mind that the source list at the end of your Infographic bears the true facts yet having a short and precise list. It takes a lot to create a good Infographic, and mentioning proper sources is an important aspect of a good Infographic.
