Acknowledging or Crediting USGS as Information Source

Revised January 14, 2004

Most U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) information resides in the public domain and may be used without restriction. There is no legal requirement for users to acknowledge or credit USGS as the source for public domain information, but they may wish to do so as a courtesy. If you wish to acknowledge or credit USGS as an information source of data or products, use a line of text as shown in the guidance below.

For photograph acknowledgments, instead of the text line, the USGS identifier may be used as a signature or watermark in the lower left corner of the photograph. To obtain permission to use the identifier for this purpose, send an email to visual_id@usgs.gov.

If you are an outside organization that has a cooperative partnership or contractual agreement with the USGS that will result in the creation of various products and you plan to use the USGS identifier, refer to http://www.usgs.gov/visual-id/outside_use.html for guidance.

When Using USGS Information at No Cost

• (Product or data name) courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey
• (Photograph) courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey
  Example: dlvg32 software courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey

When Purchasing and Reproducing USGS Information for Resale

• Data compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey
• (Product or data name) produced by the U.S. Geological Survey
• (Data name) data compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey

When Packaging USGS Information with Non-USGS Products for Resale

• (Product or data name) produced by the U.S. Geological Survey

When Value-Adding to USGS information for Resale

• Source of (product or data name): U.S. Geological Survey
• U.S. Geological Survey (product or data name) used in compiling this information
  Example: Source of Parkfield seismic data: U.S. Geological Survey

Optional Statement

The following statement may be added after an acknowledgment or credit:

The USGS home page is http://www.usgs.gov.