Research Guides: Images in the Health Sciences: Sources for CC Licensed Images

Sample CC Licensed Images

Confocal micrograph of optic nerve head region in adult mouse retina by the National Eye Institute (Jennifer Kielczewski) is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

"Muscles and Tendons of Upper Extremity (Labeled)" from HEAL is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 1.0

The sites listed here provide images licensed under Creative Commons. Abide by the terms and conditions of the sites and check any individual images to be assured of the allowable uses. Be sure to see the Privacy & Publicity Rights section of this guide.

Brittanica
Browse health and medicine image galleries, including the human eye, the human muscle system, the human reproductive system, prenatal development, the human nervous system, the leg, the human body, and human beings.
DermNet NZ
The site's watermarked images can be used for education, teaching, and other purposes, but uses must abide by the site's image use policy. Non-watermarked images are copyright protected. See the site for licensing information.

Only the watermarked images on the site are licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 NZ. Read their image use policy to learn more about what uses are allowed.

eSkeletons Project
Offers a unique set of digitized versions of skeletons in 2-D and 3-D in full color, animations, and much supplemental information.

Images and content are created by faculty, staff, and students at the University of Texas. All photographs, images, and text are copyrighted by eSkeletons, John Kappelman, or the University of Texas at Austin, and licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Health Education Assets Library (HEAL)
From the University of Utah, this site contains over 22,000 digital materials for educational use. Items are licensed under CC BY-NC-SA. Be sure to search only the HEAL collection—other collections are copyright protected.
MedPix
Free open-access online database of medical images, teaching cases, and clinical topics, integrating images and textual metadata including over 12,000 patient case scenarios, 9,000 topics, and nearly 59,000 images. They are organized, reviewed, approved, and curated free of charge for your personal use and for local teaching at your institution - including distribution of handouts and syllabi. For anything other than personal use, you should respect the original contributor and contact them for additional permission requests.
National Eye Health Education Program (NEHEP)
The NEI provides an image gallery on Flickr. The images are licensed under varying CC licenses. Check the licensing for each individual image.
National Eye Institute (on Flikr)
The NEI provides an image gallery on Flickr. The images are licensed under varying CC licenses. Check the licensing for each individual image.
NIH Image Gallery
The National Institutes of Health provides an image gallery on Flickr. The images are licensed under varying CC licenses. Check the licensing for each individual image.
SELF x American Academy of Pediatrics Vaccine Photo Project
This photo project by SELF Magazine and the American Academy of Pediatrics presents medically accurate vaccine images that are licensed CC-BY.
Wellcome Images (on Flickr)
Images on this site are available under CC0, CC BY, or CC BY-NC licenses. Check individual images to determine what uses are allowed.

For further details please see their Terms of Use.

Flickr
The photo sharing site Flickr allows for narrowing searches by CC license.

Filtering instructions:

Enter search terms.
On the results page, locate the drop down menu next to the Any License option.
Change the drop down to All Creative Commons. The feature attempts to filter the results to show only CC licensed images. (Do not rely solely on the filter.)
Click on a given photo to check for sure that it is CC licensed and to determine which license it uses and thus what options for reuse are available.

Creative Commons Search
This tool from Creative Commons can help locate CC licensed works.
Pexels
Free stock photos, royalty free images & videos shared by creators.