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I am new to QGIS (3.4.12-Madeira installed) and have made myself a bit familiar with it the last few days. When creating maps for a printed hiking-guide, I would like to credit QGIS as well as the source of the underlying map data properly.

I have already read these existing Q&As about this topic:

but my case doesn't quite seem to fit any of those cases:

  • I have installed the HCMGIS-Plugin, hence the most suitable source data for my purposes seem to be the ones available in the menu item "HCMGIS -> Base Map -> XXX" where XXX stands e.g. for "ESRI Shaded Relief" or "Stamen Terrain" or "F4 Map - 2D", etc.; The reason I don't want to use OSM-basemaps, is that they contain too many things I don't want on my hiking maps as I want to keep them neatly readable. I basically just need shaded relief so you can see where hills and mountains are, with green coloring of forests, etc., and I'll add symbols/labels for major towns and POI's manually.
    But unlike -for example- OSM-basemaps, the above-mentioned map sources do not seem to have any copyright attribution in their Layer Properties (the "Title" field in the "Attribution" under "QGIS Server" is empty). Just for purpose of demonstration, I have used in the attached examples "OpenStreetMap ODbL" as text string where the proper name of the data source should go.

    So how do I find out who I should credit for the ESRI-, Stamen-, etc. basemap in such cases?

  • I don't need any automation of copyright info, as i will stick to one base map, one print layout and one scale for all my maps (I'll only move the displayed map area in the QGIS Print Layout, going along the hiking trails), and therefore I can enter the copyright notice as a manual text field in the Print Layout;

    But I am unsure how to credit "the QGIS-Team". I had found a rather lengthy expression in a Q&A somewhere here. I'm sorry I can't find that Q&A anymore, but I had noted the expression and built it into a sample print layout (in my actual maps, there won't be any large water area, I selected this only for readability here).
    Map example with long QGIS-Copyright text This full string, however, is way too long from a point of view of map readability, as all my other maps will be half the width of this overview map. So, I shortened the expression a bit as shown in the second jpg.
    Map example with short QGIS-Copyright text

Would the short version be sufficient for crediting "the QGIS-Team"?

If in any way avoidable, I'd prefer solutions not involving usage of the Python Console, as I am completely unfamiliar with it and the last time I did any "programming" was in university 35 years ago.

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  • I suggest putting a shortened version of credit on each map, eg "the QGIS-Team" and also "source data from XXX". Use the full-length version once for the entire hiking guide. If it's a book, put it at the beginning, or at the end in the bibliography/reference section. If it's published online, have that information at the bottom of the page, or perhaps at the top of the page, or in a separate "about" section of the website.
    – csk
    Dec 27, 2019 at 18:46
  • To find out how to cite/credit a basemap, go to the website of the basemap provider. For the ESRI basemap, the provider is ESRI. For the Stamen basemap, the provider is Stamen. It's inconvenient that the plugin you used didn't serve the copyright information with the basemap, but it's still your responsibility to seek out that information from the source before publishing.
    – csk
    Dec 27, 2019 at 18:49
  • Thank you @csk for both helpful answers. Since it's going to be a printed book, putting a full-length credit at the beginning of the book for the QGIS-Team and for all providers of the underlying basemap(s) seems to be the best solution. I'll check out the ESRI and Stamen websites (which I guess they have) to find out about their licensing info and conditions.
    – hikemapper
    Dec 28, 2019 at 13:54
  • If you post your solution as an answer, it will be helpful to others with similar questions.
    – csk
    Dec 30, 2019 at 17:58
  • I wanted to mark your answer as the one that was most helpful, but unfortunately I don't see any of the buttons to do so (as described in the "how to"-part of the forum) :-(. I don't see any flags, etc., to the left of the answers, as supposedly they should exist.
    – hikemapper
    Jan 3, 2020 at 10:48

3 Answers 3

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A bit late but regarding the reference to the QGIS team when creating maps you can have a look here: https://qgis.org/en/site/getinvolved/faq/index.html#i-created-a-map-with-qgis-do-i-have-to-mention-qgis

Note that it is also mentioned the following: "Do not say ©QGIS as QGIS does not hold copyrights on your work."

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  • Thank you for this useful info and link. And no prob being late, I haven't done much myself since January 2020 regarding the maps, as I've been busy with other stuff. But I'm hoping to continue the maps in January/February 2021 and will then post examples of how I solved the crediting-issue.
    – hikemapper
    Dec 21, 2020 at 12:50
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I suggest putting a shortened version of credit on each map, eg "the QGIS-Team" and also "source data from XXX". Use the full-length version once for the entire hiking guide. If it's a book, put it at the beginning, or at the end in the bibliography/reference section. If it's published online, have that information at the bottom of the page, or perhaps at the top of the page, or in a separate "about" section of the website.

Since it's going to be a printed book, putting a full-length credit at the beginning of the book for the QGIS-Team and for all providers of the underlying basemap(s) seems to be the best solution.

To find out how to cite/credit a basemap, go to the website of the basemap provider. For the ESRI basemap, the provider is ESRI. For the Stamen basemap, the provider is Stamen. It's inconvenient that the plugin you used didn't serve the copyright information with the basemap, but it's still your responsibility to seek out that information from the source before publishing.

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In the meantime I have been able to find webpages of some of the map-data-providers with guidelines of how to use and cite their map data properly.

ESRI:
https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/product/mapping/using-and-citing-esri-data/

Stamen:
http://maps.stamen.com/#terrain/12/37.7706/-122.3782
(scroll down to the section titled "How to Use These Tiles Elsewhere")

Open Street Maps:
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Legal_FAQ#3a._I_would_like_to_use_OpenStreetMap_maps._How_should_I_credit_you.3F

Once I decide which base map(s) is/are the most suitable for my purpose, I'll work out the exact wording for crediting it/them in my book and post it here as an example.

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