diff --git a/examples/images_contours_and_fields/pcolormesh_levels.py b/examples/images_contours_and_fields/pcolormesh_levels.py
index 071ef3932e84..1a75b129aa28 100644
--- a/examples/images_contours_and_fields/pcolormesh_levels.py
+++ b/examples/images_contours_and_fields/pcolormesh_levels.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 
 """
 
+import matplotlib
 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 from matplotlib.colors import BoundaryNorm
 from matplotlib.ticker import MaxNLocator
@@ -55,3 +56,16 @@
 fig.tight_layout()
 
 plt.show()
+
+#############################################################################
+#
+# ------------
+#
+# References
+# """"""""""
+#
+# The use of the following functions and methods is shown in this example:
+
+matplotlib.axes.Axes.pcolormesh
+matplotlib.axes.Axes.contourf
+matplotlib.figure.Figure.colorbar
diff --git a/examples/lines_bars_and_markers/simple_plot.py b/examples/lines_bars_and_markers/simple_plot.py
index ab40ac15ae31..20f2875d6a9d 100644
--- a/examples/lines_bars_and_markers/simple_plot.py
+++ b/examples/lines_bars_and_markers/simple_plot.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 Create a simple plot.
 """
 
+import matplotlib
 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 import numpy as np
 
@@ -24,3 +25,17 @@
 
 fig.savefig("test.png")
 plt.show()
+
+#############################################################################
+#
+# ------------
+#
+# References
+# """"""""""
+#
+# The use of the following functions and methods is shown in this example:
+
+matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot
+matplotlib.pyplot.plot
+matplotlib.pyplot.subplots
+matplotlib.figure.Figure.savefig
diff --git a/examples/shapes_and_collections/scatter.py b/examples/shapes_and_collections/scatter.py
index 41678ee7f3ec..673766a6ea4f 100644
--- a/examples/shapes_and_collections/scatter.py
+++ b/examples/shapes_and_collections/scatter.py
@@ -20,3 +20,16 @@
 
 plt.scatter(x, y, s=area, c=colors, alpha=0.5)
 plt.show()
+
+#############################################################################
+#
+# ------------
+#
+# References
+# """"""""""
+#
+# The use of the following functions and methods is shown in this example:
+import matplotlib
+
+matplotlib.axes.Axes.scatter
+matplotlib.pyplot.scatter
diff --git a/examples/statistics/histogram_features.py b/examples/statistics/histogram_features.py
index 1199bdb6f74d..0e28a0a22637 100644
--- a/examples/statistics/histogram_features.py
+++ b/examples/statistics/histogram_features.py
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 http://docs.astropy.org/en/stable/visualization/histogram.html
 """
 
+import matplotlib
 import numpy as np
 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 
@@ -47,3 +48,17 @@
 # Tweak spacing to prevent clipping of ylabel
 fig.tight_layout()
 plt.show()
+
+#############################################################################
+#
+# ------------
+#
+# References
+# """"""""""
+#
+# The use of the following functions and methods is shown in this example:
+
+matplotlib.axes.Axes.hist
+matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_title
+matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel
+matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel