Research Guides: Engineering Design and Practice Sequence (EDPS): IEEE Citation Style

IEEE Citation Style Resources

The Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a professional organization supporting many branches of engineering, computer science, and information technology. In addition to publishing journals, magazines, and conference proceedings, IEEE also makes many standards for a wide variety of industries. (About IEEE, http://www.ieee.org/about/index.html.)

IEEE Citation Guidelines

IEEE's publication on citation standards covers books, conference technical articles, online sources, periodicals, theses, and more. It includes standard abbreviations for IEEE publications and commonly used words.

IEEE Editorial Style Manual

This style manual provides editorial guidance for IEEE transactions, journals, and letters. It outlines how to divide the parts of a paper, cite figures and tables, and it gives guidelines for specific grammar rules.

Characteristics of IEEE Citation Style

The IEEE Style is a number style with two key components: In-text citations, which appear within the text (a citation number in a square bracket), and a reference list at the end of the text (which provides full details of all references cited in-text).

Citation Within the Text

Please note the following when you refer to references within the text:

A number enclosed in square brackets, eg. [1] or [26], placed in the text of the essay, indicates the relevant reference.
Citations are numbered in the order in which they appear in the text and each citation corresponds to a numbered reference containing publication information about the source cited in the reference list at the end of the publication, essay or assignment.
Once a source has been cited, the same number is used in all subsequent references. No distinction is made between print and electronic references when citing within the text.
Each reference number should be enclosed in square brackets on the same line as the text, before any punctuation, with a space before the bracket.
Here are some examples of this kind of referencing:

"...end of the line for my research [13]."
"The theory was first put forward in 1987 [1]."
"Several recent studies [3, 4, 15, 16] have suggested that..."
"For an example, see [7]."

Creating a Reference List or Bibliography in IEEE Citation Style

A numbered list of references must be provided at the end of the paper. The list should be arranged in the order of citation in the text of the assignment or essay, not in alphabetical order. List only one reference per reference number. Footnotes or other information that is not part of the referencing format should not be included in the reference list.