IEEE Citations and References

What IEEE style is

IEEE style is the citation style of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, set out for authors in the IEEE Reference Guide and the IEEE Editorial Style Manual. Its references give authors' initials before their surnames, abbreviate journal and conference names, and are cited in the text by number.

Where IEEE style is used

IEEE style is used across electrical and electronic engineering, computer science, telecommunications and related technical fields, in IEEE's own journals and conferences and in many university departments. Much of the literature in these fields is published in conference proceedings, which is why conference papers are a central kind of reference.

Numeric citation systems

Author-based styles such as APA, MLA and Chicago identify a source in the text by its author, and order the reference list alphabetically. Numeric styles identify a source by a number that leads to its entry in a numbered list. The number says nothing about the source itself; it only links the citation to the entry.

How IEEE numbering works

Give the first source you cite the number 1, the next new source 2, and so on. A source keeps its number every time it is cited again, however much later. There must be only one reference with each number, and each reference only one number.

1. The first sentence citing a source gives it [1].
2. A different source cited next becomes [2].
3. Citing the first source again uses [1] again, not a new number.
4. The reference list gives entries in that order: [1], [2], [3].

Reference order

An IEEE reference list is in numerical order, which is the order of first citation. It is never sorted alphabetically by author. Reference numbers are set flush left in square brackets, forming a column of their own beside the entries.

Because the order comes from your paper, adding or removing a citation can change later numbers. When you edit, renumber the references and the citations in the text together.

Citing one reference

A citation is the reference number in square brackets, on the line (not superscript) and inside the sentence's punctuation. It can be read as a noun or as a footnote number, and it may follow the authors' names.

• According to [1], …
• as demonstrated in [2].
• Smith [4] and Brown and Jones [5] showed …
• Wood et al. [7] found … (et al. from three authors)

Citing several references

When one statement draws on several sources, give each number in its own brackets, separated by commas. IEEE's examples list them in ascending order.

• [1], [3]
• as shown by Brown [4], [5]
• as mentioned earlier [2], [4], [5], [6], [7], [9]

Consecutive numbers and ranges

The current IEEE Reference Guide writes every number out: what was once written [1]–[4] is now [1], [2], [3], [4]. Earlier IEEE guidance joined consecutive numbers with an en dash, as in [2], [4]–[7], [9], and some publishers and instructors still ask for that form.

The generator uses the current form unless you choose the earlier one. In the earlier form it joins three or more consecutive numbers, since IEEE's examples write two consecutive numbers separately.

Books

Give the authors, the italic title, any edition after the first, then the city, state for U.S. cities, and country of publication, a colon, the publisher and the year.

Tables on this page can't show italics: book, journal and conference names are italicized in real references.

Journal articles

Give the authors, the article title in quotation marks with a comma inside them, the italic journal name, then vol., no., pp., the month and year, and the DOI. Page ranges are given in full. When a journal numbers articles instead of paginating them, the article number follows the date.

IEEE abbreviates journal names, as in IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. and Opt. Lett., using its own lists; one-word titles such as Science and Nature are never abbreviated. The generator uses the name you enter, so enter the abbreviation yourself when it is required.

Conference papers

A paper in conference proceedings gives the authors and paper title, then “in” and the italic, abbreviated name of the proceedings, the location if given, the date, the pages and the DOI.

Conference names use standard abbreviations such as Proc. (Proceedings), Int. (International), Conf. (Conference) and Symp. (Symposium). The IEEE guide also gives conference dates with their days, as in Mar. 20–22, 2005; the generator gives the month and year.

Web pages

A website reference separates its parts with periods: the authors, the page title in quotation marks, the website's name, the date you accessed it, and “[Online]. Available:” with the URL.

Authors

Give each author's initials before the surname, and never invert a name: J. K. Author, J.-L. Dessalles. List all authors up to six, with a comma before “and” from three: L. Li, J. Yang, and C. Li. With more than six, give the first author followed by et al.: J. Yanamadala et al.

Organization authors

An organization that is the author is written in full in the author position, as in the Westinghouse example above. Without a person or organization as author, the reference begins with the title.

DOIs

IEEE writes a DOI as “doi:” followed by the DOI, not as a link: doi: 10.1109/TBME.2011.2158315. A reference ending with a DOI ends with a period. Early-access articles should always give their DOI, since it doesn't change.

URLs

A URL follows “[Online]. Available:” and has no period after it. When a reference has a DOI or an access date as well as a URL, the DOI or date comes first, followed by a period, then the URL.

• DOI and URL: … 1986, doi: 10.1000/xyz123. [Online]. Available: https://example.org/book
• URL only: … Feb. 1986. [Online]. Available: http://ol.osa.org/abstract.cfm?URI=ol-11-2-115

Citing part of a reference

To point to a particular part of a reference, put it inside the brackets after a comma.

• Pages: [3, pp. 5–10]; one page: [3, p. 24]
• Chapter: [3, Ch. 2]
• Section: [3, Sect. 4.5]
• IEEE also cites figures, equations, theorems and the like: [3, Fig. 1], [3, eq. (2)], [3, Thm. 1]. The generator formats pages, chapters and sections.

Keeping numbers right as you write

Numbers depend on the order of first citation, so moving a paragraph or adding a source can shift them. Many writers number references only at the end, or use their word processor's or reference manager's citation tools, which renumber automatically.

• Check that the first citation in the paper is [1] and that new numbers appear in order.
• Check that every number in the text has an entry, and every entry is cited.
• After editing, renumber the list and the citations together.

Sources cited more than once

A source cited again keeps its first number; never give it a second entry. IEEE doesn't use ibid. or op. cit.: cite the earlier number, with a new page if needed, such as [3, pp. 5–10].

The generator formats one source at a time, so it can't see whether a source is already in your list. Before giving a source a new number, check your list for it.

Common mistakes

IEEE compared with APA

APA is an author-date style: (Klaus & Horn, 1986) in the text and an alphabetical reference list, with the year after the authors. IEEE cites [1] and lists references by number in citation order, with the year near the end. APA inverts every author's name (Klaus, B., & Horn, P.); IEEE never inverts and uses “and”, not an ampersand.

• APA 7 Citations and References

IEEE compared with MLA

MLA cites the author and page, (Klaus and Horn 24), with an alphabetical Works Cited list and full given names. IEEE cites the number and, when needed, the page inside the brackets, [1, p. 24], with initials and a numbered list.

• MLA 9 Citation and Works Cited Guide

IEEE compared with Chicago

Chicago's author-date system cites (Klaus and Horn 1986, 24), and its notes-and-bibliography system uses numbered notes, but those numbers count notes, not sources: a source cited twice gets a new note each time. In IEEE, the number belongs to the source and is reused every time it is cited.

• Chicago Author-Date Citations
• Chicago Notes and Bibliography

Keeping citations consistent in a research paper

• Choose IEEE at the start, and confirm your venue's template and instructions; IEEE conferences and journals publish templates.
• Record full details for every source as you read, including DOIs and page ranges.
• Use one form for consecutive numbers throughout: the current written-out form, unless your venue asks for ranges.
• Abbreviate journal and conference names consistently, using IEEE's lists.
• Before submitting, check numbering, order and that every citation has its entry.

Using the ResearchKit IEEE Citation Generator

1. Enter the reference number the source has in your paper's citation order.
2. Choose whether it is a book, a journal article, a conference paper or a web page, and enter its details as the source gives them.
3. Add a page, chapter or section if you are citing part of it.
4. Copy the citation into your text and the numbered entry into your reference list.
5. To cite several references at once, enter their numbers in the section for several references.
6. Read “Validation and notes” and compare the result with the source.

The generator formats citation text. It doesn't see your paper, so it can't assign or update numbers, sort your list or find sources cited twice. Everything runs in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.

• Open the IEEE Citation Generator

Limitations of automated citation

• Reference numbers depend on your whole paper; the generator uses the number you give.
• IEEE's journal and conference abbreviations come from its own lists, which the generator doesn't apply.
• Book chapters, edited books, editors, translators, theses, reports, standards, patents and datasets aren't supported yet.
• Conference dates with day ranges are given as month and year.
• A perfectly formatted reference can still contain a wrong date or a misspelled name. Formatting is not verification.

Learn more and check the rule

The IEEE Reference Guide is the authority for IEEE references, published by IEEE Publication Operations and linked from the IEEE Author Center. Your venue's or instructor's requirements come first where they differ.

• IEEE Publication Operations. (2025). IEEE reference guide (Version 3.28.2025).

• IEEE Author Center: editorial style (external link)
• How to choose a citation style

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• How to cite a website

  What to record when you use a web page, how to handle a missing author or date, when to give an access date, and how the same page is cited in APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE and Harvard.

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• Reference list or bibliography?

  The difference between a reference list, a Works Cited list and a bibliography, which one APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE and Harvard use, what each should contain, and how to order it.

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• How the Reference Checker Works

  What ResearchKit's Reference Checker checks in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, IEEE and Harvard, how it matches citations to a reference list, what it can't check, and how to read and fix what it reports.

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• IEEE Citation Generator

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