Citing and referencing: IEEE

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Citing and Referencing Style is widely used in electrical, electronic and computing publications. IEEE provides instructions for authors for each type of publication such as journals, magazines, newsletters, and standards.

IEEE is a numbered style with two components:

1. In-Text Citations: Sources used are numbered in square brackets (e.g. [1]) in their order of appearance, within the body of work.
2. Reference List: Full references that include detailed information about the sources cited and used are listed at the end of the work. The reference list is numbered, and follows the same order as they are cited in-text (i.e. in order of appearance, not alphabetical order).

Further information can be found in IEEE's Documentation Style resource, and the IEEE Reference Guide.

In-Text Citations:

Sources are numbered in the order in which they are first cited in the text. If the same source is cited later in the text, the same number is given:

'The theory was first put forward in 1987 [1].'

'Scholtz [2] has argued ... '

'Several recent studies [1], [3], [4], [10], [12] have suggested ... '

In-Text Citations (Author-Prominent, and Information-Prominent):

How you structure your in-text citations depends on whether the sentence you have written is author-prominent, or information-prominent:

Author-Prominent:
'Hershey and Silio [3] imply this area is critical to functionality.'

Information-Prominent:
'This area is critical to functionality [3].'

In-Text Citations (Direct Quotations):

If you are quoting a source directly, include the specific page your quote appears:

'Experts agree this will have a broad impact, and will "require a monitoring and analysis scheme that supports global enterprise systems" [6, p. 118].'

Note: If a source you're quoting does not contain page numbers (e.g. a website), you will not be expected to apply a page number to your quotation.

Further information about formatting In-Text Citations can be found on the In-Text Citations: Further Information page of this Guide.

Reference List:

Detailed information about including different types of sources in your Reference List are available in this Guide. Types of sources covered include:

Books/Book Chapters
Conference Papers/Proceedings
Data Sheets
Figures/Tables
Journal/Periodical Articles
Patents
Reports/Technical Reports
Software
Theses/Dissertations
Websites

Many words are abbreviated as part of compiling your reference list using the IEEE Style. You can find out more about these abbreviations on the Reference List: Standard Abbreviations page of this Guide. 

Information about sources not covered in this Guide can be found in IEEE's Reference Guide. You may also get help from a librarian by booking a Meet with a Librarian session.