Last Updated on 17 September 2010

IEEE Reference Style

The following was taken from the official IEEE Transactions, Journals and Letters: Information for Authors by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., 2006. For more information, you can also see IEEE Citation Reference.


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 text, not in alphabetical order. List only one reference per reference number.

Each reference number should be enclosed by square brackets. In text, citation of references may be given simply as "in [1] . . . ", rather than as "in reference [1] . . .". Similarly, it is not necessary to mention the authors of a reference unless the mention is relevant to the text. It is almost never useful to give dates of references in text. These will usually be deleted by Staff Editors if included.

Footnotes or other words and phrases that are not part of the reference format do not belong on the reference list. Phrases such as "For example," should not introduce references in the list, but should instead be given in parentheses in test, followed by the reference number, i.e., "For example, see [5]."

Sample correct formats for various types of references are as follows.

Online Books:
Author. (year, month day). Title. (edition) [Type of medium]. volume (issue). Available: site/path/file

Example:
[1] J. Jones. (1991, May 10). Networks. (2nd ed.) [Online]. Available: http://www.atm.com 

Online Journals:
Author. (year, month). Title. Journal. [Type of medium]. volume (issue), pages. Available: site/path/file

Example:
[2] R. J. Vidmar. (1992, Aug.). On the use of atmospheric plasmas as electromagnetic reflectors.
      IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. [Online]. 21(3), pp. 876-880.
      Available: http://www.halcyon.com/pub/journals/21ps03-vidmar

Offline Books:
[1] G. O. Young, "Synthetic structure of industrial plastics," in Plastics, 2nd ed., vol. 3,
      J Peters, Ed. New York: McGrew-Hill,1964, pp.15-64.
[2] W.-K Chen, Linear Networks and Systems. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1993, pp.123-135.

Offline Periodicals:
[3] J. U. Duncombe, "Infrared navigation-Part I: An assessment of feasibility,"
      IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. ED-11, pp.34-39, Jan 1959.
[4] E. P. Wigner, "Theory of traveling-wave optical laser," Phys. Rev., vol. 134,
      pp. A635-A646, Dec. 1965.

Electronic Sources:
The guidelines for citing electronic information as offered below are a modified illustration of the adaptation by the International Standards Organization (ISO) documentation system and the American Psychological Association (APA) style. Three pieces of information are required to complete each reference:

1) protocol or service;
2) location where the item is to be found; and
3) item to be retrieved.

It is not necessary to repeat the protocol (i.e., http) in Web addresses after "Available" since that is stated in the URL.