IEEE Reference Page Entries

Contents

General Notes

  • Set reference numbers flush left, in a column of their own, hanging farther left than the body of the reference.
  • Place reference number in line with the first line of the entry and enclosed in square brackets. See below for the general idea of how to set up the page.
  • For names, use the first name’s initial only. If there is a middle name, use the initial only. Spell out last names fully.
  • Multiple authors:
    • Two authors: A. B. Lastname and C. D. Writer
    • Three or more authors: A.B. Lastname et al.,
  • For references with two authors, use an “and” between their names.
  • For references with three names, put a comma between them all. In addition, place an “and” before the last author.
  • If there are more than three names, use “et al.” One example would be “A. B. Lastname et al.”
  • Use commas to set apart “Jr.,” “Sr.,” and “III,” and so forth.
  • Do not combine references. There must be only one reference with each number.

 

Books

Notes

  • For book titles, capitalize all significant words.
  • Italicize the book’s title.
  • For individual chapters, capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns.

Basic Format

[#]       A. B. Lastname, “Title of chapter in the book,” in Title of The Published Book, xth ed. City of Publisher, State/Province, Country if not a major city: Abbrev. of Publisher, year, ch. x, sec. x, pp. xxx–xxx.

Examples

[1]       P. E. Brewer. International Virtual Teams: Engineering Global Success. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-IEEE Press, 2015.

[2]       R. L. Myer, “Parametric oscillators and nonlinear materials,” in Nonlinear Optics, vol. 4, P. G. Harper and B. S. Wherret, Eds. San Francisco, CA: Academic, 1977, pp. 47–160.

Periodicals and Journals

[#]       A. B. Lastname, “Name of paper,” Abbrev. Title of Periodical, vol. x, no. x, pp. xxx–xxx, Abbreviated Month, year.

Notes

  • For the article title, capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. Use double quote marks around the article title.
  • Either spell out completely all of the names of the journals OR use the abbreviation set provided in the “Reference Abbreviations” section following. Chose one method and use it consistently.
  • Italicize the journal’s title.
  • For any article with more than six authors, use “et al.” after the first author’s name.
  • For any article with one to five authors, list all names.

 

Examples

[1]  P. M. Dombrowski, “The evolving face of ethics in technical and professional communication: Challenger to Columbia,” Professional Communication, IEEE Transactions on , vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 306–319, Dec., 2007.

[2]  C. Jian and M. Zaletel, “Existence of featureless paramagnets on the square and honeycomb lattices in 2+1 dimensions,” Physical Review B, vol. 93, no,. 3, pp. 035114/1-035114/11, Jan., 2016.

Online Periodicals and Journals

[x] B. Lastname. (mo, day, yr). Title (edition) [Type of medium]. Available: http://www.(URL) Aug. 8, 2001 (last date accessed).

Notes

  • Use DOIs when possible.
  • To cite online sources, follow the standard citation for the source given previously and add the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) at the end of the citation, or add the DOI in place of page numbers if the source is not paginated.

 

Example

[1]  J. Jones. (May, 1991). Networks (2nd ed.) [Online]. Available: http://www.atm.com, Aug. 8, 2013 (last date accessed).

 

[2] C. Jian and M. Zaletel, “Existence of featureless paramagnets on the square and honeycomb lattices in 2+1 dimensions,” Physical Review B, vol. 93, no,. 3, pp. 035114/1-035114/11, Jan., 2016. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.93.035114.

 

Technical Reports

[#]  A. B. Lastname, “Title of report,” Abbrev. Name of Company, City of Company, Abbrev. State, Rep. xxx, year.

 

Note

  • When citing technical reports, place the name and location of the company or institution after the author and title; then also give the report number, if available.
  • If there are no people listed as the author, use the company or organization name.

 

Examples

[1]  S. Jones and D. Steirer, “Clear communication—the competitive edge,” in Professional Communication Conf., Banff, AB, 1994, pp. 168–172.

[2]  J. H. Davis and J. R. Cogdell, “Calibration program for the 16-foot antenna,” Elect. Eng. Res. Lab., Univ. Texas, Austin, Tech. Memo. NGL-006-69-3, Nov. 15, 1987.

[3]  R. E. Haskell and C. T. Case, “Transient signal propagation in lossless isotropic plasmas,” USAF Cambridge Res. Labs., Cambridge, MA, Rep. ARCRL-66-234 (II), 1994, vol. 2.

[4]  United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs. Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development, Division of Energy and Mineral Development. 2010. “Native American Wind Resource Atlas,” U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 2010.

 

Technical Handbooks

[#] Name of Manual/Handbook, x ed., Abbrev. Name of Co., City of Co., Abbrev. State, year.

 

Note

  • Because most handbooks do not provide individual authors, use the company as the author. (Of course, if you have an author, include that person.)

 

Examples

[1]       J. Mangum and R. Warmels. ALMA Cycle 4 Technical Handbook, 4th ed.    Santiago, Chile, 2016. Available: https://almascience.eso.org/documents-and-tools/cycle4/alma-technical-handbook

[2]   Honeywell Analytics, “Technical Handbook: Searchline Excel infrared gas detectors,” Honeywell, Lincolnshire, IL, 2012.

Conference Articles or Proceedings

[#] A. B. Lastname, “Title of paper,” in Unabbreviated Name of Conf., City of Conf., Abbrev. State (if given), year, pp. xxx–xxx.

 

[1] M. Ahmed, I.E. Gonenli, G.S. Nadvi, R. Kilaru, D.P. Butler, and Z. Çelik-Butler, “MEMS sensors on flexible substrates towards smart skin, in IEEE Sensors 2012, Taipei, Taiwan, 2012, pp. 1-4.

 

Notes

  • Cite technical articles published in conference proceedings by listing the author/s name(s) and title of the paper, followed by the name of the conference publication in italics (using the standard abbreviations below) and by the location of the conference, if available.
  • Write out all remaining words, but omit most articles and prepositions such as “of the” and “on.” For instance, Proceedings of the 1996 Robotics and Automation Conference would become Proc. 1996 Robotics and Automation Conf.

 

When the word below appears in the conference publication title, abbreviate to: When the word below appears in the conference publication title, abbreviate to:
Annals

Annual

Colloquium

Conference

Congress

Convention

Digest

Exposition

International

National

Ann.

Annu.

Colloq.

Conf.

Congr.

Conv.

Dig.

Expo.

Int.

Nat.

Proceedings

Record

Symposium

Technical Digest

Technical Paper

First

Second

Third

Fourth

nth

Proc.

Rec.

Symp.

Tech. Dig.

Tech. Paper

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

nth

 

 

 

 

For electronic conference article when there are no page numbers:

[1]  A. B. Lastname, “Title of Article,” in [Title of Conf. Record as it appears on the copyright page ], [copyright year] © [IEEE or applicable copyright holder of the Conference Record]. doi: [DOI number]

 

For an unpublished paper presented at a conference:

[1]  A. B. Lastname, “Title of paper,” presented at the Unabbrev. Name of Conf., City of Conf., Abbrev. State, year.

 

Patents

[#]   A. B. Lastname, “Title of patent,” U.S. Patent x xxx xxx, Abbrev. Month day, year.

 

Examples

[1]  F. Boegelund, “Method for translating slide presentations into different languages,” U.S. Patent 7,398,214 B2, Jul. 2, 2008.

[2] S. M. Stebbings, “Cheese-Filter Cigarette,” U.S. Patent 3,234,948, Feb. 15, 1966.

[3] J. St-Germain, “Levitationarium for Air Flotation of Humans,” U.S. Patent 4,457,509, Jul. 3, 1984.

[4] P. A. Barnes, “Animal Powered Drive Means,” G.B. Patent 2060081 (A), Apr. 29, 1981.

[5] J. D. Barnes, “Animal Ear Protectors,” U.S. Patent 4233942, Nov. 18, 1980.

[6] J. Blondeau, “Armor with Rollers,” U.S. Patent 5,926,857, Jul. 27. 1999.

 

 

Theses (M.S.) and Dissertations (Ph.D.)

[#]       A. B. Lastname, “Title of thesis,” M.S. thesis, Abbrev. Dept., Abbrev. Univ., City of Univ., Abbrev. State, year.

[#]       A. B. Lastname, “Title of dissertation,” Ph.D. dissertation, Abbrev. Dept., Abbrev. Univ., City of Univ., Abbrev. State, year.

 

Note

  • The state abbreviation is omitted if the name of the university includes the state name, i.e., “Univ. California, Berkeley.”

 

Examples

[1]       H.D. Hughes, “Halloysite nanotube coatings for selectin-mediated capture of rare cells from peripheral blood,” Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University, 2016.

 

[2]       N. Kawasaki, “Parametric study of thermal and chemical nonequilibrium nozzle flow,” M.S. thesis, Dept. Electron. Eng., Osaka Univ., Osaka, Japan, 1993.

 

[3]       C. Becle, These de doctoral d’etat, Univ. Grenoble, Grenoble, France, 1968.

 

 

 

Standards

Title of Standard, Standard number, date. URL if needed.

 

Examples

[1] Letter Symbols for Quantities, ANSI Standard Y10.5-1968.

[2] Review and Approval of Nuclear Facility Safety Basis and Safety Design Basis, DOE-STD-1104-2014. Available: http://energy.gov/ehss/downloads/doe-std-1104-2014.

 

Unpublished Source

The following are the two most common types of unpublished references. Use sparingly.

 

[#]  A. B. Lastname, private communication, Abbrev. Month, year.

[#]  A. B. Lastname, “Title of paper,” unpublished.

 

Examples

[1]  J. Harrison, private communication, May 2015.

[2] V. Gupta, “An approach to graphs of linear forms,” unpublished.

[3] A. Brahms, “Representation error for real numbers in binary computer arithmetic,” IEEE

Computer Group Repository, Paper R-67-85.

 

 

 

 

 

Reference Abbreviations

When the word below appears in the reference, abbreviate to:
Acoustics

Administration

Administrative

American

Analysis

Annals

Annual

Apparatus

Applications

Applied

Association

Automatic

Broadcasting

Communications

Computer(s)

Congress

Convention

Correspondence

Cybernetics

Department

Development

Digest

Economic(s)

Education

Electrical

Electronic

Engineering

Ergonomics

Evolutionary

Foundation

Geoscience

Graphics

Industrial

Industry

Information

Institute

Intelligence

International

Journal

Letter(s)

Machine

Magazine

Management

Managing

Mathematic(s)

Mathematical

Mechanical

National

Newsletter

Nuclear

Occupation

Philosophical

Proceedings

Processing

Production

Productivity

Quarterly

Record

Reliability

Report

Royal

Science

Selected

Society

Sociological

Statistics

Studies

Supplement

Symposium

Systems

Technical

Telecommunication

Transactions

Vehicular

Working

Acoust.

Admin.

Administ.

Amer.

Anal.

Ann.

A.

App.

Applicat.

Appl.

Assoc.

Automat.

Broadcast.

Commun.

Comput.

Congr.

Conv.

Corresp.

Cybern.

Dept.

Develop.

Dig.

Econ.

Educ.

Elect.

Electron.

Eng.

Ergonom.

Evol.

Found.

Geosci.

Graph.

Ind.

Ind.

Inform.

Inst.

Intell.

Int.

J.

Lett.

Mach.

Mag.

Manage.

Manag.

Math.

Math.

Mech.

Nat.

Newslett.

Nucl.

Occupat.

Philosph.

Proc.

Process.

Prod.

Productiv.

Quart.

Rec.

Rel.

Rep.

Roy.

Sci.

Select.

Soc.

Sociol.

Stat.

Stud.

Suppl.

Symp.

Syst.

Tech.

Telecommun.

Trans.

Veh.

Work.