IEEE Citation Style: Quick Guide for Engineers

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) style uses numbered references in square brackets. It's the standard for engineering, computer science, and electronics publications. If you're submitting to an IEEE journal or conference, or studying in these fields, this is your style.

How IEEE Numbering Works

Unlike APA or MLA, IEEE doesn't use author names in the text. Instead:

• Each source gets a number in the order it first appears
• In-text citations use square brackets: 1, 2, 3
• The reference list is ordered by number, not alphabetically

In-Text Examples

Single source:

As shown in 1, neural networks can...

Multiple sources:

Several studies 1, 3, 5 have demonstrated...

Range of sources:

Previous work 1--4 established...

Reference List Format

Journal Article

1 J. D. Smith and M. K. Johnson, "The impact of citation accuracy on academic publishing," J. Academic Writing, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 45--62, Mar. 2025, doi: 10.1234/example.

Key formatting rules:

• Author initials before last name (J. D. Smith, not Smith, J. D.)
• Article title in quotation marks, sentence case
• Journal name abbreviated and italicized
• Volume, number, pages, month, year in that order
• DOI at the end with "doi:" prefix

Conference Paper

2 A. Brown, "Machine learning for citation analysis," in Proc. Int. Conf. Academic Technology (ICAT), New York, NY, USA, Jun. 2025, pp. 234--241.

Key differences from journal articles:

• "in" before the conference proceedings title
• Conference proceedings abbreviated with "Proc."
• Location and date of conference included

Book

3 R. Wilson, Academic Writing: A Complete Guide, 3rd ed. London, UK: Routledge, 2024.

Book Chapter

4 R. Wilson, "Citation practices across disciplines," in Handbook of Academic Standards, S. Taylor and P. Lee, Eds. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2025, pp. 112--134.

Website

5 World Health Organization. "Global Health Statistics 2025." WHO. https://www.who.int/statistics (accessed Mar. 15, 2025).

Technical Standard

6 IEEE Standard for Software Quality Assurance Processes, IEEE Std 730-2014, 2014.

Author Name Formatting

IEEE uses a distinctive format for author names:

• First author: J. D. Smith (initials first, then last name)
• Two authors: J. D. Smith and M. K. Johnson
• Three or more: J. D. Smith, M. K. Johnson, and A. Brown
• Six or more: J. D. Smith et al.

Journal Name Abbreviations

IEEE abbreviates journal names following the ISO 4 standard. Common abbreviations:

• IEEE Transactions on becomes IEEE Trans.
• Journal of becomes J.
• International becomes Int.
• Conference becomes Conf.
• Proceedings becomes Proc.

Month Abbreviations

IEEE uses three-letter month abbreviations: Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., May, Jun., Jul., Aug., Sep., Oct., Nov., Dec.

Common Mistakes

1. Alphabetizing the reference list -- IEEE orders by first appearance, not alphabetically
2. Using author-date format -- IEEE uses numbers only, never (Smith, 2025)
3. Full journal names -- IEEE always abbreviates journal titles
4. Missing "doi:" prefix -- IEEE uses "doi:" not "https://doi.org/"
5. Wrong author name order -- Initials come first in IEEE (J. D. Smith), not last (Smith, J. D.)

For a broader overview of citation styles, see APA vs MLA vs Chicago. To understand DOIs used in IEEE references, see our DOI guide.

Try It with CiteTools

IEEE formatting has many specific rules that are easy to get wrong. Paste any DOI, URL, or reference into CiteTools.io and get a perfectly formatted IEEE citation -- journal abbreviations, author name order, and numbering handled automatically.