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IEEE Referencing Guide: IEEE Referencing Style

This is a quick guide to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) referencing style.

Introduction to the IEEE referencing style

In IEEE style a number is inserted at the point in your writing where you cite someone else’s work in square brackets e.g. [1]. Place the number at the end of a sentence before the full stop. At the end of the work, the full reference of the source is provided. This is an example of IEE referencing in a document:

All sources referred to must be included in the reference list or bibliography at the end of your work and provide full bibliographic information for each source. All citations and reference list entries should be listed in the order of which they appear in your work. Basic components:

[1]  R. Merchant and S. Saxena,Engineering. Chicago, IL: Britannica Educational Publishing, 2016

          (1) Author(s)                 (2) Title                   (3) Source details                 

This is the IEEE's official guide.

Print book

Format

[Ref number] A. Author... Book title in italic title case, edition (if not first). Place of publication: Publisher, Year.

Reference List

[1] R. Priestley, Mad on Radium: New Zealand in the Atomic Age. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2013.

Notes

  • If the place of publication is in the US, include the state abbreviation if the location is not well known e.g. New York would not require the state abbreviation, however somewhere like Lincoln Nebraska would be 'Lincoln, NE:'
  • If the place of publication is outside the US, include the country if the location is not well known e.g. Sydney would not require Australia for the location, however somewhere like Gosford would be 'Gosford, Australia:'
  • The title is in title case, so all important words are capitalised.

Print book with 2-3 authors

Format

[Ref number] A. Author and B. Author... Book title in italic title case, edition (if not first). Place of publication: Publisher, Year.

Reference List

[1] N. P. Yelve and S. Naskar, Vibration Engineering: Modeling, Simulation, Experimentation, and Applications. Milton, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis Group, 2024.

Notes

  • When a source has two authors, use the word 'and' in the reference instead of an ampersand. (&).
  • When a source has more than two authors, put a comma between the authors names, except for the second to last and last author, where you use the word 'and' e.g. G. Jones, S. Waters, and P. Smith.

eBook (with 4 to 6 authors)

Format

[Ref number] A. Author, B. Author, C. Author, and D. Author... Book title in italic title case, edition (if not first). Place of publication: Publisher, Year. Access date [Online]. Either DOI number or URL of database.

Reference List

[1] W. H. Hager, A. J. Schleiss, R. M. Boes, and M Pfister. Hydraulic Engineering of Dams. London: CRC Press, 2024. Accessed: Mar. 24, 2024. [Online]. doi: 10.1201/9780203771433

Notes

  • When a source has four to six authors, use the phrase 'et al' (and others) in your text, so you do not have to list all the authors e.g. Smith et al. [4] said that '...' . You will still need to list all the authors in the reference list entry.
  • When a source has more than six authors, use 'et al' in your text as well as the reference list.
  • When referencing an eBook, you need to include the date you accessed the book, as well as either the DOI number or the URL of the database.

Chapter in an edited book

Format

[Ref number] A. Author and B. Author...  "Chapter title in title case," in Book title in italic title case, A. Editor and B. Editor, Ed. Place of publication: Publisher, Year, chapter or section number, page range with pp.

Reference List

[1] S. Shakeel and P. Singh, "Supply Chain Management in Construction Industry," in Recent Advances in Civil Engineering, J. Thomas and S. Vishnudas, Eds. London: CRC Press, 2024, ch. 5, pp. 28-32.

Notes

  • For a chapter in an edited book, you need to include the chapter information as well as the overall book information, this includes the chapter title and author(s), as well as the chapter number and page range.

Journal article

Format

[Ref number] A. Author, "Title of the article in sentence case". Abbreviated Title of the Journal in Italic Title Case. Volume number, Issue number, Page range of article, month and year of publication, DOI number if available.

Reference List

[2] M. M. Chiampi and L. L. Zilberti, “Induction of electric field in human bodies moving near MRI: An efficient BEM computational procedure,” IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., vol. 58, no. 10, pp. 2787–2793, Oct. 2011, doi: 10.1109/TBME.2011.2158315.

Notes

  • All journal titles are abbreviated according to IEEE standards. You can find the abbreviations for some journals, others may need to be constructed according to IEEE standard patterns.
  • You can check a list of standard title abbreviations with the CAS Source Index (CASSI) Search Tool - https://cassi.cas.org/search.jsp
  • Not all journal articles have a DOI number, so if you cannot find one, then you do not need to include it.

Web based source

Format

[Ref number] A. Author, "Title of webpage in title case." Title of website in sentence case. Date accessed. [Online.] Available URL.

Reference List

[3] J. Smith. “Obama inaugurated as President.” CNN.com. Accessed: Feb. 1, 2009. [Online.] Available: http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/01/21/obama_inaugurated/ index.html.

Notes

  • If there is no individual author(s) listed, use the organization who created the webpage as the author.
  • You only need to list the date you accessed the page, not when the page was created.

Standards

Format

[Ref number] Title of standard, Standard number, date [Online]. Available: URL.

Reference List

[9] Conditions of contract for building and civil engineering construction, NZS 3910:2023, October 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.standards.govt.nz/shop/nzs-39102023/

Patents

Format

[Ref number] Title of the invention, by inventors name. (full date). Patent Number [Online or Physical copy] Available: URL.

Reference List

[12] Screwless clip mounted computer drive, by D. Williams. (2005, Apr. 26). U.S. Patent 6,885,550 [Online]. Available: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/6,885,550

Notes

  • Make sure to include the country where the patent comes from, as they can differ.

Theses or dissertation

Format

[Ref number] A. Author, "Thesis title", Abbreviated name of Department, University, City, State (if in US), Country, year [Online]. Available: URL

Reference List

[7] C. Taube-Schock, "Patterns of Change: Can modifiable software have high coupling?," Sch. Eng., Univ. Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2012. [Online]. Available: https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/items/bdaf5731-2f6e-4de0-83dd-34ed8e2ad610

Notes

  • The institution in which the thesis is located needs to be abbreviated according to IEEE guidelines.
  • If the Thesis is not available online, omit the URL section but keep everything else the same.
  • If the institution is located within the United States, put the state abbreviation instead of country, e.g. San Francisco, CA, instead of San Francisco, United States.
  • Thesis is not available online, omit the URL section but keep everything else the same.

Images, tables or equations

Format

  • If you are including an image, table or equation that you have found from another source, you reference it according to the source you found it from e.g. if the image comes from a book, reference it as a book.
  • Include a figure number underneath the image so you can refer to it within your text e.g. 'according to Figure 1' [6]

    • Report (Online or Print)

    Format

    [Ref number] A. Author, "Report title", Company, City, State (if in US), Country, Report number (if available) Year of publication. Access Date. [Online]. Available: URL

    Reference List

    [7] J. Morgenroth, "A review of Urban Forest Benefits and Costs," Univ. Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, Jul. 5 2023. [Online]. Available: https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/server/api/core/bitstreams/f74809eb-fb12-41ca-85f2-77e860d71e3a/content

    Notes

    • If you are referencing a print report, remove the URL but keep everything else the same.
    • If the report does not have a date, then include an access date inbetween the report name and DOI e.g. 'Accessed Feb 1, 2022'.
    • The 'company section is the name of the company or organisation that commissioned the report, or who the report is for. If there is no author listed, they would become the author.

    Online video (e.g. YouTube)

    Format

    [Ref number] Video owner/creator, location (if available). Title of Video: In Initial Caps.. Accessed: Month, Day, Year {Online Video}. URL.

    Reference List

    [12] Careersnz, New Zealand. Civil Engineer. (Dec 5, 2022). Accessed Jun 7, 2023. [Online video]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2CYMEv7nd4

    Notes

    • Only put the location of the video if you can find that information, if not then do not worry about it.

    Conference Proceedings (Online)

    Format

    [Ref number] A. Author, “Title of paper,” in Abbreviated Name of Conference (location of conference is optional), year, page numbers. [Online]. Available: URL

    Reference List

    [12] J. Yanamadala et al., “Segmentation of the visible human project (VHP) female cryosection images within MATLAB environment,” in Proc. 23rd Int. Meshing Roundtable, London, U.K., Oct. 2014. [Online]. Available: https://feup.libguides.com/ieee/comunicacoes

    Notes

    • Abbreviate the name of the conference using IEEE standard abbreviations.
    • If the copy of the proceedings are in print, replace '[Online]. Available: URL' with the page range, e.g. 'pp. 26-47'.

    Conference Paper (Online)

    Format

    [27] A. Author. (Date). Title. Presented at Abbreviated Conf. title. [Online]. Available: URL

    Reference List

    [15] J. A. Taylor. (Nov. 2006). Assessment: A tool for development and engagement in the first year of university study. Presented at Engaging Students: 9th Pacific Rim in Higher Education (FYHE) Conf., Griffith, Australia. [Online]. Available: http://www.fyhe.com.au/past_papers/2006/Papers/Taylor.pdf

    Notes

    • Abbreviate the name of the conference using IEEE standard abbreviations.
    • If the copy of conference paper is in print, replace '[Online]. Available: URL' with the paper number (if there is one).