How to convert BibTeX to an IEEE reference
- Paste one or more complete BibTeX entries into the input box. Entries can be copied from a publisher, Google Scholar, Zotero, Mendeley or an existing LaTeX project.
- Review the detected entry type and bibliographic fields. In particular, check author order, publication title, year, pages and DOI against the source of record.
- Copy the formatted IEEE reference, or download the cleaned
.biboutput for an IEEEtran LaTeX bibliography.
Example BibTeX input
@article{lecun2015deep,
author = {Yann LeCun and Yoshua Bengio and Geoffrey Hinton},
title = {Deep learning},
journal = {Nature},
volume = {521},
number = {7553},
pages = {436--444},
year = {2015},
doi = {10.1038/nature14539}
}[1] Y. LeCun, Y. Bengio, and G. Hinton, “Deep learning,” Nature, vol. 521, no. 7553, pp. 436–444, May 2015, doi: 10.1038/nature14539.
Fields that matter for IEEE output
| BibTeX field | How IEEE uses it |
|---|---|
| author | Converted to initials followed by surnames while preserving author order. |
| title | Rendered in quotation marks for articles and conference papers. |
| journal / booktitle | Identifies the journal or conference proceedings and is normally italicized. |
| volume, number, pages | Creates the volume, issue and page portion of a journal or proceedings reference. |
| doi | Adds a stable identifier and is preferred over a changeable publisher URL. |
Common BibTeX conversion problems
- Protect acronyms and proper capitalization with braces, for example
{IEEE}, when your LaTeX style changes title case. - Separate authors with
and, not commas alone, so names are parsed correctly. - Use a double hyphen for page ranges in BibTeX, such as
436--444. - Check incomplete entries manually. A converter can format supplied metadata, but it cannot reliably invent missing authors, dates or publication details.

