What is the IEEE citation style?
IEEE style is the citation system used across most engineering, computer science and electronics publications. It uses bracketed numbers such as [1] for in-text citations and a numbered reference list at the end of the document, ordered by first appearance in the text.
Unlike author–date styles, the reader sees a compact number in the sentence and uses that number to find the complete source in the reference list. The number belongs to the source: once a work becomes reference [4], every later citation of that same work remains [4].
A complete IEEE citation example
In the text
Deep neural networks can learn hierarchical representations from data [1].
In the reference list
[1] Y. LeCun, Y. Bengio, and G. Hinton, “Deep learning,” Nature, vol. 521, no. 7553, pp. 436–444, May 2015, doi: 10.1038/nature14539.
This example contains the usual journal fields in IEEE order: reference number, authors, paper title, publication title, volume, issue, pages, date and DOI.
In-text citations
Place the citation number in square brackets inline with the text: “as shown in [3]”. Use ranges like [1]–[3] and lists like [1], [4], [7]. The number is reused whenever the same source is cited again.
- Refer to the source by number: “The method in [2] reduces latency,” not “in reference [2].”
- Place the bracketed number before sentence punctuation when it supports the statement immediately before it.
- Give a page or section after the reference number when pointing to a precise passage, for example
[5, p. 18]or[5, Sec. IV]. - Do not assign a new number when citing the same source again.
How to order and format the reference list
Start the list with reference [1] and follow the order in which sources first appear in the manuscript. Do not alphabetize by surname. Each number should identify one source, and every entry cited in the text should have a matching reference-list entry.
- Authors use initials before the surname: F. Last.
- List up to six authors; beyond that, use the first author + et al.
- Titles of articles and chapters go in quotation marks; journals, books and proceedings are italicized.
- Journal titles use standard IEEE abbreviations.
- Include volume, issue, page range (or article number), month and year where available.
- End the entry with a DOI when one is available; use a stable URL and access date for changeable web content.
Author names in IEEE references
Convert given and middle names to initials while retaining the family name and the source’s author order. For example, “Yann LeCun” becomes “Y. LeCun.” Separate two authors with “and”; for three or more, separate names with commas and place “and” before the final author. Organizations can act as corporate authors for standards, reports and webpages.
Do not reverse names into bibliography form such as “LeCun, Y.” unless a specific publication template instructs otherwise. Also avoid guessing initials from incomplete metadata—check the publisher record, DOI landing page or the document itself.
IEEE patterns and examples by source type
The fields change with the source type. Use the pattern as a checklist, then open the dedicated guide for missing-field rules and common mistakes.
How to Cite a Website in IEEE
Author/Organization, “Page title,” Site Name. [Online]. Available: URL (accessed Mon. DD, YYYY).
IEEE Standards Association, “IEEE Standards.” [Online]. Available: https://standards.ieee.org/ (accessed Jun. 16, 2026).
How to Cite a Journal Article in IEEE
J. K. Author, “Title of paper,” Abbrev. Journal Title, vol. x, no. x, pp. xxx–xxx, Mon. year, doi: xx.xxxx/xxxxx.
Y. LeCun, Y. Bengio, and G. Hinton, “Deep learning,” Nature, vol. 521, no. 7553, pp. 436–444, May 2015, doi: 10.1038/nature14539.
How to Cite a Conference Paper in IEEE
J. K. Author, “Title of paper,” in Proc. Abbrev. Conf. Title, City, State, Country, year, pp. xxx–xxx.
A. Vaswani et al., “Attention is all you need,” in Proc. Adv. Neural Inf. Process. Syst., Long Beach, CA, USA, 2017, pp. 5998–6008.
How to Cite a Standard in IEEE
Title of Standard, Standard Number, Year.
IEEE, IEEE Standard for Ethernet, IEEE Std 802.3ba-2010, 2010.
How to Cite a Patent in IEEE
J. K. Author, “Title of patent,” Country Patent Number, Mon. DD, Year.
C. E. Shannon, “Communication system employing pulse code modulation,” U.S. Patent 2 801 281, Jul. 30, 1957.
How to Cite an arXiv Paper in IEEE
J. K. Author, “Title of paper,” arXiv:XXXX.XXXXX, Year.
A. Radford et al., “Improving language understanding by generative pre-training,” arXiv:1810.04805, 2018.
DOI, URL and access-date rules
Prefer a DOI for journal articles, conference papers and datasets because it remains stable if the publisher changes the webpage address. Record the DOI without adding tracking parameters. A normal URL is appropriate when no DOI exists or when the source is specifically a webpage.
For online material that can change, include “[Online]. Available:” followed by the direct URL and an access date. Avoid search-result URLs, institutional proxy links and session-specific addresses. If an arXiv preprint later has a peer-reviewed version, cite the version actually consulted and generally prefer the final publication when it supports the same claim.
Common IEEE citation mistakes
- Alphabetizing the reference list instead of numbering sources by first appearance.
- Creating a new number each time the same source is cited.
- Writing full given names instead of initials before surnames.
- Using the full journal title when the recognized abbreviation is expected.
- Leaving article titles in headline-style capitalization rather than sentence case.
- Omitting pages, article numbers, issue numbers or publication dates that are present in the source record.
- Mixing a preprint’s title and authors with the DOI or pagination of a different published version.
Final reference-list checklist
- Every in-text number has exactly one matching reference entry.
- Numbers follow first appearance and remain unchanged throughout the document.
- Author order and spelling match the source of record.
- Titles, publication names, volume, issue, pages and dates are in the correct fields.
- DOIs and URLs resolve successfully and do not contain tracking parameters.
- Formatting is consistent across the entire list, including punctuation and italics.
FAQ
How does IEEE number references?
References are numbered in the order they are first cited in the text, not alphabetically. The same number is reused each time a source is cited again.
How are author names written in IEEE?
First and middle names are reduced to initials before the surname, e.g. “Yann LeCun” becomes “Y. LeCun”. List up to six authors; for more than six, use the first author followed by “et al.”.
Are journal titles abbreviated in IEEE?
Yes. IEEE uses standard abbreviations for journal titles (e.g. “IEEE Transactions on Image Processing” → “IEEE Trans. Image Process.”). EngCite applies these automatically.
Authoritative references: the official IEEE Editorial Style Manual and Reference Guide. EngCite’s engine builds on the open Citation Style Language (CSL) standard plus an IEEE post-processing layer. Always follow any additional instructions supplied by your university, journal or conference.