IEEE citations use a numbered reference system: each source gets a number in square brackets [1] the first time it appears in the text, and that same number is reused each time the source is cited again. The full references appear in a numbered list at the end of the paper, ordered by first citation — not alphabetically.
IEEE In-Text Citation Format
| Situation | Format | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Single source | [N] | [1] |
| Multiple sources | [N], [M] or [N]–[M] for a range | [1], [3] or [4]–[6] |
| With page number | [N, p. X] | [2, p. 45] |
| Citing the author by name | Author [N] found… | Smith [3] demonstrated… |
Source: IEEE Editorial Style Manual, 2023 edition.
IEEE Reference Format by Source Type
Journal article
Format: Initials Last name, «Article title,» Journal Abbreviation, vol. X, no. X, pp. XX–XX, Month Year, doi: XXXXX.
Example:
[1] M. P. Walker and R. Stickgold, «Sleep-dependent memory consolidation,» Neuron, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 121–133, Sep. 2004, doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2004.08.031.
Conference paper
Format: Initials Last name, «Paper title,» in Proc. Conference Name, City, State/Country, Year, pp. XX–XX, doi: XXXXX.
Example:
[2] J. Smith and A. Jones, «Deep learning for biomedical image segmentation,» in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Bioinformatics Biomed. (BIBM), San Diego, CA, USA, 2023, pp. 512–519, doi: 10.1109/BIBM58861.2023.10385623.
Book
Format: Initials Last name, Book Title, Xth ed. City, State/Country: Publisher, Year.
Example:
[3] S. Haykin, Neural Networks and Learning Machines, 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA: Pearson, 2009.
Book chapter
Example:
[4] R. Brown, «Signal processing fundamentals,» in Digital Communications Handbook, J. Davis, Ed. New York, NY, USA: Wiley, 2022, pp. 45–78.
Website
Format: Author, «Page title,» Website Name. Accessed: Month Day, Year. [Online]. Available: URL
Example:
[5] IEEE, «IEEE author center,» IEEE. Accessed: Jan. 15, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/
Thesis or dissertation
Example:
[6] L. Chen, «Machine learning approaches to early sepsis detection in ICU patients,» Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. Comput. Sci., Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA, USA, 2022.
Technical report
Example:
[7] A. Kumar, «Energy efficiency in 5G base stations,» Dept. Electr. Eng., Indian Inst. Technol., New Delhi, India, Tech. Rep. IIT-EE-2023-14, Aug. 2023.
Standard
Example:
[8] IEEE Standard for Ethernet, IEEE Std. 802.3-2022, IEEE, New York, NY, USA, 2022.
Key IEEE Formatting Rules
| Element | IEEE rule |
|---|---|
| Author names | Initials before last name: M. P. Walker (not Walker, M. P.) |
| Article titles | In quotation marks, sentence case |
| Journal/book titles | Italic, title case, abbreviated where standard abbreviations exist |
| Reference order | Numbered by order of first citation — not alphabetical |
| DOI format | doi: 10.XXXX/XXXXX (no «https://doi.org/» prefix in IEEE) |
| Month abbreviations | Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., May, Jun., Jul., Aug., Sep., Oct., Nov., Dec. |
IEEE vs. APA: Key Differences
| Feature | IEEE | APA |
|---|---|---|
| Citation style | Numbered [1], [2] | Author-date (Smith, 2023) |
| Reference order | By appearance in text | Alphabetical by author |
| Author name format | Initials Last: M. P. Walker | Last, Initials: Walker, M. P. |
| Primary field | Engineering, computer science, electronics | Psychology, social sciences, education |
| Journal title | Abbreviated, italic | Full name, italic |
For detailed examples of each IEEE source type — journal articles, conference papers, books, and websites — see the dedicated guides linked from the IEEE Format Guide.