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Referencing styles - a Practical Guide

IEEE

IEEE referencing style

Used by: Computer Science, Electronic Engineering

Introduction to IEEE referencing style

The IEEE referencing style is specified by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and is used widely in electronics and related disciplines. Make sure to check your departments' specific guidance for any preferred formats.

In-text citations

IEEE uses numeric in-text citations, where the number of the reference(s) is given in square brackets after the information, summary or quote:

A recent study [1] has demonstrated the effectiveness of...
The results presented here have also been confirmed elsewhere [2].

Citations/references are numbered in the order they first appear in the text - so your first citation is [1], the second is [2] and so on. If you cite the same source again later in the text, re-use the original citation number.

Reference list

The reference list at the end of the document includes the full details of each source so the reader can find them themselves. Sources are listed in the order they first appear in the text.

The information to include depends on the types of source - see the examples.

Useful resources

Guidance for all source types

This guidance applies to all references for all source types.

1 author

Reference list:

[3] W. K. Chen, Linear Networks and Systems. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1993.

 

2 authors

List both authors in the order they appear in the publication. Use 'and' between names.

Reference list:

[4] F. Giannini and G. Leuzzi, Nonlinear Microwave Circuit Design. Chichester: J. Wiley and Sons, 2004.

 

6+ authors

Use et al. after the name of the first author.

Reference list:

[5] U. J. Gelinas, et al., Business Processes and Information Technology. Cincinnati: South-Western/Thomson Learning, 2004.

If you're synthesing a number of sources to support your argument you may want to use a number of sources in one citation.

Separate out the numbers by comma eg [1], [3]. For a range of sources, use a hyphen eg,[5-7]. 

Quotations are word-for-word text included in your work and must be clearly distinguished from your own words and ideas. Quotations are word-for-word text included in your work and must be clearly distinguished from your own words and ideas. You must also include the page number(s) in the citation and reference list entry.

Short quotations (of less than three lines)

Use a brief phrase to introduce the quotation. For example:

In-text:

As Neville emphasises, “you should cite all sources and present full details of these in your list of references” [1, p.37].           

Reference:

[1] C. Neville, The Complete Guide to Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism, 2nd ed. Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2010.

 

Longer quotations (of three lines or more)

Use block quotation, without quotation marks, but clearly indent the quote to indicate these words are not your own. For example:

In-text:

Neville comments that:
It can sometimes be difficult, if not impossible, to avoid using some of the author’s original words, particularly those that describe or label phenomena. However, you need to avoid copying out what the author said, word for word. Choose words that you feel give a true impression of the author’s original ideas or action [1, p.37].


The in-text citation is given at the end of the quotation and before the punctuation, with a full reference, including page number, in the reference list being given as in the example above.

A secondary reference is given when you are referring to a source which you have not read yourself, but have read about in another source, for example referring to Jones’ work that you have read about in Smith. You should avoid using secondary references and locate the original source and reference that.

It is important to give a page number with a reference in the following circumstances:

  • when quoting directly
  • when referring to a specific detail in a text (for example, a specific theory or idea, an illustration, a table, a set of statistics).

This might mean giving an individual page number or a small range of pages from which you have taken the information. Giving page numbers enables the reader to locate the specific item to which you refer.

Capitalise the major words of publication titles. Articles (a, an, the) and conjunctions (and, but, for, or) should be in lower case. For example:

[2] U. J. Gelinas, et al., Business Processes and Information Technology. Cincinnati: SouthWestern/Thomson Learning, 2004. 

It is common in science publications to use standard abbreviations for common words in book and journal titles to give more concise references (for example IEEE Syst. J for the IEEE Systems Journal). 

Some standard abbreviations (and their meanings):

  • Appl. (applied)
  • Conv. (convention)
  • Ed./Eds. (editor/editors)
  • et al. (and others)
  • Fig. (figure)
  • no. (issue number)
  • p. (single page)
  • pp. (page range)
  • Rep. (report)
  • Soc. (Society)
  • Tab. (table)
  • vol. (volume)

Questions about referencing?

Contact your Faculty Librarians if you have any questions about referencing.

Commonly used sources

Examples of reference list entries for key source types.

Use these examples alongside the information given in the 'Guidance for all source types' box.

Information to include:
[#] Initial. Surname, Name of book. Place: Publisher, year.

Reference list:

[4] F. Giannini and G. Leuzzi, Nonlinear Microwave Circuit Design. Chichester: J. Wiley and Sons, 2004.

Chapter in an edited book

Information to include:
[#] Chapter author Initial. Surname, "Title of chapter" in Name of book, Editor Initial. Surname, Ed. Place: Publisher, year, pp. #-#.

Reference list:

[9] D. Ginat, "Overlooking number patterns in algorithmic problem solving," in Number Theory in Mathematics Education: Perspectives and Prospects, R. Zazkis and S. R. Campbell, Eds. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006, pp. 223-247.

 

Edited book as a whole

Information to include:
[#] Editor Initial. Surname, Ed., Name of book, Place: Publisher, year.

Reference list:

[22] D. Sarunyagate, Ed., Lasers. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996.

Journal article / paper (print copy)

Information to include:
[#] Initial. Surname, "Title of article / paper" Name of journal, vol. #, no. #, pp. #-#, Abbrev. Month year.

Reference list:

[27] J. R. Beveridge and E. M. Riseman, "How easy is matching 2D line models using local search?" IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 19, no. 16, pp. 564-579, Jun. 1997.

 

Journal article / paper (electronic)

Information to include:
[#] Initial. Surname, "Title of article / paper" Name of journal, vol. #, no. #, pp. #-#, Abbrev. Month year. [Online] Available: URL [Accessed: day month year].

Reference list:

[28] P. H. C. Eilers and J. J. Goeman, "Enhancing scatterplots with smoothed densities," Bioinformatics, vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 623-628, Mar. 2004. [Online]. Available: www.oxfordjournals.org. [Accessed: 18 September 2004].

Include the most precise date of publication given - usually full date for newspaper articles, month and year for magazines.

Newspaper/magazine article (with author)

Information to include:
[#]. Initial. Surname, "Title of article", Name of newspaper/magazine, p. #, Abbrev. Month day, year.

Reference list:

[31] “Engineering Doctorate Showcased”, The University of York Magazine, p. 5, Feb. 2010.
[32] N. Perpitch, "Green groups battle to overturn gas plan," The Australian, p. 2, Sept. 7, 2010.

 

Newspaper/magazine article (no author)

Information to include:
[#]. "Title of article", Name of newspaper/magazine, p. #, Abbrev. Month day, year.

Reference list:

[33] "Editorial: French elections. Bitter-sweet victory for the left," The Guardian, p. 26, Apr. 23, 2012.

Website with author

Information to include:
[#] Initial. Surname (year, Mon. day). Title of specific webpage. Name of overall website. [Online]. Available at: URL [Accessed: day month year].

Reference list:

[47] J. Amos (2012, Feb. 12). Eavesdropping on the Squid World. BBC News [Online]. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17117194 [Accessed: 27 February 2012].

Website with no author

Information to include:
[#] Organisation. (year, Mon. day). Title of specific webpage. Name of overall website. [Online]. Available at: URL [Accessed: day month year].

Reference list:

[48] Apple. IEEE Standards Power & Energy Dictionary,  itunes.apple.com. [Online]. Available: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ieee-standards-power-energy/id491148158?mt=8?WT.mc_id=tm_proj_pe [Accessed: 27 February 2012].

Further sources

Examples of reference list entries for other source types.

Use these examples alongside the information given in the 'Guidance for all source types' box.

Reference list :

[1] Wireless Telegraphy Act, 2006, c.36. London: The Stationary Office.

Reference list:

[2] D. Lacey. “Reflections on Infosecurity Europe Week”. 28 Apr 2012. [Blog entry]. David Lacey’s IT Security Blog. Available http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/david_lacey/2012/04/reflections_on_infosecurity_eu_2.html [Accessed: 30 April 2012]

If you are reading an English language version of a book originally published in another language follow this example.

Reference list:

[6] M. Gorkii, “Optimal design,” Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR, vol. 12, pp. 111-122, 1961 (Transl.: in L. Pontryagin, Ed., The Mathematical Theory of Optimal Processes. New York: Interscience, 1962, ch. 2, sec. 3, pp. 127-135.

Follow this example if you need to reference a book that you read in another language.

Reference list:

[7] K. Ichiro, Thai Economy and Railway 1885–1935, Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Hyoronsha (in Japanese), 2000.

The author's or creator's name, followed by a comma, may precede the product name. Additional identifying information such as release date may be included after the product name. A commonly used short version or acronym of the name may be included in parentheses immediately after the product name.

Reference list:

[10] Adobe Illustrator, ver. 9.0, Adobe Systems Incorporated, San Jose, Calif.

OR

[10] A. Harriman. (1993, June). Compendium of genealogical software. Humanist. [Online]. Available e-mail: HUMANIST@NYVM.ORG Message: get GENEALOGY REPORT.

Conference paper (unpublished)

Reference list:

[11]  J. Arrillaga and B. Giessner, “Limitation of short-circuit levels by means of HVDC links,” presented at the IEEE Summer Power Meeting, Los Angeles, CA, USA, Jul. 12–17, 1990, Paper 70 CP 637.

 

Conference paper (published)

Reference list:

[12] L. Liu and H. Miao, "A specification based approach to testing polymorphic attributes," in Formal Methods and Software Engineering: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Formal Engineering Methods, ICFEM 2004, Seattle, WA, USA, Nov. 8-12, 2004, J. Davies, W. Schulte, M. Barnett, Eds. Berlin: Springer, 2004. pp. 306-19.

 

Conference proceedings

Reference list:

[13] T. J. van Weert and R. K. Munro, Eds., Informatics and the Digital Society: Social, ethical and cognitive issues: IFIP TC3/WG3.1&3.2 Open Conference on Social, Ethical and Cognitive Issues of Informatics and ICT, Jul. 22-26, 2002, Dortmund, Germany. Boston: Kluwer Academic, 2003.

Include the type of resource in square brackets after its name: [CD], [CD-Rom, [DVD]

Reference list:

[8] D. Wedding and M. J. Stevens, Psychology: IUPsyS Global Resource [CD-Rom]. Hove: Psychology Press, 2008.

Database Online (specific content with author)

Reference list:

[14] Y. Ralchenko, A.E. Kramida, J. Reader and NIST ASD Team. Na Spectrum Data. National Institute of Standards and Technology atomic spectra database. Version 3.1.5. [Online]. Available http://nist.gov/asd3 [Accessed: 2 April 2010]

 

Database Online (not referring to specific content, no author)

Reference list:

[15] Oxford Language Dictionaries Online. [Online] Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available: http://www.oxfordlanguagedictionaries.com/ [Accessed: 5 July 2011]

Dictionary (with editor)

Reference list:

[16] P. Gordon and D. Lawton, Dictionary of British Education. London: Woburn Press, 2003.

 

Dictionary (without editor)

Reference list:

[17] Dictionary of Computing and Communications, 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.

E-book (online)

If page markers are not available on the e-book version you are using cite the chapter for specific references to the source

Reference list:

[19] T. Schlick, Molecular modelling and simulation: an interdisciplinary guide. Springer, 2010. [E-book] Available: http://www.springerlink.com/content/p406v4/#section=745673&page=1 [Accessed: 5 July 2011].

 

E-book (reader)

If viewing an e-book using an e-book reader it is important to reference the specific version of the publication for this reader. If page markers are not available on the e-book version you are using cite the chapter for specific references to the source

Reference list:

[20] S. Collins, The Hunger Games. [Kindle] Scholastic Fiction, 2011. [E-book] Available: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005EGXTEE/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d2_g351_i4?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0V3C55RJ3DB412MK834J&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128533&pf_rd_i=468294 [Accessed: 21 April 2012].

Reference list:

[21] J. Smith. (Oct. 10, 2011). “RE: Use of IEEE citation.” Personal e-mail.

Encyclopedia (full)

Reference list:

[23] J. G. Webster, Ed., Wiley Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering. New York: Wiley-Interscience, 1999.

 

Encyclopedia (entry)

Reference list:

[24] O. B. R. Strimpel, "Computer graphics," in McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, 8th ed., Vol. 4. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997, pp. 279-283.

Reference list:

[25] United Kingdom. Ministry of Defence, Defence ICT Strategy. London: Ministry of Defence; 2010. [Online].  Available: http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/251D708B-7080-4B64-ACDF-E069C62C892E/0/modict_strategyv1.pdf. [Accessed: 28 February 2012].

In-text: 

After the title of graph/table/figure, written in CAPITAL LETTERS, give the citation number for the source and the page number the item appears on. For example: A GRAPH [26, p. 10]

Reference list: 

Give the citation number and cite according to the convention for the type of source you are using (book, journal, website).

Reference list: 

Personal communications and non-recoverable information, such as an interview, lecture or conversation are not given citation numbers, but should be suitably referred to in the text. For example: “In a personal interview with James Dyson…”

Reference list:

Personal communications and non-recoverable information, such as an interview, lecture or conversation are not given citation numbers, but should be suitably referred to in the text. For example: “In a lecture by Bill Gates…”

Reference list:

Personal communications and non-recoverable information, such as an interview, lecture or conversation are not given citation numbers, but should be suitably referred to in the text. For example: “In a lecture by James Dyson to the Confederation of British Industry in June 2010”

Reference list: 

Personal communications and non-recoverable information, such as an interview, lecture or conversation are not given citation numbers, but should be suitably referred to in the text. For example: “In a letter to the author from Alan Sugar…”

Reference list:

[29] FAX-B840/B820/B822 Users Manual, Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan, 2004.

Each one will have titles and references within it or you can refer to the actual microfiche record number, where it is stored and when accessed. Here it is referenced as conference proceedings with additional information as to the location of the microfiche

Reference list:

[31] A.F.I.P.S., American Federation of Information Processing Societies. Conference Proceedings, vol. 33, 1968, Montvale, N.J. [Microfiche] Available J.B. Morrell Library, University of York. [Accessed: 26 March 2012].

Reference list:

[34] YouTube. “Tutorial on Setting up LaTeX”. Youtube.com. [Online]. Available http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt8_7IRaETw [Accessed: 20 March 2012].

Reference list:

[35] Graduate Students’ Association, Graduate Guide 2011. York Graduate Students’ Association, 2011.

Reference list:

[36] J. P. Wilkinson, “Nonlinear resonant circuit devices,” U.S. Patent 3 624 125, Jul. 16, 1990.

(Use “issued date” if several dates are given).

In-text: 

After the photograph title, written beneath the image in CAPITAL LETTERS give the citation number for the source and the page number it appears on. For example: A PICTURE [37, p. 2]

Reference list: 

Give the citation number and cite according to the convention for the type of source you are using (book, journal, website).

Reference list:

[38] BBC Radio 1, Best of Chris Moyles: Tulisa Stands in for Dave. BBC Radio 1: 2012. [Podcast]. Available: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio1/moyles/moyles_20120406-0130a.mp3 [Accessed: 19 April 2012].

Reference list:

[39] R. Aedy, Interviewer, D. Hector, Interviewee, and S. Clark, Producer, "The future of engineering," The Buzz, 25 Sept., 2004 [Radio broadcast]. Sydney: ABC Radio.

Reference list:

[40] R. E. Haskell and C. T. Case, “Transient signal propagation in lossless isotropic plasmas,” USAF Cambridge Res. Labs., Cambridge, MA, Rep. ARCRL-66-234 (II), 1994, vol.2.

Reference list:

Quote the source of the review as for newspaper, magazine, website, giving the author where known.

Reference list:

[41] D. Fisher, Writer, and T. Baker, Presenter, Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit [Sound recording]. Bath, UK: BBC Audiobooks, 2009.

Reference list:

[42] IEEE Criteria for Class IE Electric Systems, IEEE Standard 308, 1969.

Reference list:

Personal communications and non-recoverable information, such as an interview, lecture or conversation are not given citation numbers, but should be suitably referred to in the text. For example: “In a telephone conversation with the author, Professor John Smith explained…”

Reference list:

[44] J. Clarkson, Reporter, The Ford Mondeo. Top Gear, Jan. 1, 2012 [Television broadcast]. London: BBC2 Television.

Reference list:

Personal communications and non-recoverable information, such as an interview or conversation are not given citation numbers, but should be suitably referred to in the text. For example: “In a text message to the author, Dr Jane Doe confirmed…”

Reference list:

[43] J. O. Williams, “Narrow-band analyser,” Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. Elect. Eng., Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MW, 1993.

Reference list:

[46] ELDT. “Help Guide: Blogs in Yorkshare: An Overview". University of York [Online]. Available: https://vle.york.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/institution/E-Learning%20Development%20Team/Guides/Bb%20Blog%20--%20Overview.html [Accessed: 19 April 2012].

Reference list:

[49] Wikipedia. “Green Computing”, Wikipedia.org. [Online]. Available http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_computing [Last Modified: 15 March 2012, 07:05].

Use either the proper name of the author or X pseudonym. In this example either ‘IEEE’ or ‘@IEEEorg’ can be used in the reference

Reference list:

[45] @IEEEorg. RT @IEEEInstitute IEEE has launched a new Web Portal Dedicated to Transportation Electrification: http://bit.ly/qM5FiJ. 20 Apr 2012. [Post]. Available http://twitter.com/#!/ieeeorg [Accessed: 27 April 2012].