bibliottIEEE Citation Guide — 2024 IEEE Reference Guide
IEEE 2024 IEEE Reference Guide format, rules, and copy-ready examples. Built for engineering, computer science, electronics. Auto-generation for IEEE is on the way.
bibliott's generator currently supports APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard & Turabian. IEEE auto-generation is coming soon — use the format and examples below in the meantime.
What is IEEE 2024 IEEE Reference Guide?
IEEE is the standard citation style for engineering, computer science, and electronics — required by virtually every IEEE journal, conference paper, and technical report. It uses a numbered system: each source gets a number in square brackets, and the reference list is ordered by appearance, not alphabetically.
When to use IEEE
- IEEE journals and conference papers (Transactions, ICC, ICASSP, etc.)
- Most US/EU computer-science and electrical-engineering programs
- Software engineering, robotics, and signal processing research
- Technical reports for engineering employers
IEEE quick reference
In-text citation
Bracketed reference number: [1], reused throughout the paper. Multiple sources: [1], [3], [7] or [1]–[3].
As demonstrated in [1], the algorithm achieves O(n log n) complexity.
References (numbered in order of appearance)
[#] A. Author and B. Author, "Article title," Journal Abbrev., vol. X, no. X, pp. xx–xx, Mon. Year, doi: xx.xxx.
[1] J. D. Smith and A. R. Lee, "The future of artificial intelligence in academic research," Nat. Mach. Intell., vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 234–245, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1038/s42256-023-00001-x.
[#] A. Author, Title of Book, Xth ed. City, State, Country: Publisher, Year.
[2] P. Brown, Citation in the Digital Age. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press, 2021.
[#] A. Author, "Paper title," in Proc. Conf. Name, City, Country, Year, pp. xx–xx.
[3] J. Lee, "Real-time edge inference," in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Comput. Vis., Paris, France, 2023, pp. 1456–1465.
Key IEEE formatting rules
- Use only initials for author first names (J. D. Smith, not Jane D. Smith).
- Abbreviate journal names per IEEE standard abbreviations (e.g. Nat. Mach. Intell.).
- Numbers in square brackets, references in order of first citation.
- For 6+ authors, list the first author then "et al."
- Include doi as the last element when available.
Cite AI tools in IEEE
Other citation styles
IEEE FAQ
Engineering papers reuse the same source many times; numbers keep in-text citations short and the reading flow uninterrupted. The reference list mirrors the order each source first appears.
Yes — IEEE journal titles are abbreviated per the IEEE master journal abbreviation list. bibliott applies these automatically when you select an IEEE-indexed journal.
Yes. Format: [#] Author, "Page title," Site Name, Year. [Online]. Available: URL. Include the access date if the page is likely to change.