Skip to Main Content
George Mason University Infoguides | University Libraries
See Updates and FAQss for the latest library services updates.

IEEE Writing and Citation Style

Format of Journal Articles

Prefer to watch a video, try the video, How do I know it's a journal article from the citation, on Kaltura.

You must have (or follow rules when it doesn't exist)

  • Authors
  • Title of the article
  • Journal name (its abbreviation if not using a reference manager)
  • Volume
  • Pages or paper number
  • month and year of publication

You need if it exists

  • Issue
  • DOI
  • URL if no DOI and electronic access only (no paper copy)

Most journal articles will appear as follows in the reference list.

J. K. Author, “Name of paper,” Abbrev. Title of Periodical, vol. x, no. x, pp. xxx-xxx, Abbrev. Month year, doi: xxx.

These examples are from the IEEE Reference Guide.

[1]

M. M. Chiampi and L. L. Zilberti, “Induction of electric field in human bodies moving near MRI: An efficient BEM computational procedure,” IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., vol. 58, pp. 2787–2793, Oct. 2011, doi: 10.1109/TBME.2011.2158315.

[2]

R. Fardel, M. Nagel, F. Nuesch, T. Lippert, and A. Wokaun, “Fabrication of organic light emitting diode pixels by laser-assisted forward transfer,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 91, no. 6, Aug. 2007, Art. no. 061103.

[3]

W. P. Risk, G. S. Kino, and H. J. Shaw, “Fiber-optic frequency shifter using a surface acoustic wave incident at an oblique angle,” Opt. Lett., vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 115–117, Feb. 1986. [Online]. Available: http://ol.osa.org/abstract.cfm?URI=ol-11-2-115

If an article is available but not published yet, some of the fields won't be included. If there is an arXiv and an early published copy from the publisher, choose the early published copy.

[4]

F. Vatta, A. Soranzo, and F. Babich, “More accurate analysis of sum-product decoding of LDPC codes using a Gaussian approximation,” Commun. Lett., early access, Dec. 11, 2018. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2011.2158315.

[5]

C. K. Kim, “Effect of gamma rays on plasma,” submitted for publication.

[6]

P. Kopyt et al., “Electric properties of graphene-based conductive layers from DC up to terahertz range,” IEEE THz Sci. Technol., to be published. doi: 10.1109/TTHZ.2016.2544142.

Format of Books, Book Chapters, etc.

Prefer to watch a video, try the video, How do I know it's a book chapter from the citation, on Kaltura.

The author situation isn't always straightforward. Books can have

  • Authors

    when exist, use the authors

  • Chapter authors and editors. when exist
    • use chapter authors and editors or
    • editors for whole book
  • If no authors or editors are given for a book

    in this case, use the title where the author would go

You must have

  • Title of the book
  • Year of Publication
  • City of Publication
  • Publisher Name

You need if it exists

  • Chapter title
  • Volume
  • Edition
  • Pages
  • URL using the doi particularly for chapters

Most book chapters will appear as follows in the reference list.

J. K. Author, “Title of chapter in the book,” in Title of His Published Book, X. Editor, Ed., xth ed. City of Publisher, (only U.S. State), Country: Abbrev. of Publisher, year, ch. x, sec. x, pp. xxx–xxx. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/doi

Manuals and handbooks are listed separate in the reference manual, but it is fine to treat them like books.

If you look at entire books cited in current IEEE publications, they are cited as paper books. If you read an electronic copy and there is a paper copy, they are the same for reputable publishers. Authors tend to give the URL using the doi when it is a chapter.

[1]

X. Liu, Systems Control Theory. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter, 2018.

[2]

J. B. Clempner and W. Yu, Eds. New Perspectives and Applications of Modern Control Theory. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2018.

[3]

Motorola, Motorola RF Device Data. Phoenix, AZ, USA: Motorola, 1994, pp. 35-40.

[4]

S. W. Blume, “Transmission lines,” in Electric Power System Basics for the Nonelectrical Professional, 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ, USA: IEEE Press, 2016, ch. 3, pp. 43–52. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119180227.ch3

Format of Conference Papers

Prefer to watch a video, try the video, How do I know it's a conference paper from the citation, on Kaltura.

You must have

  • Authors
  • Title of the paper
  • Title of the proceedings (its abbreviation if not using a reference manager)
  • Publisher Name

You need if it exists

  • Editors
  • Volume title
  • Volume number
  • Edition
  • Pages or paper number
  • DOI
  • URL if no DOI

Most conference papers that are published in proceedings will appear as follows in the reference list. For conference papers presented at conferences that is not part of a proceedings, go to the IEEE Reference Guide.

J. K. Author, “Title of paper,” in Abbreviated Name of Conf. in Volume Title, ed., X. Editor, Ed., year, pp. xxx–xxx, doi: xxx.

or

J. K. Author, “Title of paper,” in Abbreviated Name of Conf. in Volume Title, ed., X. Editor, Ed., year, pp. xxx–xxx. [Online]. Available: http://www.url.com

These examples are from the IEEE Reference Guide.

[1]

A. Amador-Perez and R. A. Rodriguez-Solis, “Analysis of a CPW-fed annular slot ring antenna using DOE,” in Proc. IEEE Antennas Propag. Soc. Int. Symp., Jul. 2006, pp. 4301–4304.

[2]

J. Zhao, G. Sun, G. H. Loh, and Y. Xie, “Energy-efficient GPU design with reconfigurable in-package graphics memory,” in Proc. ACM/IEEE Int. Symp. Low Power Electron. Design (ISLPED), Jul. 2012, pp. 403–408, doi: 10.1145/2333660.2333752.

[3]

T. Schubert, "Real challenges and solutions for validating system-on-chip high level formal verification of next-generation microprocessors," in Proc. 40th Design Automat. Conf. (DAC'03). [Online]. Available: http://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/dac/2003/2394/00/2394001-abs.html

Format of Website/Webpages

You must have

  • Authors or Owner of Online Video
  • Title of the Webpage or Title of Online Video
  • Web Address
  • Date Accessed
  • Online Video Release Date

You need if exists

  • Website Title
  • Location for Online Video

These examples are from the IEEE Reference Guide.

[1]

J. Smith. “Obama inaugurated as President.” CNN.com. Accessed: Feb. 1, 2009. [Online]. Available: http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/01/21/obama_inaugurated/index.html

[2]

Doane Academy, Burlington, NJ, USA. Second Grade Bossy R. (Feb. 28, 2013). Accessed: Jun. 3, 2018. [Online Video]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUKHo1Y-BcM