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.
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.
Reference list rules
- 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.
Examples by source type
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 reference: the official IEEE Reference Guide. EngCite’s engine builds on the open Citation Style Language (CSL) standard plus an IEEE post-processing layer.