IEEE citation generator
Numbered references in square brackets, initials before surnames, abbreviated journal titles and “vol., no., pp.” — the format used by IEEE journals and most engineering and computer science departments.
C. E. Shannon, “A Mathematical Theory of Communication,” Bell Syst. Tech. J., vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 379–423, Jul. 1948, doi: 10.1002/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.x.
[1]Anatomy of an IEEE reference
Pick an example, then tap any part of the reference to see the rule behind it.
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Choose an element above.
IEEE rules at a glance
| Order of the list | By order of first citation in the text, not alphabetical. |
|---|---|
| In-text marker | Number in square brackets on the line of text: [1], [2], [4]–[6]. |
| Authors | Initials + surname; “and” before the last; 7+ authors → first author “et al.” |
| Article title | “In quotation marks,” sentence case. |
| Journal / book title | Italic; journal names abbreviated. |
| Volume, issue, pages | vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 379–423 |
| Dates | Abbreviated months: Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sep., Oct., Nov., Dec. |
| Online sources | “Accessed: Mon. DD, YYYY. [Online]. Available: URL” — no full stop after a URL. |
IEEE in-text citations
- Cite by number in square brackets, placed before punctuation: “as shown in [3].”
- Reuse the same number every time you cite that source again.
- Several sources: [2], [5] or a range [4]–[7]. For a page, write [3, p. 12].
- The number can stand as a noun: “In [3], the authors show…” — no need for the author’s name.
IEEE is one of the numbered systems. See how numbered, author–date and footnote styles differ — you can reorder a paragraph and watch the numbers follow.
Ask about IEEE
Answers are AI-generated from the published style rules and can be wrong. Check your journal’s or school’s author guidelines for house variations.
IEEE examples
Real works, formatted by the generator above.
Journal article
C. E. Shannon, “A mathematical theory of communication,” Bell Syst. Tech. J., vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 379–423, Jul. 1948, doi: 10.1002/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.x.
Conference paper
K. He, X. Zhang, S. Ren, and J. Sun, “Deep residual learning for image recognition,” in Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), Las Vegas, NV, USA, Jun. 2016, pp. 770–778, doi: 10.1109/CVPR.2016.90.
Book
D. E. Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 1: Fundamental Algorithms, 3rd ed. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1997.
Standard
IEEE Computer Society, “IEEE Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic,” IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, USA, IEEE Std 754-2019, Jul. 2019, doi: 10.1109/IEEESTD.2019.8766229.
Thesis
C. E. Shannon, “A symbolic analysis of relay and switching circuits,” M.S. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 1940.
Web page
World Health Organization. “Hypertension.” World Health Organization. Accessed: Sep. 20, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hypertension
Source types supported here: Journal article, Book, Book chapter, Conference paper, Web page, Report / standard, Thesis.
IEEE citation questions
How do I cite a website in IEEE format?
Give the author or organisation, the page title in quotation marks, the site name, the date you accessed it, then “[Online]. Available:” and the URL. Example: “Hypertension.” World Health Organization. Accessed: Sep. 20, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.who.int/…
Does IEEE use “et al.”?
Yes. The IEEE Reference Guide lists up to six authors in full. For seven or more, list the first author and add “et al.” In the running text you can write “Shannon et al. [3]”.
Are IEEE references alphabetical?
No. IEEE is a numbered style: sources are numbered in the order you first cite them, and the reference list follows that order.
How do I cite an IEEE standard?
Treat it as a report: Title, Standard number, Year. For example: IEEE Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic, IEEE Std 754-2019, Jul. 2019, doi: 10.1109/IEEESTD.2019.8766229.
Should I abbreviate journal names?
Yes, IEEE abbreviates journal and conference names (IEEE Trans. Power Syst., Proc. IEEE). Use the “Journal abbreviation” field; ScholarCite falls back to the full name if you leave it empty.