Cleveland State University
EEC 414/503, ESC 720
Writing in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Lecture 2 – References and Citations
Dan Simon

• Do not use web pages – especially Wikipedia – as references (except for photos or artwork)
• Use adequate citations throughout your paper
• There are two purposes for references:
– Lend support to your claims; therefore your references need to be credible
– Allow the reader to verify your claims or to find additional information; therefore your references need to be accessible
2

Credibility of references
1.
Academic journals
2.
Academic books
3.
Academic conferences
4.
Theses and technical reports
5.
Trade publications (magazines)
6.
Web sites (to be avoided in general – and not allowed in this class)
…
999. Wikipedia – it should never be used as a reference
3

IEEE: www.ieee.org/documents/ieeecitationref.pdf
APA: owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01
There are many other styles
• Specific journals, conferences, and other publications may have their own specific formatting guidelines.
• There are two keys to correct reference formatting
– Include all necessary information
– Consistency
4

Journal Paper:
[1] B. Igelnik and D. Simon, “The eigenvalues of a tridiagonal matrix in biogeography,” Applied Mathematics and Computing, vol. 218, no. 1, pp. 195–201, September 2011.
Conference Paper:
[2] H. Ma and D. Simon, “Biogeography-based optimization with blended migration for constrained optimization,” Genetic and Evolutionary
Computation Conference, Portland, Oregon, pp. 417–418, July 2010.
Book Chapter:
[3] P. Lozovyy, G. Thomas, and D. Simon, “Biogeography-based optimization for robot controller tuning,” in: Computational Modeling and Simulation of
Intellect (B. Igelnik, editor) IGI Global, pp. 162–181, 2011.
Book:
[4] D. Simon, Optimal State Estimation, John Wiley & Sons, 2006.
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Journal Paper:
B. Igelnik and D. Simon (2011), “The eigenvalues of a tridiagonal matrix in biogeography,” Applied Mathematics and Computing, vol. 218, no. 1, pp. 195–201, September.
Conference Paper:
H. Ma and D. Simon (2010), “Biogeography-based optimization with blended migration for constrained optimization,” Genetic and Evolutionary
Computation Conference, Portland, Oregon, pp. 417–418.
Book Chapter:
P. Lozovyy, G. Thomas, and D. Simon (2011), “Biogeography-based optimization for robot controller tuning,” in: Computational Modeling and
Simulation of Intellect (B. Igelnik, editor) IGI Global, pp. 162–181.
Book:
D. Simon (2006), Optimal State Estimation, John Wiley & Sons.
6

• IEEE: “Markov models provide exact values as time approaches infinity [2].”
“Lozovyy et al. show that Markov models provide exact values as time approaches infinity [2].”
“Research in 2010 showed that Markov models provide exact values as time approaches infinity [2].”
• APA: “Markov models provide exact values as time approaches infinity (Lozovyy et al., 2010).”
“Lozovyy et al. (2010) shows that Markov models provide exact values as time approaches infinity.”
“Research in 2010 (Lozovyy et al.) showed that Markov models provide exact values as time approaches infinity.”
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et al. = abbreviation for et alii = and others (Latin)
• A work by one or two authors: List all authors every time.
“(Ma and Simon, 2010) derived a theorem that shows …”
• A work by three to five authors: List all authors the first time you cite the source.
“(Lozovyy, Thomas, & Simon, 2010) showed that …”
In later citations use “et al.”
“(Lozovyy et al., 2010) also showed that …”
• A work by six or more authors: Use “et al.” for each citation.
• See http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/03/ for more details
8

Avoid references to authors in the text:
“BBO was invented by Simon in 2008 [4].”
“BBO was invented in 2008 [4].”
Except for very famous and well-known results:
“Einstein’s theory of relativity shows that …”
“Nyquist’s sampling theory says that …”
9

• Advantage of APA-like format: you don’t need to worry about reference numbers.
• MS Word can keep track of reference numbers with bookmarks or with its bibliography tool.
Good luck with that …
• LaTeX can easily keep track of reference numbers (and also table, figure, and section numbers – see Lecture 11).
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Journal Paper Reference:
[2] B. Igelnik and D. Simon, “The eigenvalues of a tridiagonal matrix in biogeography,” Applied Mathematics and Computing, vol. 218, no. 1, pp. 195–201, September 2011.
• All authors are listed in the same format.
• Separate the authors with commas if there are more than two.
• Be consistent in capitalization of article title.
• Italicize the journal name. Do not abbreviate (contrary to IEEE style).
• Always include the volume number.
• Include the issue number if it is available (which is 97% of the time).
• Include the page numbers of the entire article in the volume.
• Include the publication month if it is available (which is usually the case).
You are responsible to find the above information for each journal paper!
11

Journal Paper Reference:
B. Igelnik and D. Simon, “The eigenvalues of a tridiagonal matrix in biogeography,” Applied Mathematics and Computing, vol. 218, no. 1, pp. 195–201, September 2011.
B. Igelnik and D. Simon, “The Eigenvalues of a Tridiagonal Matrix in
Biogeography,” Applied Mathematics and Computing, (218)1, pp. 195–201,
September 2011.
B. M. Igelnik and D. J. Simon, The eigenvalues of a tridiagonal matrix in biogeography, Applied Mathematics and Computing, 218:1 (195–201) 2011.
Igelnik, B. and Simon, D. “The eigenvalues of a tridiagonal matrix in biogeography,” Applied Mathematics and Computing, 218(1), 195–201,
September 2011.
All of the above formats are acceptable.
12

More journals are published on-line now
• No month, no page numbers
Example – How to Cite this Article:
Wei Wu, “DC Motor Parameter Identification Using Speed Step
Responses,” Modelling and Simulation in Engineering, vol. 2012,
Article ID 189757, 5 pages, 2012. doi:10.1155/2012/189757
Shorter, alternative citation:
W. Wu, “DC Motor Parameter Identification Using Speed Step
Responses,” Modelling and Simulation in Engineering, vol. 2012,
Article ID 189757, 2012.
13

• DOI – a character string that uniquely identifies an electronic document
• Managed by the International DOI Foundation
• If your source is available electronically, then you can include the DOI in your reference list
– However, not that web pages are not allowed as references in your research paper
• The reader can enter the DOI at www.CrossRef.org
to find the reference
14

• D. Simon and Y. Shmaliy, “Unified forms for Kalman and finite impulse response filtering and smoothing,” Automatica, vol. 49, no. 6, pp. 1892-1899, 2013.
DOI: 10.1016/j.automatica.2013.02.026
• Use the URL if there is no DOI
• D. Simon and Y. Shmaliy, “Unified forms for Kalman and finite impulse response filtering and smoothing,” Automatica, vol. 49, no. 6, pp. 1892-1899, 2013. http://academic.csuohio.edu/simond/pubs/Automatica2013.pdf
15

Conference Paper Reference :
H. Ma and D. Simon, “Biogeography-based optimization with blended migration for constrained optimization,” Genetic and Evolutionary Computation
Conference, Portland, Oregon, pp. 417–418, July 2010.
• All authors are listed in the same format.
• Separate the authors with commas if there are more than two.
• Be consistent in capitalization of article title.
• Italicize conference name. Do not abbreviate (contrary to IEEE style).
• Include location of the conference. Use a consistent format:
City, State for US locations or City, Country for non-US locations.
• Include the page numbers of the entire article in the conference proceedings, if available (98% of the time – some conference proceedings are electronic).
You are responsible to find the above information for each conference paper!
16

Book Chapter Reference:
P. Lozovyy, G. Thomas, and D. Simon, “Biogeography-based optimization for robot controller tuning,” in: Computational Modeling and Simulation of
Intellect (B. Igelnik, editor) IGI Global, pp. 162–181, 2011.
• Chapter authors are listed first.
• Use the word “in” to denote the title of the book.
• The title of the book is italicized.
• The editors of the book are in parentheses.
• The name of the publishing company is listed, possibly followed by its location (city and state, or city and country).
• The page numbers of the entire chapter are listed.
You are responsible to find the above information for each book chapter!
17

Book Reference:
D. Simon, Optimal State Estimation, John Wiley & Sons, 2006.
• Authors or editors, Book Title, Publisher, Year.
Edited Book Reference:
B. Igelnik, editor, Computational Modeling and Simulation of Intellect,
IGI Global, 2011.
B. Igelnik (editor), Computational Modeling and Simulation of Intellect,
IGI Global, 2011.
E. Fiesler and R. Beale, editors. Handbook of Neural Computation. Institute of
Physics Publishing, 1997.
• Edited books have the same format as any other book, but make sure to specify editor or editors.
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Include the edition number of the book if there is more than one edition.
For additional details about Fourier series, see [14, Chap. 17].
[14] C. Alexander and M. Sadiku, Fundamentals of Electric
Circuits, Fourth edition, McGraw-Hill, 2008.
… or …
[14] C. Alexander and M. Sadiku, Fundamentals of Electric
Circuits, 4th edition, McGraw-Hill, 2008.
19

• References in the reference list include the
entire work that is being referenced.
– Do not specify particular chapters, except in edited books.
– Do not specify page numbers, except for the page numbers of the entire paper or chapter (if edited book).
– Details such as those mentioned above are specified in the citation, not in the reference.
20

For a proof of flux capacitor stability, see [14].
…
[14] E. Brown, “New results on Geisler tube design,” Journal of
Time Travel and Applications, vol. 7, pp. 18–36, Sep. 1985,
Section 2.
For a proof of flux capacitor stability, see [14, Section 2].
…
[14] E. Brown, “New results on Geisler tube design,” Journal of
Time Travel and Applications, vol. 7, pp. 18–36, Sep. 1985.
21

“The eigenvalues of the biogeography matrix follow a geometric progression
[2, Equation 14].”
“The eigenvalues of this matrix were obtained under the assumption of linear migration rates [2, Figure 1].”
[2] B. Igelnik and D. Simon, “The eigenvalues of a tridiagonal matrix in biogeography,” Applied Mathematics and Computing, vol. 218, no. 1, pp. 195–
201, September 2011.
“The eigenvalues of the biogeography matrix follow a geometric progression
(Igelnik and Simon, 2011, Equation 14).”
“The eigenvalues of this matrix were obtained under the assumption of linear migration rates (Igelnik and Simon, 2011, Figure 1).”
B. Igelnik and D. Simon (2011), “The eigenvalues of a tridiagonal matrix in biogeography,” Applied Mathematics and Computing, vol. 218, no. 1, pp. 195–201,
September.
22

“The Kalman filter can be derived with a least-mean-squares approach [3, Chapter 5].”
“The Kalman gain depends on the estimation error covariance matrix [3, page 219].”
[3] D. Simon, Optimal State Estimation, John Wiley & Sons, 2006.
“The Kalman filter can be derived with a least-mean-squares approach (Simon, 2006, Chapter 5).”
“The Kalman gain depends on the estimation error covariance matrix (Simon, 2006, page 219).”
D. Simon (2006), Optimal State Estimation, John Wiley & Sons.
23

“ Distributed BBO avoids the need for a centralized computing facility [6, Chapter 3].”
[6] A. Shah, Distributed Biogeography-Based Optimization for Mobile Robots,
Master’s Thesis, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, April 2012. www.csuohio.edu/engineering/ece/research/thesis.html
.
“Radiation exposure is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the cell phone antenna [7, Section 5.1].”
[7] R. Mouradi, Wireless Signals and Male Fertility, Doctoral Dissertation,
Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, December 2011. www.csuohio.edu/engineering/ece/research/thesis.html
.
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• Avoid web pages in your reference list.
In fact, they are not allowed in this class.
• If web page references are necessary, use the formats described in the IEEE or APA guides.
• Include enough information so that the reader can easily access the source.
R. Mouradi, Wireless Signals and Male Fertility, Doctoral Dissertation,
Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, December 2011. www.csuohio.edu/engineering/ece/research/thesis.html
.
R. Mouradi, Wireless Signals and Male Fertility, Doctoral Dissertation,
Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, December 2011. www.csuohio.edu
.
25

• Use quotations when you want to emphasize the source of your material.
• Make sure the quote is completely correct, even including capitalization and typos.
• Use [square brackets] to indicate that you are substituting your own material in the quote.
• Use an ellipsis (…) to indicate missing material.
• Make sure the quote is in context.
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sic is short for the Latin sic erat scriptum, which means
intentionally so written, and indicates that a quoted passage is written exactly as it appears in the original text, errors and all.
• Original Source Material: The key feature of the flux capacitor is its three seperate Geissler tubes.
• Correct quote: The flux capacitor enables time travel because of “three seperate [sic] Geissler tubes” [14].
• Correct quote: The flux capacitor enables time travel because of its “three [separate] Geissler tubes” [14].
27

• Original Source Material: The key feature of the flux capacitor is its three seperate Geissler tubes.
• Correct quote: “[T]hree seperate [sic] Geissler tubes” in the flux capacitor enable time travel [14].
• Correct quote: In his first publication on the flux capacitor, Emmett Brown says that the “key feature of the flux capacitor is its three [separate] Geisler tubes” [14].
28

You can emphasize words in the quotation, but must clarify if the emphasis is your own.
• Original Source Material: The key feature of the flux capacitor is its three separate Geissler tubes.
• Correct quote: The Geissler tubes must be arranged in a non-interfering configuration. As Brown writes,
“The key feature of the flux capacitor is its three
separate Geissler tubes” [14] (emphasis added).
29

Use an ellipsis (…) to indicate missing material.
• Original Source Material: The key feature of the flux capacitor is its three seperate Geissler tubes.
• Correct quote: The flux capacitor has been characterized in many ways, including by its “key feature of … three separate Geissler tubes” [14].
30

Quotations must be not only technically correct, they must also convey the author’s original intent.
• Original Source Material: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” (Bill Clinton, January 26,
1998).
• Correct quote: Bill Clinton said that he “did not have sexual relations with [Monica Lewinsky].”
• Correct quote: Bill Clinton said that he “did not have sexual relations” with Monica Lewinsky
• Incorrect quote: Speaking of Monica Lewinsky, Bill
Clinton said that he had “sexual relations with that woman.”
31

Each citation gets its own set of brackets or parentheses
• Biogeography-based optimization has found applications in a variety of areas [2, 3, 10, 12].
• Biogeography-based optimization has found applications in a variety of areas [2], [3], [10], [12].
32

• What is the difference between a reference list and a bibliography?
– Reference list: Each item in the reference list is mentioned in the text
– Bibliography: Items in the bibliography include recommended reading, or were used as sources in your studies, but are not mentioned in the text
– Technical writing usually uses a reference list
– Do not mix a reference list and bibliography
33

References can be ordered one of two ways:
• Alphabetically by the author’s last name
• In order of appearance in the text
34

• Do not cut-and-paste references to your reference list.
• Double-check every character and every punctuation mark in every reference:
– Correctness
– Consistency
– Completeness
• Do not use web pages in your reference list.
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