IEEE Referencing Guide
A library guide to using the numeric IEEE
referencing system.
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November 2014
Contents
Citing and referencing using the IEEE system ............................................................................... 1
Why do you have to reference? ................................................................................................. 1
How to reference using the IEEE system ................................................................................... 1
1)
Citing references in the text ........................................................................................ 1
2)
The Reference List ....................................................................................................... 1
Citing references in the text ........................................................................................................ 1
For a single author: .................................................................................................................. 1
For multiple authors:................................................................................................................ 1
A direct quotation: ................................................................................................................... 2
Paraphrasing: ........................................................................................................................... 2
The Reference List: Printed References ........................................................................................ 2
Book Reference: ....................................................................................................................... 3
Part of a Book (Examples of chapter or part of an edited work where it has an individual title/
author): .................................................................................................................................... 3
Journal Article: ......................................................................................................................... 4
Conference Paper: .................................................................................................................... 4
Technical Report: ..................................................................................................................... 4
Thesis: ..................................................................................................................................... 5
Standard: ................................................................................................................................. 5
The Reference List: Electronic References .................................................................................... 5
eBook: ..................................................................................................................................... 6
Electronic Journal Article: ......................................................................................................... 6
Conference Papers Online: ....................................................................................................... 7
Webpages: ............................................................................................................................... 7
General notes about Reference lists: ........................................................................................ 7
Sample Reference List ........................................................................................................... 8
Frequently used abbreviations: .................................................................................................... 8
Managing your references ........................................................................................................... 8
IET ........................................................................................................................................... 9
Printed guides .......................................................................................................................... 9
IEEE Referencing Guide
Citing and referencing using the IEEE system
Why do you have to reference?

To avoid plagiarism.

To enable a reader to trace your sources.

To enable a reader to distinguish your ideas from someone else’s.

To support your ideas and theories.
Students in Electronics and Electrical engineering and some Computing students use the
IEEE referencing system. It is important to check you are using the correct system with
your individual lecturers in your department.
How to reference using the IEEE system
There are two parts to referencing using the IEEE system:
1)
Citing references in the text
This means acknowledging, within your text, the sources that you have used.
2)
The Reference List
This is the list of sources you have used. You add the list to the end of your work. (It is
not counted in the word count). The references should contain enough details to enable
another reader to find and locate the exact text you are referring to.
Citing references in the text
Where a source is referred to within the text of a work it is only necessary to identify the
source by a number in square brackets. Once you have numbered the reference use the
same number if it is cited again.
For a single author:
Hall [2] has argued that…..
For multiple authors:
When citing more than one source, list each reference number separately with a comma
or dash between each reference: E.g. [1], [6], [10] or [1] - [4]
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IEEE Referencing Guide
A direct quotation:
Boylestad and Nashelsky introduce their book by pointing out that; “Electronic systems
are becoming an increasingly important component of virtually every instrument,
machine, or device we use on a daily basis. For example, automotive functions previously
performed by mechanical components are being replaced by equivalent electronic units.”
[1, p.5]
This reference would only appear once in the Reference list, regardless of how many
times you cited it in your work.
Paraphrasing:
The electrical and electronics industry continues to mature, to the point where it affects
every part of our daily lives. The computer, with its e-mail and Internet access; the many
devices used to communicate (pagers, cellular phones; the fax machine; answering
machines; stereo systems; and television (older analog and newer digital) are all clear
evidence of the important role of electronics in today’s society. The engineers of the
1950s would be in awe of the amount of circuitry that can be contained in a single circuit
(IC), and today’s engineers will probably be astounded by the technological progress that
will take place by the year 2010.[1]
This paragraph could be paraphrased to say;
The electronics and electrical industry continues to develop at a phenomenal rate. [1]
IEEE does not use secondary sources so you should search for the original source. If this
cannot be found it should not be cited.
The Reference List: Printed References
The reference list consists of full references to the sources you have used to produce
your work.
General notes about references that are in print.

Use p. for a single page or pp. for more than one page e.g. p. 5 or pp. 2-6.

If a book/article is written by multiple authors the first six authors have to be
written in the references. After that you put et al. (and others)

Unlike other referencing systems, author initials are quoted before the surname and
publication date is listed at the end.

There must be a space between all the authors’ first name initials and their
surname. (Please note, EndNote® uses the words, ‘last name’ to describe the
authors’ surname. In this guide it is described as a ‘family name’.)

Only put a source in the reference list if it is cited in the body of the work.
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IEEE Referencing Guide

Editor(s) are distinguished from authors by adding Ed. as an abbreviation for a
single editor and Eds. for multiple editors.

If there is no edition after the title add a full stop, a comma if there is.

Only put in an edition if there is more than one e.g. 2nd ed. or 3rd ed.

Abbreviate the word edition to ed.

You can use abbreviations for states in America.
Book Reference:
Place of publication means the town rather than the country.

Author(s) initials. Family name.

Title: subtitle (in italics).

Edition.

Place of publication.

Publisher.

Year of publication.

Page numbers.
[1] R. Pears and G. Shields Eds. Cite Them Right, 2nd ed. Hampshire: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2013.
Part of a Book (Examples of chapter or part of an edited
work where it has an individual title/ author):
Write ‘in’ before the title of the book.

Author(s) initials. Family name.

Title of chapter / section (In quotation marks).

Title of Book (in italics).

Edition.

Editor(s) initials.

Place of Publication.

Year of publication.

Page numbers.
[3] R. N. Ellson and L. A. Ray, “Imaging standards for smart cards,” in Standards for
Electronic Imaging Technologies, Devices, and Systems, M.C.Nier, Ed. Bellingham: SPIE
Optical Engineering Press, 1996, pp. 176-190.
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IEEE Referencing Guide
Journal Article:
The title of the journal must be in italics with all the first letters of significant words in
capital letters.
Either spell out the entire name of a journal you reference or use the standard
abbreviations. Please see the frequently used abbreviations on page 8. The important
thing is that you are consistent.

Author(s) initials. Family name.

Title of article (In quotation marks).

Title of Journal (In italics).

Volume.

Issue number.

Page numbers.

Month.

Year of publication.
[4] C. Lee, M. Eden and M. Unser, “High-quality image resizing using oblique
projection operators,” IEEE Trans. Image Processing, vol.7, no.5, pp. 679692, May 1998.
Conference Paper:
Don’t repeat the date if the year appears in the title.
Write ‘Presented at’ before title of conference.

Author(s) initials. Family name.

Title of paper (In quotation marks).

Title of Conference (in italics).

Date.

Page numbers.
[5] P. A. Reid, “European standardisation,” Presented at International
Broadcasting Convention, 1997, pp.180-187.
Technical Report:

Author(s) initials. Family name.

Title of report (In quotation marks).

Issuing Body.
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IEEE Referencing Guide

Place of Publication.

Report Number.

Date.
[6] A. G. Al Bakkar, S. S. Ipson, G. J. Porter, “Parallel processing and its
application to image restoration,” University of Bradford Department of
Electrical Engineering Postgraduate Division, Bradford, Report 575, May
1995.
Thesis:

Author(s) initials. Family name.

Title (In quotation marks).

Type of qualification.

Department.

University.

Place.

Year of Publication.
[7] A. J. Kennerley, “Miniature microwave filters for cellular telephone handsets,”
PhD thesis, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of
Bradford, Bradford, 2002.
Standard:
Only put the year if it is not in the title of standard.

Title of Standard (in italics).

Standard number.

Year.
[8] IEEE Standard for Information Technology, IEEE Std 802.2, 1998. Edition
(R2003).
The Reference List: Electronic References
General notes about electronic references:

[Type of Medium] means the format e.g. [ebook] or [film] or [image]. In Endnote
this is referred to as ‘Type of Medium’.

IEEE referencing refers to site/path/file. You may list the database name (if
appropriate), internet address or DOI (Digital Object Identifier) at this point.
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
Don’t include a live hyperlink for a URL.
eBook:
Always write ‘available’ before the name of the database.

Author(s) initials. Family name.

Title (in italics).

Edition (in brackets).

Year.

Type of medium (in square brackets).

DOI or Internet address.

Date accessed (in square brackets)
[9] M. E. El-Hawary, Electric Power Applications of Fuzzy Systems,1998
[eBook]. Available: http://www.knovel.com [Accessed: 4 Jun.
2010].
Electronic Journal Article:
Differences from journal articles in print:
Please note the title is not in inverted commas.
Write ‘available’ before name of database.

Author(s) initials. Family name.

Title of article.

Title of Journal (in italics).

Page numbers.

Year, Month.

DOI or internet address.

Date accessed (in square brackets).
[10] C. B. Fleddermann, Engineering ethics cases for electrical and
computer engineering students, IEEE Transactions on Education.
vol.43 (I3), pp.284-287, 2000. Available: DOI:10.1109/13.865202. [Accessed:
3 Jun. 2010].
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IEEE Referencing Guide
Conference Papers Online:
For the electronic reference do not put the title of the paper or the conference title in
italics, use inverted commas. It also has a full stop at the end.
Put the first letter of each significant word of the conference in capital letters. Only
capitalize the first letter of the first word of the title of the paper.
Write ‘available’ before name of database.

Author(s) initials. Family name.

Title.

Presented at Conference Title.

Name of database.

DOI or internet address.

Date accessed (in square brackets).
[11] L. B. Gordon and L. Cortelli, “A complete electrical hazard classification
system and its application.” Presented at Electrical Safety Workshop, 2009.
IEEEIAS. Available: IEEEXplore, DOI:10.1109/ESW.2009.4813972.
[Accessed: 17 Jun. 2010].
Webpages:
Many web pages don’t give an author. If you can’t identify an author, use the
organisation/corporate author instead. Include the month if available, if not leave out.

Author(s) initials. Family name.

(Year, Month).

Title (in italics).

Available: Internet address.

Date accessed (in square brackets).
[12] University of Bradford, (2010, Apr). School of Engineering, Design and
Technology. Available: http://www.eng.brad.ac.uk
[Accessed: 25 May 2010.]
General notes about Reference lists:

References for the sources should be listed in corresponding numerical order at the
end of the text.

The order of the list should be the same order as references appear in the text.

This is not a “chapter” of your work.
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IEEE Referencing Guide

This is not included in your word count.

Nothing should appear in your reference list unless it has been cited specifically in
the body of your work.

Your number should appear on the left in square brackets as a hanging indent. The
reference itself should be indented. Please see the following examples.
Sample Reference List
[1] R. L. Boylestad and L. Nashelsky, Introduction to Electricity, Electronics, and
Electromagnetics, 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002, p. 1.
[2] D. Torrieri, Principles of Secure Communication Systems, 2nd ed. Dedham, MA:
Artech House, 1992.
[3] R. N. Ellson and L. A. Ray, “Imaging standards for smart cards,” in Standards for
Electronic Imaging Technologies, Devices, and Systems, M.C. Nier, Ed. Bellingham:
SPIE Optical Engineering Press, 1996, pp.176-190.
Frequently used abbreviations:
Months e.g. January
Jan.
Transactions
Trans.
Proceedings
Proc.
Issue number
No.
Volume
Vol.
Digital Object Identifier
DOI
Uniform Resource Locator
URL
Editor
Ed.
Edition
ed.
Managing your references
EndNote and EndNote® Web are referencing software which works with your word
processing software to provide references in text and a formatted bibliography. We have
created an IEEE (EI) style which conforms to IEEE referencing for use with EndNote.
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IEEE Referencing Guide
IET
IET (The Institution of Engineering and Technology) have their own system of referencing
which should be used to submit articles to IET, but not for coursework. Information on
IET referencing is available from the inside back page of any copy of any IET proceedings.
Printed guides
Further help with EndNote can be found on the Library’s EndNote webpages at
http://www.bradford.ac.uk/library/library-resources/endnote/.
For further examples please consult:
IEEE (2006, Jan.). IEEE Transactions, Journals, and Letters Information for Authors,
[Online]. Available: http://www.ieee.org/documents/info_authors_kit.pdf [Accessed: 10
Sept 2012].
Subject Librarian: Kirsty Carver, Engineering, Design and Technology,
(k.carver@bradford.ac.uk), J.B. Priestley Building, Room 1.5.
Academic Skills Advice Training is delivered during Semester one and two to enable
students to drop in and get further help on referencing and plagiarism. A timetable is
available via the Library webpages at http://www.bradford.ac.uk/library.php
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