IEEE Citation Style: In-Text Numbers and Reference Examples

IEEE citation style numbers your sources in square brackets, such as [1], in the order you first cite them, and lists them in that order at the end. It is the standard style in electrical engineering, computer science and much of IT.

IEEE belongs to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. This page covers in-text citations, the reference list, author and title formatting, examples by source type and common mistakes.

In-Text Citations

Place the bracketed number where you use the source, inside the sentence punctuation. The number can also act as a noun in the sentence.

Do not write "Reference [5]" or "in reference [5]"; "in [5]" is enough. You can name authors in the sentence if you wish: "Mwangi et al. [1] showed..."

To point to a specific part of a source, add it inside the brackets: [5, p. 7], [5, Fig. 2] or [5, Sec. III].

Citing Several or Repeated Sources

Never give a source a new number when you return to it. That creates duplicate entries and breaks the link between text and list.

The Reference List

Under the heading References, list every source in citation order, each starting with its number in square brackets. There is no alphabetizing.

• Authors: initials before the surname, such as "J. K. Mwangi".
• Up to six authors: list them all, with "and" before the last.
• More than six: give the first author followed by "et al."
• Titles: article and chapter titles in quotation marks, sentence case; journal, book and proceedings titles in italics.
• Journal and conference names: abbreviated in the standard IEEE way, such as IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng.

Reference Examples by Source Type

The journal, chapter and software examples use illustrative details; the conference paper and book are real works.

Journal Article

[1] J. K. Mwangi, L. Chen, and P. Okafor, "Low-power edge
    inference for wearable sensors," IEEE Trans. Biomed.
    Eng., vol. 70, no. 4, pp. 1123–1134, Apr. 2023,
    doi: 10.1109/xxxxx.

Conference Paper

[2] K. He, X. Zhang, S. Ren, and J. Sun, "Deep residual
    learning for image recognition," in Proc. IEEE Conf.
    Comput. Vis. Pattern Recognit. (CVPR), Las Vegas, NV,
    USA, 2016, pp. 770–778.

Book

[3] S. Haykin, Neural Networks and Learning Machines,
    3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA: Pearson, 2009.

Chapter in an Edited Book

[4] R. Patel, "Edge inference," in Handbook of Embedded
    AI, T. Adeyemi, Ed. Cham, Switzerland: Springer,
    2021, pp. 142–158.

Standard

[5] IEEE Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic, IEEE
    Std 754-2019, 2019.

Website

[6] "PyTorch documentation," PyTorch. Accessed: May 4, 2026.
    [Online]. Available: https://pytorch.org/docs

Thesis

[7] N. Okafor, "Motivation in part-time adult learners,"
    Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of Manchester, Manchester,
    U.K., 2020.

Online sources need "Accessed:" with the date and "[Online]. Available:" before the URL. Conference papers include the abbreviated proceedings title and the location.

IEEE, Vancouver and APA Compared

Using a Reference Manager

Because numbers depend on order, adding a source mid-document shifts every later number. For anything longer than a short report, a reference manager saves hours.

Zotero, Mendeley and EndNote include an IEEE style. Insert citations as you write and let the software number and build the list. Digital libraries such as IEEE Xplore also export references in IEEE format; check the output before you rely on it.

Figures, Tables and Equations

IEEE documents number everything. Refer to figures and tables by number: "as shown in Fig. 3" or "Table II summarizes...", never "the figure below".

Equations are numbered in round brackets, such as (1), and referred to that way. Keep them distinct from citations, which use square brackets.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

IEEE Checklist

• Sources are numbered in order of first citation.
• Repeated sources keep their original number.
• The reference list follows numerical order.
• Authors use initials before surnames; more than six authors uses "et al."
• Article titles are in quotation marks; venues are italicized and abbreviated.
• Online sources include the access date and "[Online]. Available:".

How EssayDonkey Helps with IEEE Citations

Send your paper, your sources and any department or conference template. Mention whether your tutor follows the full IEEE reference guide or a local version.

A writer formats every in-text number and reference entry to IEEE, checks the numbering order and fixes missing details where the source allows. Free revisions within the scope of your original request are included.