LibGuides: Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism: IEEE

The IEEE referencing style is based on the Chicago referencing style; it is widely used in the areas of computer science, software development and information technology. It is the style that the Institute of Electrical and Electronics (IEEE) specify for authors writing for their publications.

The IEEE style acknowledges a source at the exact point where it is used within the text of your written work and then provides a detailed reference of the source at the end of the written work in a list, which is titled References.

NB: Other referencing styles such as Harvard or APA may be used by your course – please consult with your lecturer to confirm which style you are required to use.

Getting Started

IEEE style is a numerical system rather than an author-date system like Harvard and APA. In IEEE style, in-text citations are numbered in square brackets in the order in which they appear in the text. The first source referred to is numbered [1], the second [2] and so on.

Each reference number should be enclosed in square brackets on the same line as the text, before any punctuation, with a space before the bracket. Once a source has been given a number, the same number is used if the same source is mentioned again in your written work.

The reference list at the end of your written work follows this numerical order and provides full details of all sources cited in the text.

For further information on the IEEE referencing style, see the official IEEE Reference Guide

When using the IEEE referencing style, a reference needs to be made at the exact point in your writing where you use or refer to information from another source. This consists of a short, basic numerical citation in square brackets (e.g. [1]).

It is not necessary to mention the title of the source, the author's name or the publication date in the in-text citation.

Examples:

Paraphrase

The physical systems which are used during processing of applications can be termed as computing substrate [1].

Direct Quote

“In recent years, there have been significant advances in the development of high-performance personal computers and networks” [2, p.107].

N.B. When a direct quote is used, include the page number(s) the quote was taken from and add it to the in-text citation as shown above. If you are paraphrasing, you do not need to include the page number(s) in your in-text citation.

Multiple in-text citations

When citing multiple sources in text, list each citation number separately with a comma between each citation e.g. [1], [2], [3].

When using the IEEE referencing style, a reference also needs to be included in a list of references at the end of your work. A reference list provides comprehensive details of all the sources cited in the text of your written work. If a reader wants to know the full details of or access a source you have used, they can check your reference list.

As IEEE is a two-part referencing system, it is important that your in-text citations and reference list entries correspond - every source cited in the text of your work must have a corresponding entry in the reference list. It is also important to ensure that every source included in the reference list is directly cited in the text - do not include a reference for a source that you have not cited in text.

In IEEE style, the reference list is ordered numerically (not alphabetically) based the order the sources are cited within the text. The reference numbers are aligned along the left margin, forming their own column, with a space before the author's first name initials.

Example:

References

[1] D. C. Marinescu, Cloud Computing: Theory and Practice, 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Elsevier, 2018.

[2] T. Connolly and C. Begg, Database Systems: A Practical Approach to Design, Implementation and Management, 6th ed. London: Pearson, 2015.

IEEE - Core Sources

Components of a Book Reference

Examples

Book - One author
[1] J. Zobel, Writing for Computer Science, 3rd ed. London: Springer, 2014.

Book - Two authors
[2] J. G. Brookshear and D. Brylow, Computer Science: An Overview, 13th ed. Harlow: Pearson, 2020.

Book - Three or more authors
[3] A. Silberschatz, S. Sudarshan and H. F. Korth, Database System Concepts, 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2020.

Book - Corporate author
[4] DAMA International, DAMA-DMBOK: Data Management Body of Knowledge, 2nd ed. Basking Ridge, NJ: Technics Publications, 2017.

Components of an Edited Book Reference

Examples

Chapter of an edited book - One author
[5] D. Paul, "What is business analysis?," in Business Analysis, 3rd ed., D. Paul, J. Cadle, and D. Yeates, Eds., Swindon: BCS, 2014, pp. 1-18.

Chapter of an edited book - Two authors
[6] G. Lin and M. Devine, “The role of networks in cloud computing,” in Handbook of Cloud Computing, B. Furht and A. Escalante, Eds., New York: Springer, 2010, pp. 65-82.

Components of an eBook Reference

Examples

eBook - One author
[7] D.C. Marinescu, Cloud Computing: Theory and Practice, 3rd ed. Amsterdam: Morgan Kaufmann, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780323852777/cloud-computing

eBook - Two authors
[8] S. J. Russell and P. Norvig, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, London: Pearson, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ncirlie/detail.action?docID=6563568

eBook - Three or more authors
[9] I. H. Witten, E. Frank, M. A. Hall and C. J. Pal, Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques, 4th ed. Amsterdam: Morgan Kaufmann, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://go.oreilly.com/NCIRL/library/view/-/9780128043578/?ar

Components of a Chapter of an Edited eBook Reference

Examples

Chapter of an edited eBook - One author
[10] H. Territt, "Governing the blockchain: What is the applicable law?," in FinTech: Law and Regulation, J. Madir, Ed., Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021, pp. 199-218. [Online]. Available: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ncirlie/detail.action?docID=6827820

Components of a Journal Article Reference

Examples

Journal article - One author
[14] S. J. Andriole, “Blockchain, cryptocurrency, and cybersecurity,” IT Prof., vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 13-16, Jan./Feb. 2020, doi: 10.1109/MITP.2019.2949165.

Journal article - Two authors
[15] S. E. Chang and M. H. Wang, "Blockchain-enabled fintech innovation: A case of reengineering stock trading services," IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 137125-137137, Dec. 2023, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3339570.

Journal article - Three or more authors
[16] P. Castro, V. Ishakian, V. Muthusamy and A. Slominski, "The rise of serverless computing," Commun. ACM, vol. 62, no. 12, pp. 44-54, Nov. 2019, doi: 10.1145/3368454.

N.B. Journal article titles and months in publication dates are abbreviated in IEEE style. See Common Abbreviations of Words in References for non-IEEE publication titles on pp. 23-27 of the IEEE Reference Guide - for IEEE Journal/Magazine titles, use their own Reference Abbreviation list.

Use the following month abbreviations: Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., May, June, July, Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec.

Components of Conference Paper Reference

Example

Conference paper - Four authors
[17] S. Zhu, H. Hu, Y. Li and W. Li, "Hybrid blockchain design for privacy preserving crowdsourcing platform," in 2019 IEEE Int. Conf. Blockchain, July 14-17, pp. 26-33, doi: 10.1109/Blockchain.2019.00013.

*If the year is given in the conference title, it can be omitted from the reference as shown above.

N.B. See Common Abbreviations of Words in References for conference titles on pp. 23-27 of the IEEE Reference Guide.

Components of a Webpage Reference

Examples

Webpage
[18] J. Holdsworth and M. Scapicchio. "What is deep learning?" IBM.com. Accessed: June 19, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://www.ibm.com/topics/deep-learning

Document from a webpage (PDF etc.)
[19] H. Dixon, “Annual report of the data protection commissioner of Ireland,” 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.dataprotection.ie/sites/default/files/uploads/2023-03/DPC%20AR%20English_web.pdf

Components of an Online News Article/Blog Reference

Examples

Online News Article
[20] C. O'Brien, "Irish AI start-ups receive €100,000 each in pre-seed investment," The Irish Times, July 11, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2024/07/11/irish-ai-start-ups-receive-100000-each-in-pre-seed-investment/

Blog
[21] A. Weissberger, “Are cloud AI startups a serious threat to hyperscalers?,” IEEE ComSoc Technol. Blog, Dec. 22, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://techblog.comsoc.org/2024/12/22/are-cloud-ai-startups-a-serious-threat-to-hyperscalers/

IEEE - Additional Sources

Facebook/X/Instagram

Components	[Reference number] Author Initial(s). Surname, “Text of post,” (in double quotation marks) Name of Platform. Accessed: Month (abbrev. except May/June/July) Day, Year of post. [Online]. Available: url
Example	[22] Stanford HAI, “As more nations consider integrating autonomous AI agents in high-stakes military and diplomatic decision-making, a new @StanfordHAI policy brief explores the risks,” X. Accessed: Apr. 19, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://x.com/StanfordHAI/status/1793266523273904429

Online Video - Youtube

Components	[Reference number] Video Owner/Creator, Location (if available). Title of Video (in italics). (Release date). Accessed: Month Day, Year. [Online Video]. Available: url
Example	[23] Amazon Web Services. What is Cloud Computing?. (July 15, 2021). Accessed: June 30, 2024. [Online Video]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxT233EdY5c

Podcast

Components	[Reference number] Artist/Creator Initial(s). Surname, Responsibility (i.e. Speaker, Presenter, Producer etc.), “Title of episode,” (in double quotation marks) Title of Podcast Series (in italics), Month (abbrev. except May/June/July) Day, Year of recording. Place of Recording: Production Company. [Podcast]. Available: url [Accessed: Month (abbrev. except May/June/July) Day, Year].
Example	[24] L. Laporte, Presenter, "This Week in Tech 987: Often Plagiarized, Never Equalled," This Week in Tech, July 7, 2024. Petaluma, CA: TWiT. [Podcast]. Available: https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech/episodes/987. [Accessed July 9, 2024].

Computer Software/Programme

Components	[Reference number] Author Initial(s). Surname, Title (in italics), version. Year of publication (in brackets). Publisher. Accessed: Month (abbrev. except May/June/July) Day, Year. [Software]. Available: url
Example	[25] R Core Team, R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. (2014). R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Accessed: Nov. 14, 2024. [Software]. Available: https://www.r-project.org/

Legislation - Act

Components	[Reference number] Legislative body/Country, Title of Legislation (in italics). [Online]. Available: url [Accessed: Month (abbrev. except May/June/July) Day, Year].
Example	[26] Ireland, Digital Services Act 2024. [Online]. Available: https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2024/act/2/enacted/en/html [Accessed: July 10, 2024].

Legislation - EU Directive

Components	Title of Directive. [Online]. Available: url [Accessed: Month (abbrev. except May/June/July) Day, Year].
Example	[27] Directive 2014/95/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2014 amending Directive 2013/34/EU as regards disclosure of non-financial and diversity information by certain large undertakings and groups. [Online]. Available: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32014L0095 [Accessed: June 18, 2015].

Thesis/Dissertation - Online

Components	[Reference number] Author Initial(s). Surname, “Title of thesis/dissertation,” (in double quotation marks) Thesis/Dissertation type (i.e. Masters or Ph.D. Thesis/Dissertation etc.), Academic Dept (if known, abbrev.)., Name of University/College (abbrev.)., Location of University, Year of submission. [Online]. Available: url [Accessed: Month (abbrev. except May/June/July) Day, Year].
Example	[28] J. R. Elder, “Interactive visualisation for the discovery of cyber security threats,” Ph.D. Thesis, Faculty of Eng. and Physical Sci., Univ. of Surrey, Guildford, UK, 2017. [Online]. Available: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/842460/1/thesis.pdf [Accessed: Apr. 26, 2018].

Diagram/Chart/Image/Table - Print/Online

Components

Follow the instructions for the type of source from which the diagram/chart/image/table is taken, i.e. a book, journal article, (document from a) webpage etc.

N.B. If you use the exact same diagram/chart/image/table as featured within the source, make sure to give the exact caption title and put the in-text citation just beneath the diagram/chart/image/table with a page number (if applicable).

Preprint - ArXiv

Components	[Reference number] First Name Initial(s). Surname, “Title of paper,” year, arXiv number (in italics).
Example	[29] S. Gholamian and D. Huh, “Reinforcement learning problem solving with large language models,” 2024, arXiv: 2404.18638.

Patent/Standard

Components	[Reference number] Author Initial(s). Surname, Author Initial(s). Surname, Author Initial(s). Surname, and Author Initial(s). Surname, “Title of patent/standard,” (in double quotation marks) Country in which patent/standard is published and patent/standard number, Month (abbrev. except May/June/July) Day, Year of issue.
Example	[30] M. J. McArdle, B. A. Johnston, P. D. R. Nathan, and J. Dool, “Automatically configuring a computer firewall based on network connection,” United States Patent and Trademark Office US 7,284,267 B1, Mar. 8, 2001.

Dataset

Components	[Reference number] Author Initial(s). Surname and Author Initial(s), Date, “Title of Dataset,” Source. [Online]. Available: url
Example	[31] L. Bansal, Mar. 2024, “NASA: Asteroids Classification,” NASA JPL Center for NEO Studies (CNEOS). [Online]. Available: https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/lovishbansal123/nasa-asteroids-classification

Code

Components	[Reference number] Author Initial(s). Surname, Date, 'Title of Code' Source. [Source Code]. Available: url
Example	[32] M. Berkowitz, 2023, "IEEE 1.0" GitHub. [Source Code]. Available: https://github.com/citation-style-language/styles/blob/master/ieee.csl

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Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism: IEEE

Getting Started

IEEE - Core Sources

IEEE - Additional Sources

Disclaimer