IEEE citation generator
Create IEEE references free, with no sign-up. Fill in a journal article from its DOI, then check it against the IEEE rules and examples below.
- Free, no account needed
- Auto-fill from a DOI or ISBN
- Copies with italics
IEEE expects sentence case here. We never change your capitalisation on our own. The convert buttons cannot recognise names, so re-capitalise proper nouns afterwards.
The site the page belongs to, for example Mayo Clinic.
Reference list entry
Fill in the details above and your citation appears here as you type.
In-text citation
Fill in the details above and your citation appears here as you type.
IEEE uses sentence case for article titles and title case for books, and abbreviates journal names (IEEE Trans. Electron Devices). Type the abbreviated journal name. References are numbered in the order you cite them.
References (0)
Sources you add appear here in IEEE format, numbered in the order you add them. The list is kept in this browser only.
Check every citation against your source and your instructor’s guidelines before you submit.
How to cite in IEEE style
IEEE is a numbered style. Each source gets a number in square brackets, in the order you first cite it, and keeps that number throughout.
In the text
- Cite with the reference number in square brackets, inside the sentence punctuation: “… as shown in [1].”
- Number sources in the order they first appear, and reuse the same number for later citations.
- Cite several sources as [1], [3], and a range as [2]–[5].
- Add a page inside the brackets when you need one: [3, p. 12].
- Write “as shown in [2]”, not “as shown in reference [2]”.
In the reference list
- Title the list References and order it by number, not alphabetically. Each number sits in brackets, flush left.
- Write authors with initials first: J. D. Watson. List up to six; for seven or more, give the first author plus “et al.”
- Put article and paper titles in quotation marks, in sentence case. Italicize journal, conference and book titles.
- Abbreviate journal and conference names (Proc., Trans., Conf.) and use vol., no. and pp.
- End with the DOI when there is one, written as doi: 10.xxxx.
Based on the IEEE Reference Guide from the IEEE Author Center (2025 version), including its “Accessed … [Online]. Available:” form for websites. Some IEEE journals and conferences add their own rules, so check their author instructions.
IEEE citation examples
The bracketed in-text citation and the numbered reference entry for four source types engineers cite most.
Journal article
Watson and Crick, Nature, 1953
- In-text
- The double-helix model was first proposed in [1].
- Reference
- [1] J. D. Watson and F. H. C. Crick, “Molecular structure of nucleic acids: A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid,” Nature, vol. 171, no. 4356, pp. 737–738, Apr. 1953, doi: 10.1038/171737a0.
Book
Kuhn, 1962
- In-text
- Kuhn describes this as a paradigm shift [2, p. 52].
- Reference
- [2] T. S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago, IL, USA: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1962.
Conference paper
He et al., CVPR 2016
- In-text
- Residual networks were introduced in [3].
- Reference
- [3] 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, doi: 10.1109/CVPR.2016.90.
Website
Placeholder example
- In-text
- A plain-language overview is given in [4].
- Reference
- [4] J. Doe. “How lithium-ion batteries work.” Example Energy Hub. Accessed: Mar. 10, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.example.org/battery-basics
The journal article, book and conference paper are real sources; p. 52 is a sample page. The website uses a placeholder name and example URL to show the pattern.
Common IEEE citation mistakes
Mistakes to check for
- Ordering references alphabetically instead of by first citation.
- Giving a source a new number each time it is cited.
- Writing full first names: James Watson instead of J. D. Watson.
- Using title case or italics for article titles.
- Placing the bracket after the period instead of before it.
- Using round brackets or superscript numbers instead of [1].
When to use IEEE style
IEEE style comes from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and is the default for its journals and conferences. Engineering and computer science courses use it widely for reports, theses and lab write-ups.
- Electrical and electronic engineering
- Computer science and software engineering
- Telecommunications and signal processing
- IEEE journal articles and conference papers
Create IEEE citations in three steps
The generator at the top of this page is already set to IEEE. It is free and runs in your browser, with no account.
Choose the source type
Website, book, journal article or online video. The style is already set to IEEE.
Add the details
Enter a DOI to fill in a journal article, then shorten the journal name the IEEE way (IEEE Trans. Electron Devices) and add the month of the issue.
Check and copy
Check initials, dates and abbreviations, then copy the numbered reference with italics intact.
The generator formats websites, books, journal articles and online videos; write conference papers from the pattern above. Books can also be filled in from an ISBN. IEEE gives a book’s city and country (Cambridge, MA, USA), so type the place of publication that way. References are numbered in the order you add them.
IEEE citation questions
Build your IEEE reference list
Free, with no sign-up. Numbered IEEE references with bracketed citations.