Free IEEE Citation Generator

What Is an IEEE Citation Generator?

An IEEE citation generator is a free online citation tool that turns the details of a source into a numbered IEEE reference and its bracketed in-text citation. The tool writes author initials before surnames, abbreviates months, sets italics and quotation marks, and adds the [Online]. Available: line for web sources.

Engineering students and computer science students use it for lab reports, capstone projects, and theses. Researchers in electrical engineering, electronics, telecommunications, and information technology use it for conference papers and journal manuscripts that follow IEEE style.

What Is IEEE Citation Style?

IEEE citation style is the numbered referencing system of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), set out in the IEEE Reference Guide and the IEEE Editorial Style Manual for Authors. A number in square brackets marks each source in the text, and the reference list gives every source in full under the same number.

IEEE style is a numbered citation system with 2 working parts:

Parts of an IEEE Reference

A journal reference in IEEE citation format has 5 core parts: the authors, the article title, the publication (the abbreviated journal name), the date, and the locators, which are the volume, issue, pages, and Digital Object Identifier (DOI). The color-coded reference below is an example from the IEEE Reference Guide itself.

Commas separate the parts, and one period closes the reference. Each author’s first initial and any middle initial come before the last name. The article title takes sentence case inside quotation marks, and the journal name takes italics and title case.

IEEE vs. APA, MLA, and Vancouver

IEEE differs from APA and MLA in 2 ways: it cites sources by number instead of by author name, and it orders the reference list by first citation instead of by alphabet. Vancouver, the medical style, numbers sources the same way but writes names and punctuation differently. The table compares how each style cites page 51 of a source by Maria Lopez from 2018.

How to Use Our IEEE Citation Generator

To use the IEEE citation generator, follow these 6 steps at the top of the page:

1. 1
   Pick the source type

   Website, Book, Journal, and Video have their own tabs. Open More for the other 40 source types, including Conference Paper, Standard, Patent, and Dataset.

2. 2
   Search for the source

   Paste an identifier, a video link, or a web address and press Cite, or type a book or article title and pick a result. The form fills with the details the search returns.

3. 3
   Check the details IEEE needs

   Type the abbreviated journal name, such as IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., and add the issue month to the year, as in Oct. 2011. Notes under the result name the details IEEE expects, such as the issue month or the report number.

4. 4
   Keep or switch off IEEE capitalization

   Apply IEEE title capitalization puts quoted titles in sentence case and italic titles in title case. Recapitalize names and places in quoted titles, or switch the option off to keep titles as typed.

5. 5
   Add the source to your References

   Press Add to references. The list numbers each source in the order you add it, starting at [1], and the result shows the matching in-text number.

6. 6
   Copy the list into your paper

   Press Copy all and paste the numbered list into your paper with its italics and quotation marks intact.

The search box takes 7 kinds of input: a DOI, an International Standard Book Number (ISBN), an arXiv ID, a PubMed ID (PMID), a YouTube or Vimeo link, any other web address, and a book or article title. The DOI registries Crossref and DataCite fill the form for a DOI or an arXiv ID, Crossref for an article title, Open Library for an ISBN or a book title, and PubMed for a PMID. An IEEE Xplore citation starts from the DOI printed on the article’s IEEE Xplore page. For a web address, the tool reads the title, author, site name, and date that the page states; a few sites block this, and then only the link is added.

Source Types the Generator Covers

The generator covers 44 source types in 8 groups:

The tool formats the references for one paper at a time, copies them to Microsoft Word or Google Docs, and does not export BibTeX. LaTeX users who write with the IEEEtran template keep their sources in a reference manager such as Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote and export BibTeX from there.

How to Cite Sources in IEEE Format

To cite a source in IEEE format, put the source’s number in square brackets where you use it, then give the full reference under that number in the reference list. The bracket sits on the line, before the comma or period: “as shown in [2].” IEEE uses square brackets, not round brackets, for reference numbers; round brackets appear only inside a bracket for an equation number, as in [3, eq. (2)].

IEEE In-Text Citations

An IEEE in-text citation follows 5 rules:

1. Treat the number as a noun or a footnote: “according to [1]” and “as demonstrated in [2]” are both correct.
2. Write out every number when you cite multiple references in one place: [2], [4], [5], [6], [7], never a range joined by an en dash.
3. Add a part of the source after a comma inside the bracket: [4, p. 2790] for a page, or [4, Fig. 3] for a figure.
4. Name the authors only when the sentence needs them: “Smith [4] and Brown and Jones [5]”, with et al. for 3 or more names, as in “Wood et al. [7]”.
5. Skip the word reference: write “in [1]”, not “in reference [1]”.

IEEE Reference Templates by Source Type

The IEEE reference format for the 10 most cited engineering sources follows these templates.

Write the place of publication for a book as city, state, and country for US publishers (Cambridge, MA, USA) and as city and country elsewhere (Oxford, U.K.). The generator adds a Place of publication field to IEEE book forms for this.

Online Sources: DOI, URL, and Access Date

IEEE ends an online reference in 1 of 2 ways, depending on whether the source has a DOI or only a web address.

• A DOI follows the last element after a comma, and a period closes the reference: …, Mar. 2024, doi: 10.1109/xxxx.
• A web address goes after the access date and the words [Online]. Available:, with no period after the URL: … Accessed: Jan. 12, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://example.org/page

An early access article, published online before its issue, takes the words early access, its online date, and its DOI after the journal name: …, Abbrev. Title of Journal, early access, Abbrev. Month day, year, doi: xxx. Cite the early access version instead of an arXiv copy of the same paper, since IEEE treats it as the version of record.

Type the accessed date, the day you viewed a page, in the Date accessed field. The generator drops the access date for a source cited by DOI, since a DOI does not change, and drops a database name such as JSTOR typed in place of a link.

Sources With No Author or No Date

Start the reference with the title, when a source names no author. For a web page, the site’s owner or publisher can stand as the author, and the generator moves the Owner or publisher field into that position. Write (n.d.) between periods in the date position, when a source gives no date and you have no access date: “Page title.” Site name. (n.d.). [Online]. Available: URL

ChatGPT and Other AI Tools

To cite ChatGPT or another AI tool in IEEE, disclose it in the acknowledgments section of the paper, since the IEEE Reference Guide gives no reference format for AI-generated content. IEEE’s submission policy asks authors to name the AI system and the sections that use its text, figures, images, or code; AI used only for editing and grammar falls outside that rule. The generator’s AI-generated content type follows the guide’s software pattern, for an instructor who asks for a reference as well, and a note under the result repeats the disclosure rule.

IEEE Citation Examples

Each IEEE citation example below shows the reference list entry and the in-text citation for 1 of 12 source types, each as source number 1. Ten come from the IEEE Reference Guide V 3.28.2025, and the website and technical report use example.org and example.edu sources. Each one is the generator’s own output.

The IEEE Reference List and Citation Order

The IEEE reference list is a numbered reference list titled References that orders sources by first citation, not by author. Each bracketed number in the text points to exactly one reference entry, and each entry carries exactly one source.

How IEEE Numbering Works

IEEE numbering is sequential numbering in the order of first citation. The first source you cite becomes [1], the next new source becomes [2], and a later source keeps counting up, even when its author’s surname starts with A. The generator builds its numbered list the same way: the first source you add is [1], so add sources in the order your paper cites them.

Citing the Same Source More Than Once

Cite the same source twice, or more often, with its first number. A third mention of the source numbered [3] is still [3], with the page or figure inside the bracket, such as [3, p. 12]. IEEE removes “ibid.” and “op. cit.” from reference lists and never gives a second number to a source already listed.

How to Format an IEEE Reference List

To format an IEEE reference list, follow these 5 rules:

1. Title the list References and place it at the end of the paper, after any acknowledgments.
2. Set each reference number flush left in square brackets, in a column of its own, with the reference text indented beside it.
3. List each source once, under the number it received at its first citation.
4. Name every author up to six, and use the first author followed by et al. for seven or more authors.
5. Keep one source per number: never group 2 sources under [5].

IEEE Abbreviations for Journals, Conferences, and Months

IEEE citation style abbreviates 3 kinds of names in references: journal titles, conference names, and months. Book titles and article titles stay in full.

Journal Title Abbreviations

IEEE prints periodical names, its term for journals and magazines, in their official abbreviated form, such as IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. for IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering and J. Appl. Phys. for Journal of Applied Physics. Proceedings of the IEEE becomes Proc. IEEE, which differs from Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng., a U.K. journal some authors shorten to Proc. IEE. A one-word title such as Science or Nature stays in full, and a short title such as IEEE Access keeps its full form. The IEEE journal/magazine titles and abbreviations list, linked from the IEEE Author Center, gives the abbreviated form of each IEEE title, and the Reference Guide ends with a list of common abbreviated words, such as Eng. for Engineering and Trans. for Transactions.

The generator prints the journal name exactly as you type it and never invents a journal abbreviation. Type the abbreviated journal title into the Journal field; a note under the result asks for it, when the name looks unabbreviated.

Conference Name Abbreviations

Conference names use 7 standard abbreviations:

IEEE drops most articles and prepositions from the name, so Proceedings of the 1996 Robotics and Automation Conference becomes Proc. 1996 Robot. Automat. Conf. A paper in conference proceedings puts the word in before that name: in Proc. 1996 Robot. Automat. Conf.

Month Abbreviations

IEEE abbreviates 11 months and writes May in full, and every month abbreviation ends with a period:

A double issue joins 2 months with a slash, as in Jul./Aug. 2020. The generator converts a typed date such as September 23, 2024 to Sep. 23, 2024.

IEEE Reference Guide Edition Guidelines

IEEE has no numbered editions: the IEEE Reference Guide carries a version date, and the current one is V 3.28.2025. University guides written for the 2018 version (V 11.12.2018) and the 2023 version (V 11.29.2023) still circulate, so check the version a guide follows before you copy its examples.

What Changed in the 2025 IEEE Reference Guide

The 2025 guide differs from the 2018 guide in 5 rules that change how a citation looks:

Which IEEE Guide Should You Follow?

Follow the 2025 IEEE Reference Guide (V 3.28.2025), unless your instructor, conference, or journal names another version. The Reference Guide link on the IEEE Author Center opens the 2025 version, and the generator on this page applies its rules. Authors submitting to an IEEE journal can run the finished list through the IEEE Reference Preparation Assistant on the IEEE Author Center, which formats references in IEEE style and checks them against IEEE Xplore and Crossref.

Common IEEE Citation Mistakes to Avoid

There are 6 common IEEE citation mistakes, from ordering the reference list alphabetically to writing reference ranges. Each mistake below shows a wrong version and the corrected version.

1. 1Sorting the reference list alphabetically

   WrongReferences sorted A to Z by the first author's surname

   RightReferences numbered in the order each source is first cited in the text

2. 2Writing a range of reference numbers

   Wrongas reported in [2]–[5]

   Rightas reported in [2], [3], [4], [5]

3. 3Spelling out the authors' given names

   Wrong[1] William P. Risk, Gordon S. Kino, and Herbert J. Shaw, “Fiber-optic frequency shifter using a surface acoustic wave incident at an oblique angle,” Opt. Lett., vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 115–117, Feb. 1986. [Online]. Available: http://ol.osa.org/abstract.cfm?URI=ol-11-2-115

   Right[1] W. P. Risk, G. S. Kino, and H. J. Shaw, “Fiber-optic frequency shifter using a surface acoustic wave incident at an oblique angle,” Opt. Lett., vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 115–117, Feb. 1986. [Online]. Available: http://ol.osa.org/abstract.cfm?URI=ol-11-2-115

4. 4Writing the full month or Sept.

   WrongOpt. Lett., vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 115–117, February 1986

   RightOpt. Lett., vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 115–117, Feb. 1986

5. 5Cutting the author list too early

   WrongR. Fardel et al. for an article with 5 authors

   RightR. Fardel, M. Nagel, F. Nuesch, T. Lippert, and A. Wokaun (all 5 named; et al. starts at 7 authors)

6. 6Putting the access date after the URL

   WrongCNN.com. http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/01/21/obama_inaugurated/index.html (accessed Feb. 1, 2009).

   RightCNN.com. Accessed: Feb. 1, 2009. [Online]. Available: http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/01/21/obama_inaugurated/index.html

Why Use Our IEEE Citation Generator?

Use our IEEE citation generator for 3 reasons: its output matches IEEE’s own examples, it leaves missing details empty instead of guessing, and it is a free citation generator with no sign-up.

Automatic citation saves time on every lab report, thesis, and conference paper, and our IEEE citation generator returns numbered IEEE style references with matching bracketed citations. Compare each reference with the source before you submit, since a database record can carry a wrong page range or a missing issue number.