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Style Guide / Reference Formats

General Guidelines for Reference Formats 

Citing References – Each reference number cited in the text should be enclosed in square brackets, and inclusive lists should use an n-dash (double hyphen) to indicate a range, even for two consecutive numbers. (EXAMPLE: [1], [3]--[4], [7]--[9] NOT [1], [3], [4], [7], [8], [9] OR [1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9]) There is no need to use the term "reference" when citing a reference in text. EXAMPLE: In [23]

The reference list should appear at the end of the paper. The heading of the section should not be numbered. The list entries should be numbered with Arabic numerals in square brackets and should be ordered according to the order of citation in the text of the paper. The reference list should contain only entries that are cited in the paper.   Top

Listing Authors – Authors' names should be listed in natural order (first name or initials followed by last name).

When a work has four or more authors, the reference may list either all authors, or only the first author followed by "et al."

If no author is given for a work, the reference may begin with the name of the editor or sponsoring body. (EXAMPLE: John Wilson and L. Balanis, eds., Two Approaches to ...) The sponsoring body may be listed as the author even if it is listed again as the publisher. If these names are also unknown, the reference should begin with the title of the work.

If two or more consecutive references have the same author, a three-em dash (typed as nine hyphens) should replace the author's name in the second and following references.   Top

Listing Editors and Translators – If both an author and an editor or translator are listed, the editor's or translator's name, preceded by "ed." (edited by) or "trans." (translated by), should follow the title of the work, separated by a comma. EXAMPLE: F.R. Amdur, Simulated Biological Materials, ed. Jim Lauber and J.L. Bertrand, ...   Top

Listing Publishers – Whenever a publisher is listed, the location (city and province or state) of the publisher and the date of publication should be included.   Top

Listing Issue Numbers, Dates, and Locations – Whenever possible, journal references should include both issue number (volume and number) and issue date (month and year). Conference proceedings should include conference location (city and province or state) and conference date (month and year).   Top

Abbreviations – The terms "volume," "number," and "pages" should be abbreviated as "vol.," "no.," and "pp." (all lower case).

All months except May, June, and July should be abbreviated.

Names of IEEE publications should be abbreviated as shown in the "List of IEEE Transactions, Journals, and Letters" and the "List of IEEE Magazines." (To view the lists in a PDF format, go to IEEE's Information for Authors and see Appendices III and IV.)

The following abbreviations are commonly used: Comm. (Communications); Comput. (Computer, Computing); Conf. (Conference); Elect. (Electrical); Electron. (Electronic(s)); Eng. (Engineering); Inform. (Information); Int. (International); J. (Journal); Lett. (Letters); Mag. (Magazine); Proc. (Proceedings); Rev. (Review); Symp. (Symposium); Syst. (System(s)); Trans. (Transactions).

Standard abbreviations rather than postal abbreviations should be used for states and provinces. EXAMPLE: Alta. NOT AB; Calif. NOT CA

Unless a conference is well known, its name should be written out; a commonly used acronym may be included in parentheses after the name. Minor words may be omitted from the name. EXAMPLE: Proceedings of the Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering 2002 WRITE Proc. Can. Conf. Elect. Comput. Eng. (CCECE 2002), ...   Top

Quotation Marks vs. Italics for Titles – Article titles and names of reports, chapters or unpublished papers and dissertations should be enclosed in quotation marks. Commas should go inside the final quotation mark. Titles of journals, books, conference proceedings, and published dissertations should be italicized.   Top

Capitalizing Titles – Titles in quotation marks use a "down" style: All words should be lower case except the first word and commonly capitalized terms (e.g., proper nouns). Italicized titles use an "up" style: Most words (except conjunctions, etc.), are capitalized.   Top

Indicating Range – An n-dash (typed as two hyphens) should be used to indicate range for page numbers, dates, and so on.   Top

Non-English Articles – If the translation of a non-English article title is given along with the original title, the translation should be set in regular type within parentheses, following the article title with no intervening punctuation. EXAMPLE: "Un masque de surface multi-fentes micro-machiné reconfigurable" (Surface-micromachined reconfigurable multi-slit mask), ...

If the title of a non-English article is given in translation only, the language of publication should be indicated in parentheses following the title. EXAMPLE: "Surface-micromachined reconfigurable multi-slit mask" (in French), ...   Top

Online and Electronic Sources – Conventions for citing online and electronic information are evolving. The current CJECE style is based in part on International Standard ISO 690-2, developed by the International Organization for Standardization, and is subject to modification. In general, references to online and electronic information should identify (1) the document or item accessed, (2) the format in which it was accessed (online, CD-ROM, etc.), (3) the date on which it was accessed (citation date), and (4) the location at which it may be found.   Top

Sample References

Article in a Journal

[1] W.E. Stephens, H. Samueli, and G. Cherubini, "Copper wire access technologies for high performance networks," IEEE. J. Select. Areas Commun., vol. 13, no. 9, Dec. 1995, pp. 1537–1539.   Top

Article in Published Conference Proceedings

[2] M.R. Gibbard, A.B. Sesay, and L. Strawczynski, "Asymmetric equalization structure for broadband indoor wireless data communications," in Proc. 6th Int. Conf. Wireless Communications, vol. 2, Calgary, Alta., July 11–13, 1994, pp. 521–535.   Top

Paper Presented at a Conference (Unpublished)

[3] K. Iba, H. Suzuli, M. Egawa, and T. Watanabe, "Calculation of the critical loading condition with nose curve using homotopy continuation method," presented at IEEE/PES 1990 Summer Meeting, Minneapolis, Minn., July 15–19, 1990.   Top

Technical Report

[4] J.E. Roy, W.R. Lauber, and J.M. Bertrand, "Measurements of the electromagnetic far-fields produced by a portable transmitter (principal planes)," Electromagnetics and Compatibility Group, Communications Research Centre, Ottawa, Ont., Report No. CRC-RP-98-002, Feb. 1998.   Top

Published Report by a Committee or Body

[5] ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG1, JPEG Part I Final Committee Draft, version 1, Document N1646R, Mar. 16, 2000.   Top

Unpublished Dissertation or Thesis

[6] R.F. Gauthier, "Multiple-antenna data transmission over fading channels," M.Eng. thesis, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ont., 1998.   Top

Published Dissertation or Thesis

[7] L. Tan, Theory and Techniques for Lossless Waveform Data Compression, Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N.M., May 1992.   Top

Chapter or Section of a Book

[8] Fred Garner, "Beginning at the beginning," chap. 1 in Digital Computer Arithmetic, 2nd ed., Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1993.   Top

Book

[9] Fred Garner, Digital Computer Arithmetic, 2nd ed., Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1993, pp. 79–82.   Top

Multivolume Work or Part of Multivolume Work

[10] R.V. Pao and Kenneth Christy, eds., Synthesis of Passive Networks, 2 vols., Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1968.

[11] John Venekov, Passive Networks, vol. 1 of Synthesis of Passive Networks, ed. R.V. Pao and Kenneth Christy, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1968.

[12] John Venekov, "Some introductory comments," chap. 1 in Passive Networks, vol. 1 of Synthesis of Passive Networks, ed. R.V. Pao and Kenneth Christy, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1968, pp. 213–223.   Top

Standard

[13] ANSI/IEEE Std 944-1986, IEEE Recommended Practice for the Application and Testing of Uninterruptible Power Supplies for Power Generating Stations.   Top

Patent

[14] L.J. Karr, "Polled data network auto-equalizer system and method," U.S. Patent No. 4969162, Nov. 6, 1990.   Top

Document from a Website

[15] Robert Miner and Jeff Schaefer, "Tutorial: A gentle introduction to MathML" [online], Long Beach, Calif.: Design Science, Inc., Oct. 2001 [cited Jan. 16, 2002], available from World Wide Web: <https://www.mathtype.com/support/tutorials/mathml/default.stm>.

Note: The posting date or revision date for many online documents can be found at the bottom of the screen at the end of the document. Where no author is listed for a document, the organization sponsoring the website may be listed as the author.   Top

Article from an Online Journal or Serial Publication

[16] Erica Vonderheid, "Artists create masterpieces with new technology," The Institute [online], vol. 26, no. 1, Jan. 2002 [cited Jan. 16, 2002], available from World Wide Web: <https://www.spectrum.ieee.org/INST/jan02/fmaster.html>.   Top

Computer Program or Software

[17] Adobe Illustrator, ver. 9.0, Adobe Systems Incorporated, San Jose, Calif.

Note: If known, the author's or creator's name, followed by a comma, may precede the product name. Additional identifying information such as release date may be included after the product name. A commonly used short version or acronym of the name may be included in parentheses immediately after the product name.   Top

Updated January 2012