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IEEE citation generator

Format references in IEEE style — the numeric system used across engineering, computer science and technical conferences. Enter the details once or paste BibTeX/RIS, and copy the finished entry.

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Who uses IEEE style

IEEE style (from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is the standard for electrical engineering, computer science and most technical conference proceedings. It is a numeric style: sources are cited as bracketed numbers [1] in order of first appearance, and the reference list is ordered by those numbers rather than alphabetically.

IEEE style at a glance

Reference-list example

M. Chen and J. Okafor, “Sleep deprivation and working memory,” Cognitive Science, vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 112–139, 2023.

In-text citation

Working memory declines under sleep loss [1]; as shown in [1, p. 120]…

The rules that trip people up

  • Authors as initials + surname (M. Chen), in source order, joined with "and" before the last.
  • Article titles in quotation marks and sentence case; journal titles in italics, conventionally abbreviated (IEEE Trans. Comput.).
  • "vol.", "no." and "pp." are written out: vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 112–139, followed by the year.
  • Citations are bracketed numbers in order of first mention — [1], [2] — and the reference list keeps that order (never alphabetical).
  • Conference papers include "in Proc." before the conference name; the DOI may follow as "doi: 10.xxxx/xxxx."

Frequently asked questions

How does numbering work if I add a citation later?
Every number after the insertion point shifts — which is why IEEE documents should be written with BibTeX/biblatex or a reference manager, never with hand-typed numbers. Use this generator for one-off entries; for a full paper, keep references as data and let the tooling number them.
Should journal names be abbreviated in IEEE?
IEEE convention abbreviates journal titles (IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell.). The generator keeps the title as you enter it, so enter the abbreviated form if your venue expects it — most IEEE templates ship a bibliography style that abbreviates automatically from BibTeX.
How do I cite a website or standard in IEEE?
Websites: author, "Title," Site name. [Online]. Available: URL. Standards: the standard number and title, e.g. IEEE Std 802.11-2020. Choose the matching source type and the generator applies the base pattern; check your venue’s template for [Online] wording.

Other citation styles

APAMLAChicagoHarvardVancouverAll styles

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Inside Kahubi the AI cites papers from your own library as it drafts — in IEEE or any other style, with the bibliography always in sync.

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Citations that manage themselves

In Kahubi, your library carries the metadata: the agent cites papers as it writes in IEEE style, and the bibliography always matches the in-text citations — in LaTeX or rich text.

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