The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) was established in 1963, as a combination of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers. Their goal is to further the education and technological advancements of all engineering and engineering-adjacent fields (ieee.org/about). Students in most engineering fields will probably be required to write scientific reports in IEEE style or format.
Like most other writing formats, IEEE requires both in text citations and a works cited page at the end of the document. The in-text citations easily and directly show what information you pulled from which source, while the works cited page allows you to list off every single source you used with more specific details about where your reader can find them on their own.
IEEE citations operate differently from that of MLA or Chicago. The first time a source is cited in the text, the reference should contain the author’s name and the year the piece was published. This citation would then be marked by a number in brackets, starting with [1] and increasing sequentially with every new subsequent source. After the first instance of a source being cited, you need only refer to that source with the bracketed number. Each reference should be on the same line as the text, not appearing as superscript or subscript, and should come before any punctuation. Authors and dates need only be included the first time a source is cited, as bracketed numbers are sufficient for any future uses of said source. You do not need to differentiate between an electronic source and a print source for in-text citations.
“In 2012, Rawlins [6] argues…”
“Several studies [3, 4, 17, 25] indicate…”
“For example, see [1].”
