Free IEEE Referencing Generator
IEEE referencing is the numbered style of engineering and computing. You cite each source in your text with a bracketed number — [1], [2], [3] — in the order you first use it, and the reference list at the end simply unpacks those numbers in the same order. It is the house style of the IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and the required style in electrical and electronic engineering, computer science and many general engineering departments at UK universities. Build each source here and the generator numbers it for you automatically: add your sources in citation order and every one comes out with its full reference-list entry and its in-text number together, formatted to the IEEE Reference Guide published by the IEEE Author Center. If your department uses a different style, we also have generators for Harvard, APA, Vancouver and MHRA.
How the IEEE referencing generator works
Three IEEE habits catch students out. First, the list is ordered by citation, not alphabet: the first source you cite is [1] wherever its author falls in the alphabet, and citing the same source again reuses its original number. That is why this generator keeps a running list and renumbers everything if you remove or edit an entry. Second, authors are initials first — Jane K. Smith becomes J. K. Smith — and the reference list names up to six authors in full; with seven or more, only the first author is printed, followed by "et al.". Third, titles split by type: article, paper and chapter titles sit in quotation marks (in sentence case — only the first word and proper nouns capitalised), while journal titles, conference proceedings and book titles are italic. IEEE also abbreviates journal titles (IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering becomes IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng.) and months (Sept., Oct., Nov.). This generator prints the journal abbreviation exactly as you type it, because the correct abbreviation depends on the journal — check yours against the IEEE's published abbreviation list or your department's guide rather than guessing. A DOI ends the entry, introduced by "doi:"; a source with no DOI but a web address ends with "[Online]. Available:" and the URL instead. In the reference list itself, entries carry a hanging indent — the number sits out on its own and the text wraps beneath it — which the list below reproduces so you can see the finished shape.
In your text, the citation is just the number in square brackets, usually placed before the punctuation: "…as shown in the thermal model [4]." If you name the authors in your sentence, three or more become "et al." — "Novak et al. [7] compared three cooling methods" — and a run of consecutive sources can be cited as a range, [2]–[5]. Page-level pointers go inside the bracket, as in [5, pp. 4–6] or [10, Fig. 1].
Your reference list (keep it in citation order — IEEE lists are never re-sorted alphabetically):
Use the generator responsibly
This generator formats what you type; it cannot check whether what you typed is correct, so always verify the details against the original source before you submit. IEEE has local variants that catch students out. Some UK departments ask for journal titles in full rather than abbreviated, some want an accessed date added to online journal articles, and many engineering departments adapt IEEE with their own rules on report writing, datasheets and standards. Where your department's handbook and this tool differ, your handbook wins — markers mark against the version they set. Check, too, the details this form cannot know: whether the journal abbreviation you typed is the official one, whether the DOI belongs to the article you actually read, and whether a conference paper's page numbers come from the published proceedings rather than a preprint. Finally, use the generator as a formatting aid for sources you have genuinely read. A perfectly numbered reference to a paper you never opened is still a problem, and markers can tell.
Frequently asked questions
Is the IEEE reference list alphabetical? No. IEEE lists are numbered in the order the sources are first cited in your text, and that order is fixed once set: if you cite your third source again in your conclusion, it stays [3]. This generator numbers entries in the order you add them, and renumbers the whole list if you edit or remove one — so build the list in the same order your report cites them.
How do in-text citations work in IEEE style? You put the source's number in square brackets inside your sentence, usually just before the punctuation: "…the converter efficiency peaks at partial load [6]." The number always points to the same entry in the reference list, however many times you cite it. A run of consecutive sources can be shortened to a range such as [2]–[5], and a specific page or figure goes inside the bracket: [5, pp. 4–6] or [10, Fig. 1].
When does IEEE use "et al."? In the reference list, up to six authors are named in full; with seven or more, the entry names only the first author followed by "et al." — this generator applies that rule automatically. In your text, if you name the authors of a source with three or more authors in the sentence itself, that also shortens to the first name plus "et al.", as in "Garcia et al. [9] showed…". The bracketed number itself never changes.
Do I have to abbreviate journal titles? Yes — abbreviated journal titles are part of IEEE style, and the IEEE Reference Guide carries the official abbreviation list. This generator prints the journal name exactly as you type it, so type the abbreviated form (for example IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron.) rather than the full title. If your department's guide shows a different abbreviation from the IEEE list, follow your department.
Where does the DOI go, and what if there isn't one? The DOI goes at the very end of the entry, after the year, introduced by "doi:" — for example "…, Oct. 2011, doi: 10.1109/TBME.2011.2158315." If the source has no DOI but you read it online, the entry ends with the year, a full stop, and then "[Online]. Available:" followed by the URL, with no full stop after the URL itself. Print sources with neither simply end after the year.
What is the difference between IEEE and Vancouver referencing? Both are numbered styles, but the numbers behave differently. Vancouver numbers are usually assigned in citation order too, yet the entry format is built for medicine: surnames first with initials after and no full stops, journal titles abbreviated to the NLM pattern, and the year placed after the journal title rather than at the end. IEEE puts initials before surnames, sets article titles in quotation marks, and ends the entry with the month and year. If your department says IEEE, a Vancouver-formatted list will lose marks even though both look "numbered".
Need more than the reference list?
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Other free tools
If your department uses a different style, try our Harvard referencing generator, our APA referencing generator, our Vancouver referencing generator or our MHRA referencing generator. Writing the report itself? Our computer science assignment help page shows the standard of project and report writing those courses expect. To plan how many sources an assignment needs, use our reference count calculator.