# University of Waterloo citation style: IEEE, APA and more

**Which citation style does the University of Waterloo use?** The University of Waterloo has no single citation style: the course outline or instructor names it. The Library's Citation and Style Guides cover ACS, AMA, APA, the McGill Guide, Chicago, CSE, IEEE, MLA and Vancouver. Engineering work report guidelines mostly name IEEE or APA, the Faculty of Health mostly uses APA, and Computer Science points to ACM, APA or IEEE.

Published 2026-10-02 by EdCitation. https://edcitation.com/newsletter/referencing-at-the-university-of-waterloo

The University of Waterloo has no house citation style. The Library's [Citation and Style Guides](https://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/citationstyles/guidelines) list nine styles and link each to its manual or publisher, and the Writing and Communication Centre (n.d.-a) says to take the style and its edition from the course outline, or to ask the instructor or TA. For co-op work reports, each engineering programme names the style in its own guidelines.

EdCitation is not affiliated with the University of Waterloo; this follows its public library guide, checked on 2 October 2026. EdCitation publishes this guide; its last section quotes the free [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite) and [Verify references](https://edcitation.com/verify-references) on Waterloo's examples. [Referencing at Canadian universities](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/referencing-at-canadian-universities) compares other schools.

## Which citation style does the University of Waterloo use?

The one your course outline names. Waterloo's pages show a pattern by faculty, gathered below, and the Physics guide calls APA, two versions of Chicago, IEEE and MLA the most common styles on campus (University of Waterloo Library, 2026c). EdCitation builds six styles only: APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver.

| Style | What Waterloo's pages say | Waterloo page | Built by EdCitation |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| IEEE | Expected from first-year courses (Chemical Engineering); a choice for Chemical and Mechanical work reports; listed for computer science | Department of Chemical Engineering (n.d.); Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering (2021); Library (2026b) | Yes, [IEEE](https://edcitation.com/cite/ieee) |
| APA 7 | Most used in the Faculty of Health; taught in PD 11; set for Management Sciences and Civil work reports | Library (2026d); Library (2026e); Department of Management Sciences (2021); Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (2013) | Yes, [APA 7](https://edcitation.com/cite/apa) |
| Harvard | A choice for Management Sciences graduate work reports | Department of Management Sciences (2016) | Yes, as *Cite Them Right* |
| ACM | Listed for computer science, beside APA and IEEE | Library (2026b) | No |
| Chicago | On the Library's list, 18th edition | Library (2026a) | Author-date only |
| MLA | On the Library's and the Writing Centre's lists | Library (2026a) | Yes, MLA 9 |
| NLM and Vancouver | On the Library's list, linked to *Citing Medicine* | Library (2026a) | Yes, [Vancouver](https://edcitation.com/cite/vancouver) |
| ACS, AMA, CSE, McGill Guide | On the Library's list | Library (2026a) | No |

### What do Waterloo's engineering departments ask for?

Each programme's own work report guidelines (Waterloo Cases in Design Engineering, n.d.). Those we could read:

- **Chemical.** Numbered citations in order of appearance, or author and year; students should know IEEE from first-year courses and APA from PD 11, and the list needs "a clear and consistent format" (Department of Chemical Engineering, n.d.).
- **Mechanical and Mechatronics.** IEEE or APA; the date last accessed for a web page; never a whole textbook; too few references will likely mean a resubmission (Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, 2021).
- **Management Sciences.** APA for undergraduate work reports; Harvard or IEEE in graduate guidelines dated 2016.
- **Civil and Environmental.** APA, with access dates for electronic sources, in guidelines dated 2013 that the department still links.

Electrical and Computer Engineering's work report page answered "Access denied" on 2 October 2026, so it is not covered.

### Where did Waterloo's citation tip sheets go?

Behind a login. The Library's Online Learning Object Repository, home of its style tip sheets, closed on 1 July 2026, and its material moved to eCampus Ontario and to a Learning Hub on LEARN that needs self-registration (University of Waterloo Library, 2026f). We read nothing behind that login. One sheet still answers at its old address, a 2021 IEEE journal-article guide (University of Waterloo Library, 2021). The Library's older APA page links other universities' guides, some written for the 6th edition (University of Waterloo Library, n.d.-a).

## How does UWaterloo want IEEE references written?

As IEEE's own reference guide sets them: the Library's IEEE page and style list link it (University of Waterloo Library, n.d.-b). The version online today is 3.28.2025 (IEEE, 2025); our [IEEE referencing guide](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/ieee-referencing-guide) covers the style in general.

### In the text

- A number in square brackets, on the line and inside the punctuation, in order of first citation; the list follows that order.
- With three or more authors named in a sentence, the first surname and *et al.*: Zhao et al. [2]. A part of a source goes inside the brackets: [3, Fig. 1].
- Ranges differ. IEEE's 2025 guide writes each number out, [1], [2], [3]; Chemical Engineering shows [12–14] and [12,13], and accepts superscript. For a work report, use your department's form.

### In the reference list

- Initials before the surname, "and" before the last author, the article title in double quotation marks with the comma inside, the journal in italics (University of Waterloo Library, 2021).
- Every author up to six; above six, the first author and *et al.* Journal names abbreviated from IEEE's list, but a one-word title stays whole.
- An article number replaces pages: "Art. no.". IEEE warns that a range such as 1–20 may be an article number in disguise, and Waterloo's tip sheet prints "pp. 1-20" for a paper its publisher numbers 1312.
- A web page: author, title, site, "Accessed:" and the date, "[Online]. Available:" and the address, with no full stop after it.
- Not Wikipedia, which Chemical Engineering rules out as an anonymous, tertiary source.

### Where the DOI goes, and the full stop

Waterloo's two IEEE sources disagree. The 2021 tip sheet closes the date with a full stop, then writes "doi:" and the number with nothing after it. IEEE's 2025 guide puts ", doi:" after the date and ends with a full stop. The Library links IEEE's guide today, so the example below follows it unless your instructor's model differs.

## How do you cite in IEEE at Waterloo? A worked example

Four real sources: an article with an article number, a conference paper, an IEEE Transactions article and a Canadian government page. In the text:

> Ghafoor and Koo [1] study cognitive routing in software-defined underwater acoustic networks. Zhao et al. [2] design an energy-efficient GPU, and Chiampi and Zilberti [3] compute the electric field induced in a body moving near an MRI scanner. The Canada Energy Regulator projects energy supply and demand to 2050 [4].

The reference list, in order of first citation:

> [1] H. Ghafoor and I. Koo, “Cognitive routing in software-defined underwater acoustic networks,” *Appl. Sci.*, vol. 7, no. 12, Dec. 2017, Art. no. 1312, doi: 10.3390/app7121312.
>
> [2] J. Zhao, G. Sun, G. H. Loh, and Y. Xie, “Energy-efficient GPU design with reconfigurable in-package graphics memory,” in *Proc. ACM/IEEE Int. Symp. Low Power Electron. Design (ISLPED)*, Jul. 2012, pp. 403–408, doi: 10.1145/2333660.2333752.
>
> [3] M. M. Chiampi and L. L. Zilberti, “Induction of electric field in human bodies moving near MRI: An efficient BEM computational procedure,” *IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng.*, vol. 58, no. 10, pp. 2787–2793, Oct. 2011, doi: 10.1109/TBME.2011.2158315.
>
> [4] Canada Energy Regulator. “Canada’s Energy Future 2023: Energy Supply and Demand Projections to 2050.” Government of Canada. Accessed: Oct. 2, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.cer-rec.gc.ca/en/data-analysis/canada-energy-future/2023/index.html

Entry [2] is IEEE's own example, letter for letter; [3] is another of its examples, plus the issue number its rule for Transactions asks for. To Waterloo's 2021 tip sheet, [1] would read:

> [1] H. Ghafoor and I. Koo, "Cognitive routing in software-defined underwater acoustic networks," *Applied Sciences*, vol. 7, no. 12, pp. 1-20, Dec. 2017. doi: 10.3390/app7121312

### What about Waterloo APA?

APA 7 comes from APA's own pages, which the Library's style list and the PD11 guide link. Chemical Engineering's author-and-year summary writes (Grove and Smith, 2013) with "and", uses *et al.* from three authors, and names every author in the alphabetical list. See our [APA 7 in-text citations](https://edcitation.com/newsletter/apa-7-in-text-citations) guide.

For generative AI, the Library's style list links each publisher's guidance, IEEE's rule among them: disclose AI-generated content in the acknowledgements (University of Waterloo Library, 2026a).

## Which EdCitation style is closest, and what do you change by hand?

IEEE and APA 7 have exact counterparts in EdCitation; ACM, ACS, AMA, CSE and the McGill Guide do not. The edits are those our runs on 2 October 2026 called for.

| Waterloo asks for | Start in EdCitation's | Change by hand |
| --- | --- | --- |
| IEEE, as IEEE's 2025 guide | [IEEE](https://edcitation.com/cite/ieee) | Article titles to sentence case, as IEEE's examples and the tip sheet print them; a capital the record dropped ("Low power"); "Oct. 02" to "Oct. 2"; full stops, not commas, after a web page's author and title |
| IEEE, as the 2021 tip sheet | [IEEE](https://edcitation.com/cite/ieee) | The same, plus the journal's full name, a full stop after the year and none after the DOI |
| APA 7 | [APA 7](https://edcitation.com/cite/apa) | Nothing on our journal articles; on a web page, an organisation's name alone as author |
| Harvard | Harvard | The 2016 Management Sciences guidelines cite a Sheffield guide; EdCitation follows *Cite Them Right*, so compare |
| Chicago, MLA, Vancouver | Chicago 18 author-date, MLA 9, [Vancouver](https://edcitation.com/cite/vancouver) | Chicago notes are not built; check the edition |
| ACM, ACS, AMA, CSE, McGill Guide | Not built | Write from the manual the Library links |

### A Waterloo reference list in six steps

1. Find the style in the outline or your programme's guidelines; EdCitation's free [Check your paper](https://edcitation.com/check) reads instructions into a checklist, style included.
2. Search [Find sources](https://edcitation.com/), about 300 million published works, by topic or by claim.
3. Paste each DOI, title or page address into [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite) and choose IEEE, APA 7 or the style named.
4. On a web page, correct the author, title and site in the form before the entry is built.
5. Make the edits in the table; number IEEE entries in order of first citation.
6. Paste the list into [Verify references](https://edcitation.com/verify-references) and open the source behind every "check this".

## What did EdCitation return on Waterloo's examples?

For starting a Waterloo list, [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite) is the best tool, because it never composes a reference: each entry comes from the publisher's record, or for a web page from the page itself, set in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE or Vancouver, and screened for retraction. On IEEE's own Transactions example it differed only in the title's capitals and an issue number IEEE's rule asks for. It is free and needs no account. EdCitation never writes any part of a student's paper: the reading, the analysis and every sentence of a Waterloo report stay with the student, and the tools supply the published record behind each reference.

### What Cite a source built

For DOI 10.3390/app7121312, IEEE returned "H. Ghafoor and I. Koo, “Cognitive Routing in Software-Defined Underwater Acoustic Networks,” Appl. Sci., vol. 7, no. 12, Dec. 2017, Art. no. 1312, doi: 10.3390/app7121312." The article number the tip sheet missed is there; only the capitals need changing. APA 7 gave a correct entry ending "Applied Sciences, 7(12), Article 1312. https://doi.org/10.3390/app7121312".

For 10.1145/2333660.2333752, IEEE gave "in Proc. 2012 ACM/IEEE Int. Symp. Low power Electron. Des., Jul. 2012, pp. 403–408". "Des." is IEEE's own abbreviation; "Low power" is the publisher's record, so capitalise it. For 10.1109/TBME.2011.2158315, the output matched IEEE's form, "vol. 58, no. 10, pp. 2787–2793, Oct. 2011", with the title in headline capitals. None was flagged as retracted.

For the Canada Energy Regulator page's address, IEEE returned "C. E. R. Government of Canada, “CER – Canada’s Energy Future 2023: CER’s first long-term Outlook modeling Net-Zero by 2050.”" The page names its author "Government of Canada, Canada Energy Regulator"; the part after the comma became initials, and the title was the browser title. With the regulator entered alone as an organisation, the heading as title and "Government of Canada" as site, it returned "Canada Energy Regulator, “Canada’s Energy Future 2023: Energy Supply and Demand Projections to 2050,” Government of Canada. Accessed: Oct. 02, 2026." Two full stops and "Oct. 2" finish it.

Professional Engineers Ontario's code of ethics page came back "That page could not be read. Some sites block automated readers."

### What Verify references found

We pasted five entries into [Verify references](https://edcitation.com/verify-references), two copied exactly from Waterloo's pages:

- The tip sheet entry, "pp. 1-20" and all: verified, "The DOI resolves to this record and the title matches."
- The Writing and Communication Centre's source line, "Murray, Brian. (Nov. 2015)… Energy Policy, 80, 674-683.": "check this", "The publisher's record also names Rivers, who is not in your entry. Check the authors." The record also gives volume 86, not 80 (Murray & Rivers, 2015; Writing and Communication Centre, n.d.-b).
- IEEE's Zhao and Chiampi examples, and the regulator's page in IEEE form: verified.

For a whole report, [References from a file](https://edcitation.com/tools/references-from-a-file) (Pro, $8 a month; see [pricing](https://edcitation.com/pricing)) checks every reference and matches every in-text citation to the list.

## Quick questions

### Does the University of Waterloo use IEEE or APA?

Both, by faculty. Engineering work report guidelines name IEEE or APA, and APA is the style most used in the Faculty of Health. The course outline decides.

### Where is Waterloo's own IEEE citation guide?

The Library's IEEE page links IEEE's own reference guide. Its 2021 journal-article tip sheet is still online; the others moved to LEARN, which needs self-registration.

### Can I use Harvard at Waterloo?

Only where your outline or programme allows it. Management Sciences' 2016 graduate guidelines allow Harvard or IEEE; EdCitation's Harvard follows *Cite Them Right*.

### Can EdCitation build ACM, ACS or CSE for a Waterloo course?

No. EdCitation's [Cite a source](https://edcitation.com/cite) builds six styles: APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver. ACM, ACS, AMA, CSE and McGill Guide references are written by hand.

### Does EdCitation write any part of my Waterloo work report?

No. EdCitation finds sources, builds each reference from its published record and checks your list; the report and every sentence in it are yours.

## References

- Canada Energy Regulator. (2023, November 24). *Canada’s energy future 2023: Energy supply and demand projections to 2050*. Government of Canada. [https://www.cer-rec.gc.ca/en/data-analysis/canada-energy-future/2023/index.html](https://www.cer-rec.gc.ca/en/data-analysis/canada-energy-future/2023/index.html)
- Chiampi, M. M., & Zilberti, L. L. (2011). Induction of electric field in human bodies moving near MRI: An efficient BEM computational procedure. *IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 58*(10), 2787–2793. [https://doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2011.2158315](https://doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2011.2158315)
- Ghafoor, H., & Koo, I. (2017). Cognitive routing in software-defined underwater acoustic networks. *Applied Sciences, 7*(12), Article 1312. [https://doi.org/10.3390/app7121312](https://doi.org/10.3390/app7121312)
- IEEE. (2025). *IEEE reference guide* (Version 3.28.2025). IEEE Publication Operations. [https://ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/IEEE-Reference-Guide.pdf](https://ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/IEEE-Reference-Guide.pdf)
- Murray, B., & Rivers, N. (2015). British Columbia’s revenue-neutral carbon tax: A review of the latest “grand experiment” in environmental policy. *Energy Policy, 86*, 674–683. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2015.08.011](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2015.08.011)
- University of Waterloo Department of Chemical Engineering. (n.d.). *CHE 450: Technical work-term report guidelines* [PDF]. [https://uwaterloo.ca/chemical-engineering/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/chemical-engineering-work-report-guidelines-2026.pdf](https://uwaterloo.ca/chemical-engineering/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/chemical-engineering-work-report-guidelines-2026.pdf)
- University of Waterloo Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. (2013). *Guidelines for writing work term reports* [PDF]. [https://uwaterloo.ca/civil-environmental-engineering/sites/default/files/uploads/files/cee-wkrpt_guidelines2013.pdf](https://uwaterloo.ca/civil-environmental-engineering/sites/default/files/uploads/files/cee-wkrpt_guidelines2013.pdf)
- University of Waterloo Department of Management Sciences. (2016). *Guidelines for Management Sciences co-op work term reports: Graduate studies* [PDF]. [https://uwaterloo.ca/management-science-engineering/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/graduateworkreportguidelines_20160426.pdf](https://uwaterloo.ca/management-science-engineering/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/graduateworkreportguidelines_20160426.pdf)
- University of Waterloo Department of Management Sciences. (2021). *MSCI 391/392/491 work term reports* [PDF]. [https://uwaterloo.ca/management-science-engineering/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/msci_391_392_491_work_reports.pdf](https://uwaterloo.ca/management-science-engineering/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/msci_391_392_491_work_reports.pdf)
- University of Waterloo Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering. (2021). *Work term report basic formatting* [Slides]. [https://uwaterloo.ca/mechanical-mechatronics-engineering/sites/default/files/uploads/files/mme_workreportformatting_rev_fall_2021.pdf](https://uwaterloo.ca/mechanical-mechatronics-engineering/sites/default/files/uploads/files/mme_workreportformatting_rev_fall_2021.pdf)
- University of Waterloo Library. (n.d.-a). *American Psychological Association (APA)*. Citation / Style Guides. [https://lib.uwaterloo.ca/web/dictionaries-encyclopedia-and-more/citation-style-guides/american-psychological-association-apa](https://lib.uwaterloo.ca/web/dictionaries-encyclopedia-and-more/citation-style-guides/american-psychological-association-apa)
- University of Waterloo Library. (n.d.-b). *IEEE style*. Citation / Style Guides. [https://lib.uwaterloo.ca/web/dictionaries-encyclopedia-and-more/citation-style-guides/ieee-style](https://lib.uwaterloo.ca/web/dictionaries-encyclopedia-and-more/citation-style-guides/ieee-style)
- University of Waterloo Library. (2021). *IEEE citation style: Journal article* [Tip sheet]. [https://lib.uwaterloo.ca/online_learning/sites/default/files/2022-04/IEEEJournal_UPDATED.pdf](https://lib.uwaterloo.ca/online_learning/sites/default/files/2022-04/IEEEJournal_UPDATED.pdf)
- University of Waterloo Library. (2026a). *Common citation styles*. Citation and Style Guides. [https://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/citationstyles/guidelines](https://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/citationstyles/guidelines)
- University of Waterloo Library. (2026b). *Cite and write*. Computer Science research guide. [https://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/compsci/cite](https://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/compsci/cite)
- University of Waterloo Library. (2026c). *Cite & write*. Physics & Astronomy research guide. [https://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/physics/cite](https://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/physics/cite)
- University of Waterloo Library. (2026d). *4. APA citation style*. HLTH 101 Online Module: Scholarly Journals. [https://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/c.php?g=696957&p=4945155](https://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/c.php?g=696957&p=4945155)
- University of Waterloo Library. (2026e). *APA style*. PD11 Research Guide. [https://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/pd11/apa](https://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/pd11/apa)
- University of Waterloo Library. (2026f). *Site under maintenance* [Notice]. Online Learning Object Repository. [https://lib.uwaterloo.ca/online_learning/ieee-citation-style-artificial-intelligence-and-chatbots](https://lib.uwaterloo.ca/online_learning/ieee-citation-style-artificial-intelligence-and-chatbots)
- University of Waterloo Writing and Communication Centre. (n.d.-a). *Citation styles and guides*. [https://uwaterloo.ca/writing-and-communication-centre/citation-styles-and-guides](https://uwaterloo.ca/writing-and-communication-centre/citation-styles-and-guides)
- University of Waterloo Writing and Communication Centre. (n.d.-b). *Citing a source more than once*. [https://uwaterloo.ca/writing-and-communication-centre/citing-source-more-once](https://uwaterloo.ca/writing-and-communication-centre/citing-source-more-once)
- Waterloo Cases in Design Engineering. (n.d.). *Work report resources*. University of Waterloo. [https://uwaterloo.ca/engineering-cases/students/work-report-resources](https://uwaterloo.ca/engineering-cases/students/work-report-resources)