IEEE references follow the pattern of a radio engineers' journal. In May 1950 the Proceedings of the IRE cited sources in numbered footnotes that already put initials before the surname, the article title in quotation marks and the journal in short form (Schultz, 1950). By January 1961 a paper in the same journal numbered its sources in square brackets and listed them at the end (Beckman et al., 1961). The earliest IEEE document we found that makes this the rule dates from 2007.
EdCitation publishes this history. It rests on scans of the IRE's and the AIEE's journals, the IEEE's own guides from 2007 to 2025 and two history pages, all read on 26 September 2026. What we could not confirm is listed near the end.
Today's rules are in our IEEE referencing guide, and when to use IEEE style weighs it against the others. EdCitation's free Cite a source builds IEEE entries straight from each publisher's record.
Where did IEEE reference style come from?
From the two societies that merged into the IEEE, mostly the younger. The American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) was founded in New York on 13 May 1884, and the six papers read at its first technical meeting that October became the first issue of its Transactions, says the Engineering and Technology History Wiki's page on the AIEE (2025). The Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) followed in 1912, and its Proceedings in 1913 (Proceedings of the IEEE, n.d.).
On 1 January 1963 the two became the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Legally the AIEE survived under a new name, but the wiki's account of the merger (2019) says the larger IRE's practices mostly prevailed: the IRE's Transactions put IEEE into their titles, and the Proceedings of the IEEE kept the IRE's numbering and editorial policies.
How the IRE cited, 1950
In footnotes, numbered through each paper. M. A. Schultz's paper on linear amplifiers cites H. Nyquist in "Bell Sys. Tech. Jour.", with "vol.", "p.", then a semicolon, the month and the year (Schultz, 1950). Most of an IEEE entry is there; what differs is its place, at the foot of the page, and the semicolon.
How the AIEE cited, 1961
In a numbered list, in another order. In William A. Geyger's paper in the March 1961 Transactions, each entry opens with the title in capitals and small capitals, then the author, then "AIEE Transactions", volume, date and pages, the closing page shortened; a repeated journal becomes "Ibid." (Geyger, 1961). A raised number in the text leads to the list.
The IRE's square brackets, 1961
In the Proceedings' special issue on computers of January 1961, F. S. Beckman, F. P. Brooks, Jr., and W. J. Lawless, Jr., cite on the line in square brackets ("Other addressing techniques [1] are") and list 60 references at the end, largely in the order first cited (Beckman et al., 1961). The entries keep the semicolon before the year; some other papers in the issue still use footnotes.
In our reading, today's order (author, "title," abbreviated journal, volume, pages, date) is the IRE's, not the AIEE's, which fits the wiki's remark that the IRE's practices prevailed.
When did numbered citation in square brackets become the IEEE rule?
We cannot date it, but the IEEE had written it down by 2007. Its Information for IEEE Transactions, Journals, and Letters Authors, a file created in April 2007, asks for a numbered list at the end, in the order of citation in the text and not alphabetical, one reference to a number, each number in square brackets (IEEE, 2007). It prefers "in [1]" to "in reference [1]", and calls dates of references in the text "almost never useful".
The footnote ancestry still shows. The current Reference Guide says a bracketed number can work grammatically like a noun or like a footnote number, and replaces "ibid." and "op. cit.", the note writer's shorthand, with the earlier number (IEEE, 2025).
What did each version of the IEEE Reference Guide change?
Mostly places, ranges and abbreviations. Each row, read in an archived copy, lists what had changed since the previous copy we could read, so a change may be older than its row.
| Version | What had changed |
|---|---|
| 2007, Information for Authors | Numbered list in order of citation, numbers in square brackets; places with no country, as in "New York: McGraw-Hill" |
| September 2009, IEEE Citation Reference | Ranges such as [4]–[7]; a country only outside the USA; commas around Jr.; for IEEE Transactions, the issue number deleted and the month kept; forms for FTP, e-mail and Telnet |
| V 11.12.2018, IEEE Reference Guide | "USA" after every US place; issue number and month both given; every author up to six, then the first author and et al. |
| V 01.29.2021 | Every word of a conference name shortened by the word list; the DOI or access date before a URL |
| 12 August 2022 (IEEE, 2022) | No commas around Jr., Sr. and III; the sample ranges written out |
| V 10.25.2023 | The rule: no en dash in a range, every number written out |
| V 3.28.2025 | Sections for blogs and news articles; the Author Center's link now opens a Google Doc |
The DOI and the URL
Their order has flipped three times: a DOI after a URL in 2018, before it in V 01.29.2021, after it in V 10.25.2023, and before it again from V 11.29.2023 (IEEE, 2018, 2021, 2023a, 2023b).
How has the IEEE Editorial Style Manual changed?
It moved from the editors' desk to the authors'. Version 9, of 22 July 2016, describes its contents as editing guidelines for the IEEE's journals and letters (IEEE, 2016). By 2019 it was the manual "for Authors", offering writing guidelines (IEEE, 2019), as the current one, updated 29 July 2024, still does (IEEE, 2024).
Its references section keeps the 2007 rules, and its example of four radar books bundled under one number splits them into four. Every version we read sends grammar and usage to The Chicago Manual of Style, as the Author Center still does (IEEE, n.d.).
Why does IEEE abbreviate journal and conference names?
Because the IRE already did, and the IEEE keeps its own word list rather than medicine's. The current guide prints pages of words and their short forms, with rules for words not on the list (IEEE, 2025).
How the list itself changed
- "Applications" was "Applicat." in 2009 and "Appl." by 2018 (IEEE, 2009).
- "Information" was "Inform."; by 2018 it was "Inf.", with "Inform." kept for "Informatics" (IEEE, 2018).
- "Automatic" went from "Automat." to "Autom.", so the 2018 guide's "IEEE Trans. Automat. Contr." is "IEEE Trans. Autom. Control" in 2025.
- "Proceedings of the 1996 Robotics and Automation Conference" was "Proc. 1996 Robotics and Automation Conf." in 2009 and 2018, when only conference words were cut, and "Proc. 1996 Robot. Automat. Conf." from 2021.
Before 1988, the guide adds, an IEEE Transactions volume carried the journal's acronym, as in "vol. AC-26", and the 2009 list dates Proc. IRE "until 1962".
An example that does not match its record
The current guide's periodical examples include a paper by H. Eriksson and P. E. Danielsson in "IEEE Trans. Electron. Devices", volume ED-11, January 1959 (IEEE, 2025). There was no IEEE in 1959. Crossref records the paper in IEEE Transactions on Electronic Computers, volume EC-16, pages 364–365, June 1967 (Eriksson & Danielsson, 1967).
How does IEEE style relate to Vancouver and Chicago?
IEEE and Vancouver share a numbered list in order of first mention; Chicago's numbered tradition is the footnote, which IEEE left behind.
| IEEE | Vancouver | Chicago notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mark in the text | [1], on the line | Arabic numeral in parentheses | Raised note number |
| A source cited again | Keeps its number | Keeps its number | A new note, shortened |
| The list | In order of citation | In order of first mention | Bibliography, alphabetical |
The Vancouver column follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (2026, n.d.), whose requirements first appeared in 1978, seventeen years after that IRE paper; the Vancouver Group and Vancouver style tells that story. The two styles part on journal names, IEEE's list against MEDLINE's, and on long author lists: the National Library of Medicine (2026) gives six names and et al., IEEE one name and et al. once there are more than six.
Chicago's notes system, which the press calls its oldest, ties each source to a raised number and a footnote or endnote (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-a), and its samples give a later citation of the same work a new, shortened note (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-b). An IEEE number names the source, not the place it is cited, so "ibid." has nothing left to do. EdCitation offers Chicago 18 author-date, not notes.
How do I build an IEEE reference from a paper's record?
From the record, checked against the paper.
- Find the paper in EdCitation's Find sources, which searches about 300 million published works.
- Paste its DOI, ISBN, PubMed ID, title or web address into Cite a source.
- Check the names against the byline: initials, and "Jr." with no comma before it.
- Check the capitals: IEEE's examples set article titles in sentence case.
- Check the journal's name as it stood then, such as Proc. IRE up to 1962.
- Paste the finished list into Verify references.
The 1961 paper, from its DOI
On 26 September 2026 Cite a source looked up DOI 10.1109/JRPROC.1961.287778 in Crossref, found no retraction and returned:
F. Beckman, F. Brooks, and W. Lawless, “Developments in the Logical Organization of Computer Arithmetic and Control Units,” Proc. IRE, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 53–66, Jan. 1961, doi: 10.1109/JRPROC.1961.287778.
The abbreviation, volume, issue, pages, month and DOI are right. Two things come from the record: one initial for each author and no "Jr.", and the title's capitals. Corrected from the byline:
F. S. Beckman, F. P. Brooks Jr., and W. J. Lawless Jr., “Developments in the logical organization of computer arithmetic and control units,” Proc. IRE, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 53–66, Jan. 1961, doi: 10.1109/JRPROC.1961.287778.
A conference paper, against IEEE's own example
The guide's conference paper with a DOI is G. Veruggio's roboethics roadmap (Veruggio, 2006). From that DOI, Cite a source gave:
G. Veruggio, “The EURON Roboethics Roadmap,” in 2006 6th IEEE-RAS Int. Conf. Humanoid Robots, Dec. 2006, pp. 612–617, doi: 10.1109/ICHR.2006.321337.
Author, pages and DOI match the guide, and "International" and "Conference" are shortened by IEEE's list. The title keeps the record's capitals, and the proceedings name is Crossref's, where the guide has "Proc. Humanoids ’06: 6th IEEE-RAS Int. Conf. Humanoid Robots"; Cite a source adds no "Proc." the record lacks. The month comes from the record; the guide gives only the year.
Which EdCitation tool is best for IEEE references?
The best tool for an IEEE entry is Cite a source: it reads every entry from the publisher's record and composes none, which no chatbot can promise. Even the IEEE's own guide prints an example whose journal, volume and year miss the record. Give it a DOI, ISBN, PubMed ID, title or web address and it returns IEEE, or any of APA 7, MLA 9, Harvard, Vancouver and Chicago 18 author-date, after screening the source for retraction, free and without an account.
Verify references on an IEEE list
Verify references, free as well, was given a three-entry list: Schultz's paper, the 1961 paper dated 1962, and one we invented under an IEEE journal's name.
- Schultz, verified: "Title, year and first author match a published record."
- The 1962 entry, "check this": "The work was published in 1961, not 1962; the record has no date in 1962."
- The made-up entry, not found: "No publisher's or registry's record matches this reference."
Run alone, the guide's Eriksson and Danielsson example came back "check this": "A work with this title is recorded in IEEE Transactions on Electronic Computers (1967), not in the source your entry names." A retracted paper is flagged, and an entry that cannot be looked up is reported as could not check, never as not found.
References from a file reads a whole manuscript and pairs each citation with its entry, free for three checks a month and unlimited with Pro, $8 a month (pricing). EdCitation writes no part of anyone's paper.
What could we not confirm about IEEE's history?
- When brackets became the rule. We found no dated IRE or IEEE instruction between 1961 and 2007.
- Instructions before 1963. We found no IRE or AIEE guidance to authors on references.
- Missing versions. Nothing before 2007, no Reference Guide between September 2009 and V 11.12.2018 or between V 11.29.2023 and V 3.28.2025, and no Style Manual before version 9. One archived 2019 copy was cut off.
- Influence. No source we read says IEEE and Vancouver shaped each other.
Quick questions
When was the IEEE formed?
On 1 January 1963, when the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers merged; the Proceedings of the IRE became the Proceedings of the IEEE.
Did the IEEE invent citation numbers in square brackets?
Not as far as we can tell. A paper in the Proceedings of the IRE cited that way in January 1961, two years before the IEEE existed.
What is the latest version of the IEEE Reference Guide?
V 3.28.2025, which the IEEE Author Center now links as a Google Doc.
Is IEEE style the same as Vancouver style?
No. Both number sources in order of first mention, but IEEE puts numbers in square brackets and shortens journals by its own list, while the ICMJE asks for parentheses and MEDLINE's abbreviations.
Can EdCitation make IEEE references?
Yes. Give EdCitation's free Cite a source a DOI, ISBN, PubMed ID, title or web address; the IEEE entry comes from the publisher's record, with a retraction check.
References
- Beckman, F. S., Brooks, F. P., Jr., & Lawless, W. J., Jr. (1961). Developments in the logical organization of computer arithmetic and control units. Proceedings of the IRE, 49(1), 53–66. https://doi.org/10.1109/JRPROC.1961.287778
- Engineering and Technology History Wiki. (2019, February 17). Formation of IEEE by the merger of AIEE and IRE. https://ethw.org/Formation_of_IEEE_by_the_Merger_of_AIEE_and_IRE
- Engineering and Technology History Wiki. (2025, January 23). AIEE history 1884–1963. https://ethw.org/AIEE_History_1884-1963
- Eriksson, H., & Danielsson, P. E. (1967). Two problems on Boolean memories. IEEE Transactions on Electronic Computers, EC-16(3), 364–365. https://doi.org/10.1109/PGEC.1967.264697
- Geyger, W. A. (1961). Single-ended self-balancing magnetic amplifiers for changing the effective impedance of ink recorders. Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Part I: Communication and Electronics, 80(1), 8–13. https://doi.org/10.1109/TCE.1961.6373064
- IEEE. (n.d.). IEEE editorial style manual. IEEE Author Center. https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/your-role-in-article-production/ieee-editorial-style-manual/
- IEEE. (2007). Information for IEEE Transactions, Journals, and Letters authors. Archived June 19, 2010, at https://web.archive.org/web/20100619181449/http://www.ieee.org/documents/auinfo07.pdf
- IEEE. (2009). IEEE citation reference. Archived June 20, 2010, at https://web.archive.org/web/20100620093101/http://www.ieee.org/documents/ieeecitationref.pdf
- IEEE. (2016). IEEE editorial style manual (V9). Archived April 11, 2018, at https://web.archive.org/web/20180411111552/https://ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/IEEE_Style_Manual.pdf
- IEEE. (2018). IEEE reference guide (V 11.12.2018). Archived August 2, 2019, at https://web.archive.org/web/20190802093330/https://ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/IEEE-Reference-Guide.pdf
- IEEE. (2019). IEEE editorial style manual for authors (V 07.10.2019). Archived September 27, 2019, at https://web.archive.org/web/20190927014118/https://ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/IEEE_Style_Manual.pdf
- IEEE. (2021). IEEE reference guide (V 01.29.2021). Archived January 21, 2022, at https://web.archive.org/web/20220121065948/https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/IEEE_Reference_Guide.pdf
- IEEE. (2022). IEEE reference guide (Updated 12 August 2022). Archived October 7, 2022, at https://web.archive.org/web/20221007175502/https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/IEEE_Reference_Guide.pdf
- IEEE. (2023a). IEEE reference guide (V 10.25.2023). Archived November 19, 2023, at https://web.archive.org/web/20231119202428/https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/IEEE_Reference_Guide.pdf
- IEEE. (2023b). IEEE reference guide (V 11.29.2023). Archived December 17, 2023, at https://web.archive.org/web/20231217074336/https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/IEEE_Reference_Guide.pdf
- IEEE. (2024). IEEE editorial style manual for authors (Updated 29 July 2024). IEEE Author Center. https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/IEEE-Editorial-Style-Manual-for-Authors.pdf
- IEEE. (2025). IEEE reference guide (V 3.28.2025). IEEE Author Center. https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/IEEE_Reference_Guide.pdf
- International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. (n.d.). History of the recommendations. https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/about-the-recommendations/history-of-the-recommendations.html
- International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. (2026). Preparing a manuscript for submission to a medical journal. https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/manuscript-preparation/preparing-for-submission.html
- National Library of Medicine. (2026). Samples of formatted references for authors of journal articles. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html
- Proceedings of the IEEE. (n.d.). History. https://proceedingsoftheieee.ieee.org/about/history/
- Schultz, M. A. (1950). Linear amplifiers. Proceedings of the I.R.E., 38(5), 475–485. https://doi.org/10.1109/JRPROC.1950.231833
- University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-a). Chicago-style citation quick guide. The Chicago Manual of Style Online. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
- University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-b). Notes and bibliography: Sample citations. The Chicago Manual of Style Online. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html
- Veruggio, G. (2006). The EURON roboethics roadmap. In 2006 6th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (pp. 612–617). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICHR.2006.321337