Skip to Main Content

IEEE Quick Citation Guide

Penn State guide for IEEE references with examples. This is the most common style used in engineering and computer science disciplines.

Important Abbreviations

Tips for abbreviating periodical titles in references:

  • Words ending in "-ology" can be ended after the "-ol."
    e.g., Gastroenterology --> Gastrooceanenterol.; Endocrinology --> Endocrinol.
  • Words ending in "-graphy" can be ended after the "-gr."
    e.g., Oceanography --> Oceanogr.; Crystallography --> Crystallgr.
  • Compound words can be ended using the abbreviation of the last word.
    e.g., Bioengineering --> Bioeng.; Nanobioscience --> Nanobiosci.
  • Some abbreviations may apply to more than one word, e.g., "Mathematical" and "Mathematics" are both abbreviated as "Math."; "Medical" and "Medicine" are both abbreviated as "Med."
  • If an abbreviation is not included and cannot be abbreviated according to the general guidelines above, please spell out the word.

Standard IEEE words for references are listed in the 2023 IEEE Style Guide.

Example:

“Information Science and Technology”  becomes “Inform. Sci. and Technology”


Journal Title Abbreviations can be found using the CAS Source Index (CASSI) Search Tool.


Month Abbreviations for patents, journals, and websites are as follows: Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., May, June, July, Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec.

  • Month abbreviations are not needed for books, reports, conferences or theses.
  • Use a slash for bimonthly issues.
  • Use a hyphen or en dash for a quarterly issues.