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1. Identify what the source is, where it's from, and who it's by.

Is it a book? A journal article? An interview? Did you access it online? How many authors does it have? The source's characteristics influence how to reference it.

Say for instance you need to reference a journal article that you found online. Figure 1 shows the information that is at the top of the first page of the article. This information tells you that it is an article from the journal Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, and that it has three authors. It also has a DOI (a digital object identifier, which is like a stable web address).

2. Find a matching example in your style guide.

The aim is to find the closest example possible in your chosen IEEE style guide. For the following examples, we're using the Monash guide to IEEE referencing.

In the Monash IEEE referencing style guide, you can find when the DOI is available.

3. Write out the reference following the style guide examples.

Your aim at this point is to make the information that you have match the order and formatting of the information from the style guide. This includes the details such as punctuation. If you're ever unsure, remember that your markers care most of all about consistency and having enough information to be able to locate the source themselves. Check over your references to make sure they're following the same principles and formatting.

Author names

In IEEE, for each author you present the initial of their first name(s), followed by their surname (also known as their last name, or family name).

J. Milthorpe, A. P. Rendell, and T. Huber,

Article and journal title

Then comes the article title and the journal name (in italics).

J. Milthorpe, A. P. Rendell, and T. Huber, "PGAS-FMM: Implementing a distributed fast multipole method using the X10 programming language," Concurrency Computat.: Pract. Exper.,

Publication details

After that, you need the volume number and, if available, the issue number. You will then need the page range. After that, you put down the month and year of publication. Sometimes you may need to look elsewhere in the article or on the journal's website to find out these details.

Finally, if you found the article online, you have a couple of options. Look to see if the article has a DOI-a Digital Object Identifier. This is like a stable URL. If so, then you will put the DOI after the page range. The IEEE guide has examples to show this. If there is no DOI, the guide provides examples of how to include the URL.

A finished reference

Following the above steps, this is what your reference list entry will look like:

J. Milthorpe, A. P. Rendell, and T. Huber, "PGAS-FMM: Implementing a distributed fast multipole method using the X10 programming language," Concurrency Computat.: Pract. Exper., vol. 26, pp. 712-727, 2014. doi: 10.1002/cpe.3039

Numbering your references

Note that in the IEEE style, each source is numbered according to when they first appear in your work. In the reference list, the first source that appeared in your work is labelled [1], the second source [2] and so on.

A reference list in IEEE might look like this:

In-text citations

When you use IEEE, you need to use square brackets with a number in the body of your work to show where the information comes from. As noted above, in the IEEE style each source is numbered according to when they first appear in your work. In the reference list, the first source that appeared in your work is labelled [1], the second source [2] and so on.

These might look like:

According to one study [3], a different solution is available for the problem that King's research describes [4]. Following the publication of [3], other researchers have verified the solution [5], [6], [7].

Check your guide

Always remember to have your chosen style guide open while you are referencing-even if you use referencing software. It's useful to look out for inconsistencies and to make sure that you have all the right information in the correct order and format. Check out the style guides listed above.