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IEEE Style Guide

Outline of the IEEE citation and reference style

IEEE Resources

Thank You

Thank you to the librarians of Monash University and the American University of Sharja for allowing us to reuse and remix content from their IEEE guides.

Citing Theses and Dissertations in IEEE

Theses and Dissertations

Theses or dissertations (print)

Citation Elements

 

Author(s) First name or initials. Surname, "Title of thesis," Type of thesis Ph.D. dissertation [ie.doctoral dissertation] or M.S. thesis [ie. master's thesis], Department, University, Place, State, Country, Year of Publication.

Examples

Masters thesis showing department abbreviations

 
[1] X. Zha, "Robust fault estimator design for a class of uncertain linear time invariant systems," M.S. thesis, Dept. Elect. and Comput. Syst. Eng., Monash Univ., Victoria, Australia, 2008.

Example where standard words abbrevate the name of the "Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering" become "Dept. Elect. and Comput. Syst. Eng.,"

See also that you are using the standard abbreviations for theses and dissertations   

Ph.D. dissertation
(Australian origin)

Similarly:

[2]

S. Birch, "Dolphin-human interaction effects: frequency mediated psychophysiological responses in biological systems," Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. Elect. and Comput. Syst. Eng., Monash Univ., Victoria, Australia, 1997.

and

[3]

L. Chen, “Distortion management in intensity modulated optical OFDM systems,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Melbourne, Australia, 2012.

Note: City and Country details are needed for theses authored outside of the United States.

Ph.D. dissertation
(US origin)

[4]

S. K. Singh, "Information, incentives, and the Internet," Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. Elect. Eng., University of California, Los Angeles, 2008.

 

 Note: City only is required if dissertation or theses is authored within United States.

 

Online thesis with a DOI

This is the preferred method for referencing an online thesis or dissertation over the online thesis with a URL. You can only use this method if you have a DOI.

Citation Elements

 

Author(s) First name or initials. Surname, "Title of thesis," Type of thesis Ph.D. dissertation [ie.doctoral dissertation] or M.S. thesis [ie. master's thesis], Department, University, Place, State, Country, Year of Publication.

Examples

Masters thesis with a DOI

 
[1] L. R. Varshney, "Optimal information storage: Nonsequential sources and neural channels," M.S. thesis, Dept. Elect. and Comput. Sci., M.I.T., Cambridge, 2006. DOI: 1721.1/37851

 

As MIT stands for Massachusetts Institute of Technology the location details Cambridge, Massachusetts, is simplified to Cambridge.

 

Online thesis with a URL

Only use this method if your online thesis does not have a DOI

Citation Elements

 

Author(s) First name or initials. Surname, "Title of thesis," Type of thesis Ph.D. dissertation [ie.doctoral dissertation] or M.S. thesis [ie. master's thesis], Department, University, Place, State, Country, Year of Publication.

Examples

Masters thesis with a permanent URL

 
[4] J. S. Evans, "Studies in nonlinear filtering theory: random parameter linear systems, target tracking and communication constrained estimation," Ph.D. dissertation, Elect. and Electron. Eng., Univ. of Melbourne, Australia, 1998. [Online]. Available: http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/8844 

IEEE has not provided guidelines for theses which have a full text online version with a URL.  Recently published theses may have a print copy as well as an online version.  In most cases, Universities are making recently published theses publicly available online from University repositories.  The elements from the example for "world wide web" publications was followed, so the details were added to the end of the citation: [Type of medium]. Available: http://www.(URL).

Disclaimer: This is one interpretation, so if in doubt, check with your supervisor.