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Who likes formatting their papers? Style guides like IEEE are quite complex and detailed. But correct and clear formatting is necessary in fields like engineering, where accuracy is important. That’s why we’ve put together our readers’ most frequent questions about IEEE paper format.
Together, let’s go over the basics of formatting a paper in IEEE style!
How do I create a title in IEEE style?
IEEE style doesn’t have a word limit for the title (though your journal might have). It does require certain capitalization:
- First and last words are always capitalized
- Always capitalize
- nouns,
- pronouns,
- adjectives,
- verbs, and
- adverbs
- Short conjunctions (like “and”) are not capitalized but long conjunctions like “because” are
- Prepositions with more than 3 letters are capitalized, such as “Between,” but shorter ones like “in” are not
- Unit abbreviations are not capitalized; other abbreviations and acronyms are capitalized
How do I write an abstract in IEEE paper format?
Again, the IEEE style manual itself doesn’t prescribe a word limit but your target journal might have one. The manual simply states that abstracts should be in boldface and not contain numbered equations or citations.
What are index terms in IEEE paper format?
Index terms are basically the same as keywords. They make a paper more discoverable and easier to categorize. You’ve to provide them below the abstract, also in boldface. Arrange your index terms in alphabetical order. You can get a list of IEEE-approved index terms by sending a blank email to keywords@ieee.org
What’s the Nomenclature section?
Some journals ask for a Nomenclature section: a list of the symbols and abbreviations used in your paper with their definitions. If your journal asks for one, place this section after the index terms and before the introduction.
How do I format section headings in IEEE style?
IEEE style allows for up to 4 levels of headings.
- Level 1 headings: All capitals, centered with a Roman numeral (I, II, III…)
- Level 2 headings: All significant words capitalized, flush left, numbered using a capital letter followed by a period (A., B., C. …)
- Level 3 headings: All significant words capitalized, indented by one em space, run into text, italicized, followed by a colon, numbered by an Arabic number followed by a parenthesis.
- Level 4 headings: Only first word or any proper nouns capitalized, indented by two em spaces, numbered using lowercase letters, run into the text, followed by a colon.
Now, you don’t number the Reference, Appendix, and Acknowledgements headings. They otherwise follow the style of Level 1 headings.
If you have appendixes, you can label them with either Roman numerals or uppercase alphabets: “Appendix I, Appendix II” or “Appendix A, Appendix B,” etc. If there’s only one appendix in the paper, simply use “Appendix” as the heading.
How do I format equations and mathematical data in IEEE style?
You’ve to number equations consecutively with Arabic numbers in parentheses: (1), (2), (3)… Some journals ask for section-specific numbering: (1.1), (1.2), (2.1), (2.2), (2.3)
When you’re discussing an equation in the main text, you use the word “Equation” at the start of a sentence: “Equation (2) shows…”
When referring to an equation in the middle of a sentence, just use the number: “should be determined in accordance with (4)”
If a displayed equation has a condition, insert a comma and a two-em space between the expression and the condition.
Insert a period after an equation if that equation concludes a sentence.
Here are some other tips for presenting mathematical data:
- Italicize variables; use boldface + italics for vectors and matrices.
- Add a 0 before the decimal point.
- Use thin spaces instead of commas in numbers like 40 000 (but use “4000”). How do you insert a thin space? If you’re using MS Word, go to the Insert menu, then to Symbol, then “More”, then “Special Characters” and select “1/4th em space”.
- Function names (e.g., sin, cos) or unit abbreviations (e.g., Hz) are not italicized.
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