In the reference list, you are required to abbreviate certain information. The IEEE provides a list of standard abbreviations, some of which are list below. The IEEE Reference Guide provides further information.
There are many common words that should be abbreviated within your reference list. For a full list, refer to useful abbreviations in references list in the IEEE referencing guide. IEEE also has a table of abbreviations for magazine titles. Below is a table of some of the abbreviated common words:
| Aeronautics | Aeronaut. | Imaging | Imag. |
| American | Amer. | Information | Inf. |
| Applications/Applied | Appl. | Innovation | Innov. |
| Australasian | Australas. | Institute | Inst. |
| Automation | Automat. | Integrated | Integr. |
| Bureau | Bur. | International | Int. |
| Conversion | Convers. | Journal | J. |
| Cybernetics | Cybern. | Language | Lang. |
| Department | Dept. | Magazine | Mag. |
| Distribute/Distributed | Distrib. | Manufacturing | Manuf. |
| Dynamics | Dyn. | Military | Mil. |
| Electrical | Elect. | National | Nat. |
| Engineering | Eng. | Particle | Part. |
| Experimental | Exp. | Patent | Pat. |
| Faculty | Fac. | Proceedings | Proc. |
| Hydraulics | Hydraul. | Quarterly | Quart. |
Whenever you are required to include the name a month in your reference it should be abbreviated.
The IEEE abbreviations for each month are: Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., May., Jun., Jul., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec.
If a journal is issued every two months, the two months are separated by a slash: Jan./Feb. 2020
If a journal is issued every four months, use a dash in between the first and last month: Sept.-Dec. 2020
When referencing conference papers, common words (including conference terms) should be abbreviated, and written numbers should be changed to a numerical representation. If provided, acronyms should be used and articles and prepositions (such as ‘of the’ and ‘on’) should be removed.
Examples:
Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Numerical Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices (NUSOD) becomes Proc. 16th Int. Conf. NUSOD
IEEE International Conference on Communications becomes IEEE Int. Conf. Commun.
Fifth Annual International Conference on Engineering and Technology becomes 5th Annu. Int. Conf. Eng. Tech.
Below is a table of common conference abbreviations:
| Annals | Ann. |
| Annual | Annu. |
| Colloquium | Colloq. |
| Conference | Conf. |
| Convention | Conv. |
| International | Int. |
| Proceedings | Proc. |
| Record | Rec. |
| Symposium | Symp. |
When referencing a thesis or dissertation, you should abbreviate the name of the University using the correct abbreviation, as well as the name of the school or department. See the common words abbreviations for department or school names.
If the thesis or dissertation is from the United States, the state should be included and abbreviated.
Examples:
Curtin University becomes Curtin Univ.
Edith Cowan University becomes ECU
Murdoch University becomes Murdoch Univ.
University of Western Australia becomes UWA