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Importance of Attribution/Citing your Sources
In engineering, you often run into issues of intellectual property - for example, patents, or trademarks. One thing to remember is that the research that you are publishing is also intellectual property - your own!
Just like with patents or trademarks, if you use others intellectual property, you have to acknowledge your use and provide citations and attributions. It's important to remember that as scholars and researchers, we take part in the scholarly conversation about the topics we are working on.
This means that if you are referencing ideas or original thoughts from others in your work, you have to provide attribution. Doing this not only acknowledges others work, but also places your research in context to what others have done before.
Citing Sources in IEEE Format
There are a variety of citation formats available for you to use. You may be familiar with a few like APA or MLA. One specific format for engineers to be aware of is IEEE Citation Style.
Below are some examples of IEEE Citation Style for popular formats:
- Books
- Basic Format: J. K. Author, “Title of chapter in the book,” in Title of Published Book, xth ed. City of Publisher, (only U.S. State), Country: Abbrev. of Publisher, year, ch. x, sec. x, pp. xxx–xxx.
- Examples:
- B. Klaus and P. Horn, Robot Vision. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press, 1986.
- L. Stein, “Random patterns,” in Computers and You, J. S. Brake, Ed., New York, NY, USA: Wiley, 1994, pp. 55–70.
- Articles
- Basic Format: J. K. Author, “Name of paper,” Abbrev. Title of Periodical, vol. x, no. x, pp. xxx-xxx, Abbrev. Month, year, doi: xxx.
- Examples:
- F. Aronowitz, “Theory of traveling-wave optical maser,” Phys. Rev., vol. 134, pp. A635–A646, Dec. 8, 1965.
- M. M. Chiampi and L. L. Zilberti, “Induction of electric field in human bodies moving near MRI: An efficient BEM computational procedure,” IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., vol. 58, no. 10, pp. 2787–2793, Oct. 2011, doi: 10.1109/TBME.2011.2158315.
- Software
- Basic Format: J. K. Author. Title of Software. Date Repository or Archive. (version or year). Publisher Name. Accessed: Date (when applicable). [Type of Medium]. Global Persistent Identifier. Available: site/path/file
- Examples:
- Antenna Products. (2011). Antcom. Accessed: January 11, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.antcom.com/products
- D. W. Arning et al. Mixed Mode–Mixed Level Circuit Simulator. (2011). Ngspice. Accessed: Jan. 11, 2019. [Online]. Available: http://ngspice.sourceforge.net
These examples were adapted from the IEEE Reference Guide - there are more formats that are available in that guide