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IEEE General Format

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Contained in this page are some basic guidelines for formatting a paper in IEEE style. The best way to format your paper may vary slightly depending on which field you’re working in and the specifics of where your paper is being submitted, so remember to double-check against any submission guidelines provided by the organization, instructor, or supervisor to whom you are submitting your paper.

• The paper title should be centered at the top of the first page, in 24-point type.
• Author’s name (or authors’ names)
• Author affiliation(s)
• City & country location(s)
• E-mail address(es).
• The body of the paper should be in 10-point type, and formatted to appear in two columns. The columns on the last page should be the same length; this may require adding a column break after you have finished the body of your paper.
• All papers must begin with an abstract and index terms.

Note to Practitioners

Nomenclature.

• Acknowledgements
• Papers may be divided into sections and subsections; IEEE has guidelines for primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary section headings.
• IEEE papers begin with a drop cap two lines deep, followed by the next 8-12 characters (or 1-2 words, whichever is appropriate) in all caps.
• Figures, tables, and equations should each be numbered consecutively, but separately. They should also be centered in the column in which they appear.

An IEEE abstract should be written as a single paragraph roughly 200 words long, give or take 50 words. (Abstracts shorter than 150 words or longer than 250 risk incurring the irritation of the editors.) It should be self-contained, and should concisely & accurately summarise the contents of your paper. It is encouraged to try and include three or four keywords or key phrases to help interested readers to find your article.

Abstracts should be simply formatted, without anything that requires specialized typesetting or consultation of material outside the abstract. Abbreviations, footnotes, references, tables, graphs, charts, figures, and displayed mathematical equations are specifically forbidden. The goal of an abstract is to be a simple, accessible, and self-contained microcosm of your paper.

Here is an example of how you might format an abstract:

The abstract should be followed by index terms. These should be in a paragraph separate from the abstract. Index terms are similar to keywords and are provided by the paper’s author to help journals, editors, and readers categorize, archive, or locate your paper. IEEE maintains a standardized list of index terms to make this process easier and its categories more consistent. The most recent version of the  IEEE Taxonomy  can be found on the IEEE website. Here is a link to the 2019 version of the taxonomy .

Index terms should be given in alphabetical order; the first should be capitalized, and the rest lowercase unless they contain acronyms or other components that inherently require capitalization.

Here is an example of how you might format a set of index terms:

Section Headings

Dividing one’s paper into clearly labelled sections increases readability, and is encouraged. Typical sections include Introduction and Conclusion sections as well as sections within the body of the paper that relate to aspects of its content.

Primary headings are enumerated with Roman numerals followed by a period, set in small caps, and centered above the text.

Secondary headings are enumerated with capital letters followed by a period,   set in italics and title case, left-aligned, unindented, and separated from the text by a line break.

Tertiary headings are enumerated by Arabic numerals followed by a close-parenthesis, set in italics and title case, left-aligned, indented one em, and separated from the text by a colon. There is no line break between the heading and the text. 

Quaternary headings are enumerated by lowercase letters followed by a close-parenthesis, set in italics and sentence case, left-aligned, indented two ems, and separated from the text by a colon. There is also no line break here.

Here is an example of what the various headings should look like in your document:

I. Primary Heading

                  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Fermentum leo vel orci porta non pulvinar neque laoreet suspendisse.

A. Secondary Heading

                  Odio ut enim blandit volutpat maecenas volutpat blandit aliquam. Amet consectetur adipiscing elit pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et.

         1) Tertiary Heading:  Libero justo laoreet sit amet cursus sit. Enim nec dui nunc mattis enim ut tellus elementum sagittis.

                  a) Quaternary heading:  Nibh ipsum consequat nisl vel pretium lectus. Malesuada proin libero nunc consequat interdum varius.

Special Headings

In addition to the standard headings above, there are a few special cases. References and Acknowledgments are formatted like primary headings, but are not enumerated.

Appendix headings should be arranged under a separate system, though formatted like primary headings; if there is only one appendix, it requires neither a number nor a name, but is simply labelled Appendix. If there are multiple appendices, they should be numbered and titled, though one should note that the numbering system for appendix headings is wholly separate from that of section headings; they start at one, regardless of how many sections were present within the paper. Appendices may be enumerated either with Roman numerals or with capital letters, according to the preference of the author, as long as it is done with consistency. Unlike section headings, the number will come after the word “Appendix”: Appendix A rather than A. Appendix. They should have titles, set on the line below them but still formatted like a section heading.

Here is an example of how you might format the beginning of an appendix:

Regarding the Vermiform Process

                  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. At augue eget arcu dictum varius.

If at any point you wish to refer back to a previous section within the text of your paper – e.g. “As mentioned in [section]…” – you should capitalize the word “Section” and separate subsections from the primary section numeral with a hyphen. E.g., “Section IV,” “Section II-A,” “Section III-B4c,” etc.

The Note to Practitioners, if you choose to include one, goes below your abstract. The aim of the Note is to, without repeating any of the information from your abstract, explain the practical applications of your work without use of jargon. This is so that engineers working on practical problems, who may not have significant background in your particular field, will be able to understand the application of your work to theirs.

A Note to Practitioners can be more than one paragraph, but is otherwise formatted like the abstract.

Here is an example of what a Note to Practitioners might look like:

                  Note to Practitioners – Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Enim sit amet venenatis urna cursus eget nunc scelerisque. Feugiat vivamus at augue eget arcu dictum. Lorem donec massa sapien faucibus et molestie. Pellentesque nec nam aliquam sem.

                  Vel quam elementum pulvinar etiam non quam lacus suspendisse. Velit scelerisque in dictum non consectetur a. Phasellus vestibulum lorem sed risus ultricies tristique nulla. Gravida neque convallis a cras semper auctor. At elementum eu facilisis sed odio morbi quis commodo.

                  Cursus eget nunc scelerisque viverra mauris in. Fames ac turpis egestas integer eget. Viverra mauris in aliquam sem fringilla ut morbi.

If your paper uses a number of different symbols, variables, and so forth, you may want to avoid having to define them within the body of your paper by providing a list of definitions up front; this is called the Nomenclature section. If you choose to include a Nomenclature section, it goes immediately before the Introduction section.

The heading for the Nomenclature section is formatted like a primary heading with no numeral, and the section itself is formatted generally the same as body text, including the italicization of variables. The main difference is the way in which the text must be aligned: the terms being defined are flush against the left margin, and the definitions are aligned one em-space after the longest defined term.

If you are working in a word processor, the easiest way to do this is often to insert a table into your document with invisible borders below the Nomenclature heading. See the images below for an example. Note that the images have been zoomed in to enlarge the text for clarity purposes.

Example of a nomenclature section

Example of a nomenclature section with the borders of the table used to format the section set to visible

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Manuscript Templates for Conference Proceedings

• IEEE Financial Reporting Form
• IEEE Publication Form
• Conference Publication Form

The purpose of a conference template is to provide a consistent format for papers appearing in the conference proceedings. IEEE strongly encourages use of the conference manuscript templates provided below. 

IEEE conference templates contain guidance text for composing and formatting conference papers. Please ensure that all guidance text is removed from your conference paper prior to submission to the conference. 

Failure to remove template text from your paper may result in your paper not being published.

Accessing the templates

Microsoft Word

• US letter (DOC, 30 KB) Updated 2024
• A4  (DOC, 30 KB) Updated 2024

LaTeX Template Instructions (PDF, 63 KB) [ Be sure to use the template's  conference  mode.]

• Template (ZIP, 700 KB) Updated 2024
• LaTeX Bibliography Files  (ZIP, 309 KB)
• When working in Overleaf, the template is available at https://www.overleaf.com/gallery/tagged/ieee-official

1. For conference organizers:  The use of the conference manuscript templates provided by  IEEE eXpress Conference Publishing  will greatly reduce the chance for errors in the metadata visible in IEEE Xplore ® , and IEEE's downstream Indexing partners. Errors may result in delays in posting or in making any approved corrections, or in some cases, may simply persist. Using the templates is one of the ways to reduce errors.

If you wish, you may link to this webpage in its entirety. It is not recommended that you link to individual files, however, because they may be updated or replaced without notice.

2. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, which provided the current LaTeX template.

3. Other templates that more closely align with the IEEE Transactions article format are available.

The IEEE Article Submission Process

After you have written your article and prepared your graphics, you can submit your article for review. Follow these steps to complete the IEEE Article Submission Process.

Select Your Target Journal

An article may be rejected before peer review if it is outside the scope of the journal. Pick the right journal with these tips.

• Get customized recommendations for your article from the  IEEE Publication Recommender  tool.
• Conduct a keyword search on  IEEE  Xplore ® Digital Library  for a list of publications with similar content.
• Check your reference list for related journals.
• Ask for suggestions from colleagues and co-authors in your field.
• Read the Aims & Scope of your potential target publications to ensure your article is a good fit. Aims & Scope can be found in the About tab of the journal homepage on IEEE  Xplore .
• Keep in mind that some publications only accept certain types of articles. Letters publications will accept brief articles, while Transactions or Journal publications will accept full-length articles.

 You can only submit your article to one publication at a time.

Follow All Submission Guidelines

All IEEE journals provide submission guidelines in an “Information for Authors” section, published in the journal or on a society’s website.

To find the guidelines for your target journal:

• find the journal’s home page on IEEE Xplore ;
• click on the About Journal tab;
• click on Publication Details.

Not following guidelines can result in delayed processing of your submission, rejection without review, or errors in your published article. 

Submit Your Article

After checking that your article complies with the target journal’s submission guidelines, you are ready to submit. Click the Submit Your Manuscript button on the journal’s home page on IEEE  Xplore.   You will be taken to the journal’s online submission system, which will walk you through the submission process.

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Preparing and Submitting Your Regular Paper

Important criteria for proceedings regular papers.

Proceedings of the IEEE publishes survey, review, tutorial-type papers that are of broad and long-range interest to the electronics, electrical engineering, and computer science communities.

• Tutorial papers that explain a technology and may give practical information for implementing it. These papers are written for the purpose of informing non-specialist engineers about a particular technology.
• Review or Survey papers that have a common goal to critically examine a technology, highlighting its pros and cons, issues, ramifications, applications, and potential as well as describing its future technological prospects. Surveys should provide a comprehensive coverage of the entire technology from its inception, while reviews should cover in depth one or more of its most important aspects.
• All papers must provide novel insights and new perspectives.
• Prospective authors should be renowned experts in the subject of the submitted paper and have a distinguished publication record in the field. They must have the ability to effectively communicate the technical concepts to a broad audience which includes specialists in related fields.
• Papers that primarily report new results (transactions-type papers);
• Papers that provide a review, survey, tutorial treatment of a niche topic (primarily of interest to a specialized research community); systematic literature reviews that do not provide a critical evaluation of the technology or provide insight into future directions;
• Papers that provide a superficial treatment of the technology.

Preparing Your Regular Paper

Cover Letter : Each regular paper submission must be accompanied by a cover letter outlining the details below. Submissions that do not include a detailed cover letter may be returned without review.

• Description of topic and its importance to a broad audience
• Type of coverage (survey, review, tutorial)
• Explanation on how the paper differs from existing surveys, reviews, tutorials on the topic
• Brief biography of authors highlighting their qualifications for writing the paper, including references to previously published material
• Background citations that extend beyond author’s own work to demonstrate the appeal of the topic to a broad audience

Length of Paper : Proceedings papers tend to be longer than typical transactions-type papers. The typical regular paper is between 20-25 pages long, when formatted using the standard IEEE transactions template. Although there is no page limit, we strongly recommend that papers be no more than 35 pages long, for ease of readability. Additional content may be added as supplementary material, if appropriate.

Grammar : Proper grammar is a requirement for publication in Proceedings of the IEEE . Any articles submitted with poor grammar will be rejected. If needed, IEEE offers a 3rd-party service for language polishing, for a fee: https://www.aje.com/c/ieee (use the URL to claim a 10% discount). Authors may also be interested in using Grammarly, which is a free writing application that can provide feedback on grammar.

Formatting and Style : For detailed instructions on how to prepare your paper, such as IEEE style manual, article templates, frequently asked questions, multimedia, and graphics, visit the IEEE Author Center . Authors can use the standard transactions template for Proceedings of the IEEE . Authors’ photographs and biographies should be included along with the paper. Biographies should not exceed 200 words.

Supplementary Materials : Authors are encouraged to submit supplementary materials (code, data, video, etc.) along with their papers to enhance the information contained in the papers, leading to richer content for readers. Supplementary materials can be submitted in any of the following formats:

• A 2-3 minute abstract video introducing the paper
• A 45 minute to 1 hour video giving in-depth tutorial coverage of the paper
• A code demo or a lab demo involving hardware

To learn more about how to create an author video, please visit our guide to author videos .

Proceedings of the IEEE has also adopted the following services:

Code Ocean : A cloud-based computational reproducibility platform, integrated with IEEE Xplore that enables IEEE authors to publish their executable code associated with research articles. Code may be uploaded at submission, revision or after acceptance of the article. For more information, please visit IEEE Xplore / Code Ocean FAQs .

IEEE DataPort : A repository of datasets and data analysis tools. The repository is designed to accept all types of datasets, including Big Data datasets up to 2TB, and it provides both downloading capabilities and access to Cloud services to enable data analysis in the Cloud. For standard dataset uploads, there is no cost to the author. For open access datasets, it is free for a limited time with coupon code OPENACCESS1. For more information, please visit IEEE DataPort .

Supplementary materials will be reviewed and posted on IEEE Xplore with the published articles.

Open Access

Proceedings of the IEEE  is a hybrid journal, allowing either traditional manuscript submission or Open Access (author-pays OA) publication of articles. For more information on IEEE Open Access and Article Processing charges, please visit the IEEE Open site .

Copyright and Plagiarism

Each article submitted to Proceedings of the IEEE is scanned for plagiarism, including similarity to an author’s own work.

• Article submissions that plagiarize another author’s work will be rejected from Proceedings of the IEEE , and cases may be reported to the IEEE Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) department. For more information on the appropriate way to cite other authors’ work, please visit the IEEE Author Center .
• Reuse of an author’s own thesis or dissertation is allowed, as long as it is cited and has not been published elsewhere.
• Preprints of authors’ articles to their own web site, their employer’s site, or to another server that invites constructive comment from colleagues and provides a publication time stamp are allowed. Upon submission of an article to IEEE, an author is required to transfer copyright in the article to IEEE, and the author must update any previously posted version of the article with a prominently displayed IEEE copyright notice. Upon publication of an article by the IEEE, the author must replace any previously posted electronic versions of the article with either (1) the full citation to the IEEE work with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), or (2) the accepted version only with the DOI (not the IEEE-published version).
• Articles submitted to Proceedings of the IEEE should not be under consideration for peer review at any other journal (duplicate submission).

For information about IEEE copyright and plagiarism guidelines, visit IEEE Intellectual Property Rights .

Peer Review

Proceedings of the IEEE has implemented a peer review procedure designed to ensure high quality and make the best use of reviewer resources. All submitted papers will be prescreened according to IEEE publication guidelines to determine whether they are comprehensible, fall within the scope of the journal, and meet the minimum criteria for technical substance that is established for this journal. The submissions will also be checked for completeness (e.g., details provided in the cover letter, which are evaluated as part of the prescreening process). Only manuscripts that meet the above criteria will be peer reviewed. The prescreening process is coordinated with the assistance of our Senior Editors and is conducted by the editorial board.

The journal uses a single-anonymous review process, meaning that and reviewers’ identities will be kept from authors. If you are contacted by a reviewer during the review process, please contact the Editor-in-Chief .

The review process for the journal is longer than a typical IEEE journal because of the nature of the papers and the requirement to engage senior reviewers who have broad experience in the covered field. Owing to the highly selective nature of the publication, the journal also has a low acceptance rate for regular papers.

The Editor-in-Chief maintains the highest authority of the publication on all editorial matters.

Post Publication Policies

For information about IEEE post publication policies, including posting and sharing policies, visit  IEEE Author Center .

Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Generated Text

The use of artificial intelligence (AI)–generated text in an article shall be disclosed in the acknowledgements section of any paper submitted to an IEEE Conference or Periodical. The sections of the paper that use AI-generated text shall have a citation to the AI system used to generate the text. For more information, visit the  IEEE Author Center .

Guidelines for Using the “Lena Image”

IEEE’s diversity statement and supporting policies such as the IEEE Code of Ethics speak to IEEE’s commitment to promoting an inclusive and equitable culture that welcomes all. In alignment with this culture and with respect to the wishes of the subject of the image, Lena Forsén, IEEE will no longer accept submitted papers which include the ‘Lena image’.

Submitting Your Regular Paper

Submit your regular paper via  IEEE Author Portal  for peer review. During the submission process, select  “Regular Paper” under Manuscript Type, and s elect “ Proceedings of the IEEE  Editorial Office: Regular Issue” under Issue Entry Header.

SUBMIT YOUR REGULAR PAPER

Types of IEEE Conference Papers

It is important that you understand the different types of conference papers. Depending on the conference, you may be asked to submit one of the following:

• Abstract : Synopsis of your research (250 words or less)
• Extended abstract : High-level summary of your research (less than 2 pages )
• Brief or short paper : Summary of your research (less than 4 pages)
• Full paper : Complete paper describing your research in full (6-8 pages)

The conference website should provide full details on paper requirements and any applicable page limits and extra page fees. If you are unable to find details on your conference’s requirements, contact the conference organizer (also listed on the conference website).

You may also be invited to participate in the conference in other ways, such as a poster session, workshop, or student paper. Requirements for these types of contributions are typically located on the conference website.