How to Write References in a Project Report: IEEE and APA Formats

Key takeaway

Every source you used must appear twice: as a short citation in the text where you used it, and as a full entry in the reference list at the end. Pick one style, IEEE or APA unless your college names another, and apply it to every entry without exception.

IEEE or APA?

	IEEE	APA
Used in	Engineering, computer science, IT	Commerce, management, social science
In the text	A number in square brackets: [1]	Author and year: (Kothari, 2004)
Order of the list	The order in which sources are first cited	Alphabetical by author's surname
Author names	Initials first: R. S. Pressman	Surname first: Pressman, R. S.

If your department has issued a format, it overrides this table.

IEEE format

Book

[1] R. S. Pressman, Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach, 7th ed. New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill, 2010.

Journal article

[2] A. Author and B. Author, "Title of the article," Name of Journal, vol. X, no. X, pp. XX-XX, Month Year.

Conference paper

[3] A. Author, "Title of the paper," in Proc. Name of Conference, City, Country, Year, pp. XX-XX.

Website

[4] Name of organisation or author, "Title of the page." Name of site. URL (accessed Month Day, Year).

In the text, write the number where the source is used: "The waterfall model follows a linear sequence [1]." The same source keeps the same number every time.

APA format (7th edition)

Book

Kothari, C. R. (2004). Research methodology: Methods and techniques (2nd rev. ed.). New Age International.

Journal article

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the article. Name of Journal, volume(issue), pages. DOI or URL

Report

Name of organisation. (Year). Title of the report. URL

Website

Author or organisation. (Year, Month Day). Title of the page. Name of site. URL

In the text: "Research design is the plan for collecting and analysing data (Kothari, 2004)." With two authors, name both; with three or more, give the first followed by "et al."

Rules that apply to both styles

• Cite only what you have read. An examiner may ask what a source says.
• Every citation has an entry, and every entry has a citation. Check both directions before printing.
• Cite the specific page of a website, with the date you accessed it. Never a home page or a search result.
• Copy details from the source itself: the title page of a book, the first page of a paper.
• Figures and tables taken from elsewhere need a source line under them as well.
• Be consistent in punctuation, italics and the order of details.

Getting the details right, quickly

• Google Scholar: the "Cite" link under a result gives the entry in several styles. Check it against the paper; the capitalisation is often wrong.
• Microsoft Word: the References tab stores sources and builds the list in the style you pick.
• Zotero or Mendeley: free reference managers that save sources from the browser and format the list.

Where the list goes

After the last chapter and before the appendices, starting on a new page with the heading REFERENCES or BIBLIOGRAPHY in capitals. The page order of the whole report is in the Blackbook Format guide.

Common mistakes

• Mixing two styles in one list
• Bare URLs with no title or date
• "www.google.com" or a site's home page as a source
• Sources in the list that never appear in the text
• Numbering in IEEE that does not match the order of citation

How BlackBook treats sources

A tool that writes citations for you can produce papers that do not exist, and an examiner who looks one up will find out. A report written with BlackBook marks every place a source belongs with [Add citation] and leaves the reference list for the sources you have really used. How to gather them is covered in the literature review guide.