IEEE Style — General paper format

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IEEE Style (general format)
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Overview

This page summarizes the main layout rules from the official formatting guideline, including page size, margins, spacing, headings, fonts and reference list formatting.

You can read the cleaned original guideline below, or click the button above to let FreeFormat, an AI document formatter, automatically apply this template to your Word thesis or paper.

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Source: Official formatting guideline

Paper, margins, and columns

  • Prepare manuscripts on US Letter (8.5" × 11") or A4 pages with margins of about 1 inch on all sides.
  • Final IEEE articles normally use a two-column layout with equal column widths and a narrow gutter between columns; some venues allow single-column drafts, but camera-ready versions usually require two columns.

Fonts and spacing

  • Use a serif font such as Times New Roman. IEEE templates generally set body text in 10-point type with larger sizes for titles and headings.
  • The paper is single-spaced or slightly more than single-spaced according to the official template; avoid inserting extra blank lines between paragraphs.
  • Text is typically fully justified; let the template manage justification and hyphenation.

Title, authors, and abstract

  • Place the title at the top of the first page, centered and in a larger bold font, using title case.
  • List the author names and affiliations beneath the title, often in a centered block that includes department, institution, city, country, and email addresses.
  • Begin the abstract in the left column under the heading “Abstract” in bold. Write a concise, single-paragraph abstract describing the motivation, methods, results, and conclusions.
  • Follow the abstract with “Index Terms” or “Keywords” and a list of key terms separated by commas.

Section headings and numbering

  • Organize the paper into sections such as INTRODUCTION, METHODS, RESULTS, and CONCLUSION.
  • Number main sections using Roman or Arabic numerals (e.g., “I. INTRODUCTION”, “II. METHODS”); label subsections with letters (e.g., “A. Subsection”).
  • Set section headings in bold and apply consistent alignment and capitalization; maintain a consistent style for all heading levels.

Paragraphs, lists, and equations

  • Begin paragraphs flush left with no extra indentation; the spacing between paragraphs is controlled by the template’s vertical spacing.
  • Use numbered or bulleted lists when appropriate; IEEE templates define the indentation and spacing for list items.
  • Center important equations and number them consecutively in parentheses aligned to the right margin of the column. Refer to equations in the text by their numbers, e.g., “as shown in (2)”.

Figures, tables, and captions

  • Place tables and figures near their first mention in the text while observing column and page break constraints.
  • Give tables captions above (e.g., “TABLE I” with a brief title) and figures captions below (e.g., “Fig. 1.” followed by a short description).
  • Use fonts and line weights in figures that remain legible at final print size; label axes with quantity and units.
  • Reference every table and figure in the text and number them sequentially.

Page numbers and headers

  • Some IEEE venues remove page numbers from the final published article and may request that you suppress them in the camera-ready file; follow the specific instructions for your journal or conference.
  • Do not add custom headers or footers beyond what is supplied by the official IEEE template; publication metadata is added by IEEE during production.

References layout

  • End the paper with a “References” section.
  • Order references numerically according to the sequence in which they are cited in the text.
  • Each reference entry follows IEEE’s prescribed format for authors, titles, publication venues, volumes, issues, pages, years, and identifiers such as DOIs or URLs.

Practical notes

  • Always begin with the official IEEE Word or LaTeX template for the venue you are targeting; this ensures compliance with precise layout requirements.
  • Use Purdue OWL’s IEEE General Format page to understand the expected structure and components of an IEEE article, then rely on the template to enforce detailed formatting.