(2022 version)
Do not include honorifics (Dr., Col., Professor, etc.) when citing author names. Including these titles in the body of your document is acceptable.
For the National Security Strategy, cite the president as the author.
For other official documents, the author is the organization immediately responsible for creating the document. In the example below, the author is the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and the publisher is the Department of the Navy.
In the example above, the author is NOT an umbrella organization, signatory, or any of the following:
Do not include acronyms for organizations listed as authors in the List of References or footnotes:
The NPS Thesis Processing Office prefers a List of References for the following:
Title Case | Sentence case |
Love among the Ruins: A Memoir of Life and Love in Hamburg, 1945 | Love among the ruins: A memoir of life and love in Hamburg, 1945 |
Capitalize everything except:
|
Capitalize only:
|
Note: Always format the information in your citations (titles, author names, etc.) according to the requirements of the citation style you are using, regardless of how it appears in the original source.
Every equation that is not field-specific common knowledge needs to be cited. You may weave the source into the narrative:
Here is an example of citing properly before the equation. Note the comma after the equation; the equation must function grammatically as part of the text:
And here is an example of how to cite an equation after it is presented:
A citation is required if you did not wholly create the figure—i.e., if you used someone else's image or data. A citation is not needed when all elements of the figure are your own creation.
See Figure 1 for placement of the title and the bracketed citation.
Figure 1. A Figure with a Citation in IEEE Style. Source: [7].
or
Figure 1. A Figure with a Citation in IEEE Style. Adapted from [7].
For more details, see the Thesis Template.
IEEE strongly prefers that bracketed in-text citations appear sequentially, beginning with [1], within the body of the text; it does not matter in what order they appear in the List of Tables and the List of Figures.
In the paragraph below, citations are highlighted in yellow and signal phrases are in blue. Note that the second sentence is common knowledge, whereas the final sentence is clearly the opinion of the author.
If any information is missing from a source (a journal with no volume number, for example), simply omit that information. For sources consulted in hardcopy, omit the URL and any additional verbiage that introduces it. Anything retrieved online, however, MUST have a link. The only exception is journals retrieved from a subscription database such as ProQuest.
Rules for the MAE Department:
Example: Ma et al. [19] extended the work …
Correct format: [23], [34], [77]
Correct format: [23]–[28]
Incorrect format: [23, 34, 77]
It is not necessary to include page numbers in bracketed citations.
For a portion in a book, journal, or other volume, include page-number range in List of References/Bibliography.
Example: [7] P. Haynes, “Al-Qaeda, oil dependence, and U.S. foreign policy,” in Energy Security and Global Politics: The Militarization of Resource Management, D. Moran and J. A. Russell, Eds. New York, NY, USA: Routledge, 2009, pp. 62–74.
When citing a source retrieved online, use the "online" format even when you or someone else printed out the material. For example, if you print out a thesis or your advisor provides you with a printed thesis, it is still categorized as an online document.
Only cite as a print source when the material has been produced by a publisher in hard copy. For example, if you obtain a print journal or book from the library stacks, it is categorized as a printed source.
An indirect source is a source that cites some other work that you discuss in your text.
Whenever possible, consult primary sources and your sources’ sources yourself. Upon investigating the primary source, you may find you disagree with the indirect source author’s analysis or methods.
The following passage incorporates a properly credited indirect source. The indirect source information is highlighted in yellow; the primary source information is highlighted in blue.
Walker describes Miguel Roig’s 1999 experiment, which correlates inadequate paraphrasing in student writing with poor reading comprehension. Citing Roig’s data, Walker explains that “students do in fact possess skills necessary for paraphrasing but … may be impeded from applying those skills when dealing with rigorous text” [1].
Note: Include only the indirect source (the source you consulted) in your reference list.
See the TPO's "Citing Your Sources’ Sources" handout.
A citation is required if you did not wholly create the table—i.e., if you used someone else's data. A citation is not needed when all elements of the table are your own creation.
See Table 1 for placement of the title and the bracketed citation.
Table 1. A Table with a Citation in IEEE Style. Source: [7].
or
Table 1. A Table with a Citation in IEEE Style. Adapted from [7].
For more details, including on table notes, see the Thesis Template.