How to format your references using the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems. For a complete guide how to prepare your manuscript refer to the journal's instructions to authors.

Using reference management software

Typically you don't format your citations and bibliography by hand. The easiest way is to use a reference manager:

Paperpile	The citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNote	Find the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and others	The style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeX	BibTeX syles are usually part of a LaTeX template. Check the instructions to authors if the publisher offers a LaTeX template for this journal.

Journal articles

Those examples are references to articles in scholarly journals and how they are supposed to appear in your bibliography.

Not all journals organize their published articles in volumes and issues, so these fields are optional. Some electronic journals do not provide a page range, but instead list an article identifier. In a case like this it's safe to use the article identifier instead of the page range.

A journal article with 1 author

[1]

S. Zschokke, “Palaeontology: spider-web silk from the Early Cretaceous,” Nature, vol. 424, no. 6949, pp. 636–637, Aug. 2003.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

T. Chouard and L. Venema, “Machine intelligence,” Nature, vol. 521, no. 7553, p. 435, May 2015.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

I. H. Stairs, A. G. Lyne, and S. L. Shemar, “Evidence for free precession in a pulsar,” Nature, vol. 406, no. 6795, pp. 484–486, Aug. 2000.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

A. H. Knoll, M. R. Walter, G. M. Narbonne, and N. Christie-Blick, “Geology. A new period for the geologic time scale,” Science, vol. 305, no. 5684, pp. 621–622, Jul. 2004.

Books and book chapters

Here are examples of references for authored and edited books as well as book chapters.

An authored book

[1]

D. Deuff and M. Cosquer, User-Centered Agile Method. Hoboken, NJ USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2013.

An edited book

[1]

H. G. Bock, X. P. Hoang, R. Rannacher, and J. P. Schlöder, Eds., Modeling, Simulation and Optimization of Complex Processes - HPSC 2012: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on High Performance Scientific Computing, March 5-9, 2012, Hanoi, Vietnam. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2014.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

O. Bonacci, “Surface Waters and Groundwater in Karst,” in Karst Aquifers—Characterization and Engineering, Z. Stevanović, Ed., in Professional Practice in Earth Sciences. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2015, pp. 149–169.

Web sites

Sometimes references to web sites should appear directly in the text rather than in the bibliography. Refer to the Instructions to authors for IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems.

Blog post

[1]

R. Andrews, “Surprisingly Oxygen-Rich Layer Found In Earth’s Ancient Atmosphere 2.7 Billion Years Ago,” IFLScience, May 11, 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/environment/ancient-shooting-stars-reveal-oxygen-has-lingered-earths-atmosphere-27-billion-years/ (accessed Oct. 30, 2018).

Reports

This example shows the general structure used for government reports, technical reports, and scientific reports. If you can't locate the report number then it might be better to cite the report as a book. For reports it is usually not individual people that are credited as authors, but a governmental department or agency like "U. S. Food and Drug Administration" or "National Cancer Institute".

Government report

[1]

Government Accountability Office, “Information Technology: HUD’s Fiscal Year 2011 Expenditure Plan Satisfies Statutory Conditions,” U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, GAO-12-654, May 2012.

Theses and dissertations

Theses including Ph.D. dissertations, Master's theses or Bachelor theses follow the basic format outlined below.

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

T. Hsueh, “ENV9, a novel gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is responsible for the pleiotropic phenotype of env9Δ and encodes a membrane protein that is localized to lipid droplets,” Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, 2012.

News paper articles

Unlike scholarly journals, news papers do not usually have a volume and issue number. Instead, the full date and page number is required for a correct reference.

New York Times article

[1]

G. G. Gustines, “Take That, Dog Abusers,” New York Times, p. F11, Nov. 08, 2015.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in square brackets:

This sentence cites one reference [1].
This sentence cites two references [1], [2].
This sentence cites four references [1]–[4].

About the journal

Full journal title	IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems
Abbreviation	IEEE Trans. Neural Netw. Learn. Syst.
ISSN (print)	2162-237X
Scope	Artificial Intelligence Computer Networks and Communications Computer Science Applications Software

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