Formatting IEEE Papers
The premise of this page is that researchers should spend their time doing research, and not fighting with a text formatter to write papers for publication. All modern formatters have macro capability. If the proper macros are written, the text formatting for all IEEE publications may be accomplished automatically. We propose that proponents of various word processing systems write macro packages for their own system. The scientific community would benefit greatly. Our entire philosophy is outlined in the paper Specification for Common IEEE Styles. The concepts of the paper have been implemented in a fully-functional LaTeX2e class file. As other people write macro packages for other text processing systems, they can be added to this page as well.
LaTeX2e files for formatting IEEE papers
The class file ieee.cls is well documented in the above paper. It is provided here, along with many examples to help you get started writing papers with it.
  • ieee.cls The class file itself. [52 K-Bytes]
  • ieeecls.pdf The paper: ``Specification of Common IEEE Styles.'' [370 K-Bytes]
  • ieeecls.tex The LaTeX2e source for the above paper. This example may be the best way to get started using the class. [29 K-Bytes]
  • ieeeskel.tex A simple (commented) skeleton paper file which may be `fleshed-out' to write your own paper. [6 K-Bytes]
  • ieeefig.sty A style for figures, mentioned in the paper. [10 K-Bytes]
Any comments or bug reports should be mailed to: glp@eas.uccs.edu
LyX files for formatting IEEE papers
To format IEEE papers using LyX, you will need ieee.cls from above. The paper ieeecls.pdf will also be useful. In addition, you will need:
  • ieee.layout The layout file for LyX to be able to use ieee.cls [6 K-Bytes]
  • ieee.lyx A template file which should be very useful to see how to use the ieee modes added to LyX. [10 K-Bytes]
To install these files on your system, put ieee.layout in your <user directory>/layouts directory (You can determine your LyX user directory by checking Help->Version in LyX). Put ieee.cls and any plug-in and style files you download into your TeX path (somewhere that LaTeX can find them). Put ieee.lyx in your <user directory>/templates directory, and copy the LyX system templates to the same directory. Edit your <user directory>/lyxrc file and change where LyX searches for templates by making sure there is a line which reads \template_path <user directory>/templates. Finally, start LyX and Options->Reconfigure. Quit LyX and restart. You should be set to go!
Journals and Conferences Supported
The class file ieee.cls supports almost all IEEE journals, but some need special ``plug-in'' files to be formatted correctly. All IEEE Conferences also need plug-in files (at this point, there are only two supported conferences. Please feel free to write a plug-in for your favorite conference and mail it to me to include here!). To see if your journal or conference is supported:
  • List of supported journals, with plug-ins.
  • List of supported conferences, with plug-ins.
Examples for IMTC [OBSOLETE]
The Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference was one of the first large-scale uses of the ieee.cls style. An example to help you get started writing your conference paper in the ieee.cls way, here are the required files and a short skeleton file which you can modify to create your own paper.
  • ieee.cls The class file itself. [52 K-Bytes]
  • ieeeimtc.sty A plug-in module to format papers specifically for the IMTC. [6 K-Bytes, OBSOLETE]
  • skelimtc.tex A simple (commented) skeleton paper file which may be `fleshed-out' to write your own paper for IMTC. [6 K-Bytes]
  • ieeefig.sty A style for figures, used by the skeleton file. [10 K-Bytes]
Example files showing the possible combinations of options
To give you a quick flavor of the formatting that can be done automatically by ieee.cls by changing only a single line in the paper, see the following examples. The line which is changed (the document options) is printed in the header or footer so that you can see how easy it is to use the class. Each row of the following table contains examples for a given main-mode of ieee.cls. Each column is the sub-mode. Note that not all combinations are legal. Examples are present for all the legal combinations.

Typical IEEE Journals

(none) internal submitted inpress reprint technote
draft Example --- --- --- --- ---
submission Example Example --- --- --- ---
compressed Example Example Example Example --- ---
final Example Example Example Example Example Example

Journals Requiring Plug-ins

There are two societies of the IEEE which format their journals differently from the other societies. The IEEE Signal Processing Society centers figure captions instead of making them left-justified. The IEEE Computer Society has a very different format. To format them correctly, ieee.cls requires ``plug-in'' modules. Here are two examples:

IEEE Computer Society Example
IEEE Signal Processing Society Example

Conference Formatting using Plug-ins

Finally, to format conference papers, ieee.cls also requires ``plug-in'' modules. Here are two examples:

IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference Example
IEEE Conference on Decision and Control Example

Other Important Information for LaTeX2e Paper Writing
  • epslatex.pdf This is a very good guide for how to use EPS graphics in a LaTeX2e document. It includes documentation for the \includegraphics command, and the psfrag package. [560 K-Bytes]
  • The IEEE author's info web page.
  • IEEEbib.bst The bibliography style file, directly from the IEEE server. (Save file as IEEEbib.html. Remove first and last lines. Save edited file as IEEEbib.bst.)
Word Macro Files
  • Alexander Mamishev has written some Microsoft Word macro files for IEEE Transactions paper formatting. There are versions for Word 2003 and Word 2007. You can visit his web site, www.streamtoolsonline.com, for up-to-date versions.
Bug fix on Monday October 25 to fix "am" "pm" problem when the time is between 12:00pm and 1:00pm. Many thanks to the individual who both pointed out this error and gave a solution. Unfortunately, my mail inbox was expunged due to a system crash, and I did not record this individual's name. Apologies.
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Gregory Plett
Last updated: Friday, 30 April 2010