Mechanics and structure of IEEE style:

Publication examples:

Introduction

The IEEE citation style is now widely used in electrical, electronic and computing publications. IEEE provides instructions for authors for each type of publication such as journals, magazines, newsletters, and standards.

IEEE is a numbered style with two components:

1. In-text references where references are numbered [1] in the order of appearance in the article.  See examples Fig.1. and Fig.3.
2. A reference list, displayed at the end of the article which provides full details of all references cited in-text. The references are ordered as they appear in the in-text references (in order of citation, not in alphabetical order).  See examples Fig. 2. and Fig. 4.

There are variations of the IEEE style. The following are examples of references in the IEEE transactions, journals, and letters: information for authors <http://www.ieee.org/documents/info_authors_kit.pdf>. Further examples in this style can be found in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers site <http://www.ieee.org/portal/site>.

In-text references

Using this system, references are numbered in the order in which they are first cited in the text. If the same reference is cited later in the text, the same number is given. For example

"The theory was first put forward in 1987 [1]" 

"Scholtz [2] has argued that......." 

"Several recent studies [1], [3], [4], [15], [16] have suggested that..." 

If you need to cite the same source more than once:

Direct the reader to specific pages numbers  where necessary, for example, a quote, or specific sections of the reference you wish to highlight such as tables, figures, algorithms:

...see [12, Example 1].