IEEE Referencing Guide - Introduction
The Institute of Electrical an
d Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
This Guide provides key information relating to the method of referencing as specified by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Before you make practical use of this guide, you should make sure that you are familiar with the essential background information that is contained in our General Referencing Guide.
IEEE, stands for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The organization is chartered under this name and it is the full legal name.
As the world's largest technical professional organization, IEEE's membership has long been composed of engineers, scientists, and allied professionals. These include computer scientists, software developers, information technology professionals, physicists, medical doctors, and many others in addition to IEEE's electrical and electronics engineering core. For this reason the organization no longer goes by the full name, except on legal business documents, and is simply referred to as IEEE.
IEEE's roots go back to 1884 when electricity began to become a major influence in society. There was one major established electrical industry, the telegraph, which since the 1840s had come to connect the world with a data communications system faster than the speed of transportation. The telephone and electric power and light industries had just got underway.