NB: In America, they refer to a doctorate as a dissertation.
Thesis title: The thesis title should be in sentence case (capital letter on the first word, and then lower case, unless it is a proper noun) within double quotation marks, e.g. "Analysis of the treated wood market for agricultural and horticultural uses in New Zealand."
Name of department and university: Abbreviate the name of the department and university, e.g. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Auckland would become Dept. Mech. Eng., Univ. Auckland. Refer to the IEEE reference guide (section IV, Useful abbreviations in references).
Place of publication: For the place of publication, after the city, include the state code for the USA only, e.g. St Louis, MI, USA. Outside the USA, use cities and countries, e.g. Auckland and New Zealand.
For more reference list format and style information, see General information - basics of referencing.
The United States of America refers to doctorates as dissertations
[1] Author, "Title of thesis," Ph.D. dissertation/thesis, Abbrev. Dept., Abbrev. Univ., City of Univ., Abbrev. State, year. [Online]. Available: URL
[2] Author, "Title of thesis," Ph.D. dissertation/thesis, Abbrev. Dept., Abbrev. Univ., City of Univ., Abbrev. State, year.
[1] H. Hansen, "Enhanced wind tunnel techniques and aerodynamic force models for yacht sails," Ph.D. thesis, Mech. Eng. Dept., Uni. Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, 2006 [Online]. Available: https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/1759
[2] C. Mankelow, "The link between denitrifying ecology, environmental conditions, and nitrous oxide production in wastewater treatment," Ph.D. thesis, Civil Environ. Eng. Dept., Uni. Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, 2018.
[1] Author, "Title of thesis," M.S. thesis, Abbrev. Dept., Abbrev. Univ., City of Univ., Abbrev. State, year. [Online]. Available: URL
[2] Author, "Title of thesis," M.S. thesis, Abbrev. Dept., Abbrev. Univ., City of Univ., Abbrev. State, year.
[1] Y. Qing, "Different strategies for stimulating microbes to produce enzymes for degrading organic micropollutants," M.S. thesis, Environ. Eng. Dept., Univ. Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/49252
[2] H. B. Fusser, "A man-machine interface for pc-controlled injection moulding," M.S. thesis, Dept. Chem. Eng., McGill Univ., Montreal, Canada, 1991.
When using another person's ideas or words, include an Arabic numeral in brackets (consecutively numbered). If the reference is referred to again, the same number is used.
... has been recently identified [1].
The same number is used if the reference is referred to again. If referring to a different page/part from that reference, include the relevant information with the reference number.
Sensible heat is when heat is transferred to a material by raising or lowering the temperature [1, Ch. 5].
OR
Sensible heat is the transfer of heat to a material by raising or lowering the temperature [1, pp. 340-345].
If you are expressing ideas that have originated from more than one source, separate the numbers with commas if referring to a range of numbers (references).
... in alkyl sulphates such as sodium lauryl sulphate [3], [5], [6] and diethyl sulphate [7]. Other compounds showing promise were those in the C12 - C14 range [8], [9], [10].
Only use the author's name where it is integral to the understanding of the sentence; otherwise, just refer to the reference number.
Cook [11] reduced the calculated time ...
... as demonstrated by Cook [2].
If citing a reference in the text with three or more authors, list the first author followed by et al.
Woods et al. [12] demonstrated the need for speed restrictions ...
For direct quotes, use quotation marks and include the page number(s).
The experts stated that "kinetic energy is the energy possessed by a moving system because of its velocity" [1, p. 139].