IEEE format in practice

IEEE venues, from tiny workshops to flagship journals, share one class file: IEEEtran. Learn it once and hundreds of venues open up.

Conference vs journal mode

The same class produces different layouts depending on options:

% Conference paper
\documentclass[conference]{IEEEtran}

% Journal article
\documentclass[journal]{IEEEtran}

Conference mode gives you the classic look: 10pt Times, two columns, no page numbers by default. Journal mode changes the title layout, adds author biographies at the end, and tweaks spacing. Always use the mode your venue asks for, they are not interchangeable. For the broader IEEE vs ACM landscape, see ACM, IEEE, and friends.

Authors the IEEE way

Conference mode has its own author markup. Do not fight it with \\ and manual centering:

\author{
  \IEEEauthorblockN{Ada Lovelace}
  \IEEEauthorblockA{Analytical Engines Lab\\
  University of London\\
  [email protected]}
  \and
  \IEEEauthorblockN{Charles Babbage}
  \IEEEauthorblockA{Department of Mathematics\\
  University of Cambridge\\
  [email protected]}
}

\IEEEauthorblockN holds names, \IEEEauthorblockA holds affiliations, and \and separates authors into columns.

Living with two columns

Two-column layout is where first-timers get stuck. The rules:

The starred float environments are non-negotiable for wide content:

\begin{figure*}[t]
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{pipeline}
  \caption{Full-width figures need the starred environment.}
\end{figure*}

Note that figure* refuses [h] placement, it always floats to a page top. Plan for that instead of fighting it.

Bibliography

IEEE uses numeric citations with its own BibTeX style:

\bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}
\bibliography{references}

The matching IEEEtran.bst ships with the class. Do not substitute plain or ieeetr, reviewers notice, and the camera-ready checklist will catch it anyway.

Where to get the real template

Always start from the official source: the IEEE Template Selector at ieee.org, or the conference’s own author kit page. Conference organizers sometimes patch the template (copyright notice, extra footers), so the venue’s version wins over a generic copy. Oleafly’s template gallery includes an IEEE-style conference starter that compiles out of the box on the bundled Tectonic engine, handy for drafting before you drop in the official kit.

Common gotchas checklist

• Compile with pdfLaTeX-compatible code, IEEEtran predates fontspec and expects classic engines
• Do not add geometry or change margins, the class sets them exactly
• \IEEEpeerreviewmaketitle is needed after \maketitle in some journal submissions
• If the template errors on your machine, triage it like any broken template