Frequent Style Errors to Avoid
These are the Most Common Problems Noticed by Editors of Past IEEE‐TAS Special Issues:
♦ Capitalization errors in the title.
♦ No “Manuscript received date” in first-page footnote.
♦ Incomplete author address information in first-page footnote. The e-mail address should be the same as that for the corresponding author. A full postal address should also be provided.
♦ Insufficient resolution in figures (figure looks good on screen, but appears blurry in print). Consult the IEEE Guidelines for Author Supplied Electronic Text and Graphics, and use the IEEE Graphics Checker.
♦ No space inserted between a number and its unit. For example, “4.2K” is not acceptable; “4.2 K” is correct. An exception is percentage (e.g. 25%). The degree symbol combines with the temperature unit, e.g. “20 °C”. Use a non-breaking space (in Word: ctrl-shift-space; in LaTeX the tilde character “~”) to avoid having the unit appear on a new line separated from the number.
♦ Not using Italic font for symbols.
♦ Not defining acronyms.
♦ Missing subscripts in chemical compounds. “Nb3Sn” refers to an alloy of 3% Sn in a balance of Nb. “Nb3Sn” is an intermetallic compound.
♦ Not using “Fig.” to refer to a figure in the body text. IEEE style explicitly calls for this requirement instead of “Figure”, “figure”, or “fig”, even when used at the beginning of a sentence.
♦ Not inserting a space between Fig. and the figure number. For example, “Fig. 1” is correct, “Fig.1” is not correct. Use a non-breaking space to avoid having the figure number appear on a new line separated from “Fig.”.
♦ Tables not being numbered in Roman numerals.
♦ Improper format of multiple citations. For example, “[1,2]” and “[1-3]” are not correct; “[1],[2]” and “[1]-[3]” are correct. Authors should note that other journals use a reference style that is not consistent with the required IEEE Style.
♦ Putting vertical lines in the tables.
♦ Putting extra horizontal lines in tables.
♦ Omitting the period after the figure number in the figure caption. “Fig. 1.” is the correct format.
♦ Journal titles not set in Italic font in the references.
♦ Page range not being specified in the references. For example, “pp. 700–702”.
♦ Improper use of “et al.” The abbreviations “et. al.”, “et al”, “Et Al” are not correct (“et al.” is Latin for “et alia”, meaning “and others”).