IEEE Xplore User Tips

Did you know that IEEE Xplore bibliographic references are easily downloadable in a variety of popular formats? Each abstract offers a Download Citation option. Choose your preferred format: ASCII Text, BibTex, RefWorks, Procite, RefMan, or Endnote.

You can also download multiple citations at once from the search results page. Click the check box to the left of each article you are interested in and then click the Download Citations option at the top of the page.

Please note: You can only download citations from one page of search results at a time.

DownloadIEEE recently released new, editable search boxes that allow users to start their search directly from your Web site. The search box will take users to the basic search results in IEEE Xplore. Direct search boxes are hosted by IEEE, so all you need to do is copy and paste a small piece of HTML code. They can also be used in conjunction with LibGuides.

Or promote your access to IEEE information by offering a quick link to the IEEE Xplore Digital Library with a banner ad to place on your organization’s Web site. Direct Search Boxes and Banners are available on the Client Services site.

Email alerts and RSS feeds are available for each of the journals and magazines available in IEEE Xplore, so you can choose which titles that matter most to you. To set up Table of Contents alerts, select Alerts from the My Settings drop down menu on the blue navigation bar. To set up an email alert, click on the check box to the left of each title that you are interested in and click update. Once you have done that you will begin receiving emails each time that journal or magazine is posted online with a link to the table of contents.

You can also sign up for a weekly alert identifying new conferences added to Xplore that week.

Please Note: To take advantage of any of the personalization features in IEEE Xplore, such as Table of Contents alerts, you must first set up a free personal account. Go to the My Settings drop down menu on the blue navigation bar and select Sign In. On the sign in page, select Register Now for a Free IEEE Personal Account.

Want to only see content that you can download the full-text PDF? On the search results page, simply check the box next to “Only show full text results included in my subscription” in the Refine/Expand Results box on the left-hand side.

You can also search within your subscribed content from the Advanced Search page. To access the Advanced Search page, click on the Advanced Search link just below the basic search bar on the homepage. In the Subscribed Content box, select your subscription package to just search within your subscribed content.

Please Note: This feature is not available for file cabinet subscriptions.

Looking for the key researchers within a particular technology or industry? Simply execute a search on the area of interest and scroll to the Author facet on the search results page in the Refine/Expand Results box on the left-hand side. Here you will see the top 25 authors listed based on record count.

Finding the title history for a journal or magazine in IEEE Xplore is easy. Simply go to Browse Journals & Magazines. Find the specific title you are interested in and click on View Details to display the complete list of previous titles. You can also see the title history by clicking on the name of the journal or magazine and going to the publication homepage. The homepage also includes a description of the publication, links to the society(s) that publishes it, contact information, persistent URL, ISSN, and publication frequency.

Some articles in IEEE Xplore contain an external file to help understand or further illustrate the concepts presented by the author. These files can include multimedia such as the PowerPoint presentation given at a conference or other types of content such as graphics and spreadsheets. To access these materials, select the Multimedia link in the table of contents or in the AbstractPlus record.

IEEE provides comprehensive lists of IEEE journals, magazines, conference proceedings, standards, and educational courses, which are updated biweekly. The lists can be downloaded in comma delimited or Excel format and provide information such as title, ISSN, start date, end date, issues per year and persistent URL. To access these lists, go to the Browse option on IEEE Xplore, select the type of content, such as Journals & Magazines, and click on IEEE Xplore Title List on the right-hand side of the page.

It's easy to share information with your colleagues. Every abstract in IEEE Xplore includes an email link at the top of the page. The email is automatically populated with a link to the article's AbstractPlus record. Simply provide your name, your email address, and the recipient’s email address to share the article with a colleague. You can even provide a message to be included in the email, if desired.

It’s easy to see what your counterparts at other institutions are doing by searching the affiliation field. In the search field drop-down menu on the Advanced Search page, select the affiliation field to narrow the search to the primary author’s credentials. This is useful when you cannot remember an author’s name or for competitive intelligence. You can also use the affiliation field to narrow your search to a specific geographic region by searching on the city, state , and/or country.

Looking for a specific article that a colleague has recommended or from a reference list? Go to the Advanced Search page and select the Publication Quick Search tab. Enter the bibliographic information you know, such as author, document title, publication year or page number, and IEEE Xplore will retrieve the article you are looking for.

The easiest method to search for an author is to start by searching just the author’s last name in the global search box on the IEEE Xplore home page. Then on the search results page, use the Author facet in the Refine/Expand Results module on the left hand side of the search results page to narrow your choices. Author names are not standardized so an author may be listed more than one way. Using the Author facet allows you scroll through the search results and find all of the potential variations. 

The default in IEEE Xplore is to search the metadata only which includes the abstract, indexing terms and bibliographic citation information (article title, author, publication title, etc.) To do a true full-text search, you must go to the Advanced Search page or the Command Search page and select the ‘Full-text & Metadata’ radio button.

IEEE Xplore automatically retrieves pluralized nouns, verb tenses, and British-American spelling variations for most words. For example, if you search simulate your search results will include any articles with simulate, simulates, simulated, or simulating. If you would like to search for all variations of the word, such as simulation and simulator, you can use the asterisk wildcard. Simulat* will find any word that begins with simulat. You can use up to five asterisk wildcards per search and the asterisk wildcard can be used at the beginning of a word (*optic), in the middle of a word (me*n), or at the end of a word (simulat*).

IEEE recently expanded the list of citations on the AbstractPlus record to include a list of all articles that have cited the document from any publisher participating in CrossRef's Cited-By Linking program. This information is included for all IEEE journal articles and goes as far back as 1929. In addition, you can now sort your search results by Most Cited and see the number of times an article has been cited on the search results page.

Stay up-to-date with the latest research by setting up search alerts on saved searches. Once you have completed a search, select ‘Set Search Alert’ on the search results page. You will receive an email once a week alerting you to any new content added that week that meets your search criteria. To access your saved searches, go to the My Settings drop down menu on the blue navigation bar and select Saved Searches. 

Please Note: To take advantage of any of the personalization features in IEEE Xplore, such as saved searches, you must first set up a free personal account. Go to the My Settings drop down menu on the blue navigation bar and select Sign In. On the sign in page, select Register Now for a Free IEEE Personal Account.

IEEE articles are increasingly posted online before they are published in print. These articles have passed through all editorial processes, including peer review. To narrow your search results to early access, or pre-print, articles go to the Content Type facet in the Refine/Expand Results module on the left hand side of the search results page. Select Early Access and refresh your results.

To search for early access articles, go to the Advanced Search page, scroll down to Content Types and select Early Access. You can also view early access articles for a specific journal. Go to Browse Journals & Magazines and enter a keyword or select the first letter of the title. Click on the title of interest and then select Early Access: View Articles.