Metanorma: Aequitate Verum

Typical sections in IEEE

General

The easiest way to ensure that you are following the document structure that IEEE demands, is to use a Metanorma template.

If you author a document type that doesn’t have a template, check a sample document for better understanding how to structure that document.

Typically, an IEEE SA document contains the following content order:

Preface segments

Abstract

The abstract of the document is marked up as a clause with the style attribute [abstract].

Example 1. Example of Abstract encoding (IEEE Std 1636.1™-2007)
[abstract]
== Abstract

This standard is intended to promote and facilitate interoperability
between components of an automatic test system (e.g., between test
executive and diagnostic reasoner) where test results need to be shared.

Keywords

The keywords of the document are given as the comma-delimited :keywords: document attribute (see Document attributes).

Introduction

The introduction of the document is marked up as a clause with the title "Introduction". The initial boxed text, "This introduction is not part of P{designation}/D{draft_number}, Draft {document-type} for {par-title}" is automatically generated and populated by Metanorma. Do not provide it.

Acknowledgements

If the document refers to any externally sourced content that require permission or licensing acknowledgements, they are entered as a section with the title "Acknowledgements".

The "Acknowledgements" section shall appear immediately after the "Introduction", in accordance with the IEEE SA Style Manual (2021).

Note
The placement of the "Acknowledgements" section differs in legacy documents, some IEEE SA standards places it immediately before the "Introduction".
Example 2. Example of Acknowledgements (IEEE Std 1127™-2013)
== Acknowledgements

<<table2>> of this standard is printed with permission from BBN Corporation.

Automatic generated content

The templated material ("boilerplate") of the document front matter is all automatically provided by Metanorma:

  • Front page: Copyright statement, license statement

  • Second page: Contact information, ISBNs

  • Important Notices and Disclaimers Concerning IEEE Standards Documents

  • Participants statement (the membership of the various committees is provided in a Participants clause)

  • The note before the overview in amendments, indicating how formatting is to be interpreted

Terms and definitions

The terms and definitions is used to define important terms and cite them throughout the standard.

References

The references section contains normative references, it is considered a “bibliography” section.

Note
In IEEE there are two “bibliography” sections. The “References” section for normative references, and the “Bibliography” section which is for informative references.

Content sections

After the sections above, any number of content sections can be added.

Annex sections

General

Annex sections are declared by prepending the [appendix] tag above the section declaration. Annexes can be added as necessary.

An annex can either be normative or informative. By default an annex is marked informative.

In order to declare a normative annex, use the obligation attribute in the following manner: [appendix,obligation=normative]

Example 3. Example of creating a normative versus an information annex
// Without declaration, an annex is informative.
[appendix]
== Informative annex title
...

// A normative annex.
[appendix,obligation=normative]
== Normative annex title
...

// A informative annex with explicit declaration
[appendix,obligation=informative]
== Informative annex title
...

Annex clauses are placed after all content sections, right before the bibliography section.

Glossary

IEEE SA documents support an extra definitions section that represents informative terms, as a "Glossary" section in the annex.

It can be encoded as follows:

Example 4. Example of creating the Glossary section
[appendix]
== Glossary

=== My term

My definition
...

The usage and syntax of this section is identical to that of Terms and definitions. Please refer to the terms and definitions syntax on how to write out the terms in the Glossary.