An IEEE unpublished paper citation should describe the manuscript you can verify. Use unpublished for a draft, submitted for publication for an unaccepted submission, and to be published for a confirmed acceptance awaiting publication. Leave unassigned journal details out.
Verify the manuscript status
Start with the manuscript you actually read. Copy its title and author order, then confirm its current stage with the author or a dated editorial decision. A filename such as final_revision.pdf supplies none of that evidence. A submission acknowledgement confirms receipt; an acceptance decision confirms a different stage.
We checked the IEEE Reference Guide against the Concordia and Curtin library guides. All provide a short unpublished-paper model. IEEE also gives separate wording for an unaccepted submission and a paper awaiting publication after acceptance. That distinction controls the reference you should build.
Use this table only after checking whether a public publication record already exists. A missing issue number alone does not make a paper unpublished.
| What you can confirm | Reference route | Details to leave out |
|---|---|---|
| Draft in preparation, no public record | Author, title, unpublished | Proposed journal and projected publication date |
| Submitted, acceptance not confirmed | Author, title, submitted for publication | Acceptance wording and speculative journal fields |
| Accepted, no publisher Early Access record | Author, title, confirmed journal, to be published | Unassigned volume, issue and pages |
| Public arXiv record | arXiv reference with its identifier and version where needed | Unconfirmed future journal details |
| Publisher Early Access record | Published online article reference | Unpublished or submitted status labels |
| Only an email or conversation | Personal communication under the destination rules | A paper title you have never seen |
If the author cannot confirm the stage, keep the entry provisional in your working bibliography. Ask for the manuscript and current status before using it in a submitted paper. An empty search result does not establish that a work was never published.
Distinguish submitted and accepted
For an IEEE submitted for publication reference, the guide's model ends with submitted for publication. It omits the journal. The journal named in a submission cover letter is only the intended destination. Leave it out of this entry until acceptance is confirmed.
For an IEEE accepted manuscript citation, first verify the acceptance and the journal concerned. IEEE defines the accepted article as the version revised to incorporate peer-review suggestions and accepted for publication. A request for major revisions still requires a later editorial decision. Do not infer acceptance from a positive review.
The IEEE guide uses to be published for an accepted or scheduled article that has not appeared as Early Access. It expressly advises against to appear in. If your university or target journal specifies another treatment, follow those receiving instructions and keep the underlying status accurate.
The following teaching examples are fictional. A. Rivera and the manuscript title identify no real submission. The accepted-entry journal field is a placeholder for a verified venue, so replace it before using the pattern.
[1] A. Rivera, “Packet scheduling under intermittent links,” unpublished.[1] A. Rivera, “Packet scheduling under intermittent links,” submitted for publication.[1] A. Rivera, “Packet scheduling under intermittent links,” <verified abbreviated journal title>, to be published.These are alternative entries for one hypothetical work at different stages. Keep only the entry matching the version and status you verified. The repeated [1] demonstrates an alternative format; it does not instruct you to create three bibliography items.
Use only confirmed fields
Build the unpublished entry from the author's initials and surname, the quoted manuscript title, and its status. Concordia reproduces this compact model. It does not require you to supply a guessed year. Keep a dated copy or version note in your research records even when that note is absent from the formatted reference.
For an accepted article, copy the confirmed journal name and check its abbreviation. Leave volume, issue and publication pages blank until assigned. Page 1 of a twelve-page author manuscript is a location within that file; it supplies no evidence of the journal's eventual pagination.
A DOI can exist before the final issue assignment. IEEE's guide includes a to-be-published example with a DOI. Add one only when it is assigned to this work, and resolve it first. A DOI that opens an Early Access article changes the citation route. A DOI belonging to a repository deposit identifies that deposit and should be described accordingly.
Do not upload a privately shared manuscript merely to give the reference a URL. Ask the author about permission to cite or share it, and follow any confidentiality restrictions. If the information came only from an email, use the personal communication guide. Having a titled manuscript to consult gives you a different source to describe.
Number the reference when you first cite it and reuse that number later. A sentence can say “Rivera describes the scheduling method in an unpublished manuscript [1].” If you need a locator, identify a stable section or equation from the copy you actually consulted.
Switch routes once a public version exists
Before handing in the manuscript, search the exact title and first author again. Check the publisher page and any repository record. Follow the IEEE arXiv citation guide when the available source is an arXiv preprint. A public identifier lets readers retrieve a specific record; retain the version needed to support your passage.
Once the publisher provides Early Access, use the IEEE Early Access citation guide. IEEE directs authors toward the publisher's online version when available. Include its confirmed online date and DOI, then update the entry when final volume or article-number information appears.
Compare the relevant passage before replacing an old draft reference. Revisions may change an equation or remove the result you cited. Update the sentence along with the reference if its support has changed. If you still need to discuss a specific earlier version, identify that version explicitly rather than silently attributing its contents to the published paper.