Questions about the IEEE citation style

Annie_of_the_Stars

I hope that this is the right place to ask. The IEEE website doesn't seem to have any forum. Also, the moderator of the IEEE subreddit seems to be inactive. So, I'm unable to make posts there. If you know of a better place to ask these questions, please let me know!

My questions:

1. Why are there so many forms for a book? If their intention is to show how you enter specific elements, a general form and some comments would've been better.
2. Why do some forms for books lack certain elements? For example, the second form for books with editor(s) lacks ch. x, sec. x, and pp. xxx-xxx.
3. What does J. K. and X. mean in the forms? The first goes before "Author" and the former before "Editor." I interpret both as the initials of the names of the author or editor, but I could be wrong.
4. In-text citations should go inside the punctuation. But, what does "inside the punctuation" mean?

Here's a link to the IEEE reference guide that I consulted: http://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/IEEE_Reference_Guide.pdf

damnation

1+2. They are actually mixing books and chapters in the same section. Normal books don't have page numbers. Chapters, in this style, have "in" and page numbers at the end.
3. "J. K." is probably is just a mistake and the remnant of an author's initials. See the "G. O. Young" example below on p. 4.
4. That means the number for the citation should be before the dot or symbol that finishes a sentence. So it should "Miller stated a statement[1]." and not "Miller stated a statement.[1]"

Generally, our style is very widely used and we not assume that there are any mistakes in the style. As long as the data is entered correctly in Zotero you can use that the way it's printed out is correct.

Annie_of_the_Stars

@damnation

Let me see if I understand your answer to questions one and two.

There is one form. It's just that whoever wrote the reference guide wanted to show how the general form would change depending on its elements. Is this correct?

Now, you say that "Normal books don't have page numbers," but books do have page numbers. Did you mean something else or am I making the wrong interpretation?

As for the locators (chapter, section, and page), they come at the end of the reference. Makes sense.

Your answer to three makes sense as well.

And the answer to four is much appreciated. I couldn't wrap my head around the sentence.

Thanks for your answers. I await your response to my new questions.

damnation

I am a book:
[2] W. Isaacson, Steve Jobs. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2011.

I am a chapter:

[2] I. Mares, “Firms and the welfare state: When, why, and how does social policy matter to employers?,” in Varieties of capitalism. The institutional foundations of comparative advantage, P. A. Hall and D. Soskice, Eds. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 184–213.


Books don't have page numbers as you're citing the whole book.
A chapter is a part of a book, a section of it, it appears at certain page numbers of said book.

When referening in text (!) then yes, you can reference certain pages of said book.
E.g. "Isaacson stated that Steve Jobs likes black turtle necks [1, pp. 244–252].

But the page numbers here are inserted while typing and in CSL/Zotero are the "locator" variable. A book doesn't have a page variable in Zotero. A chapter does.

That reference guide you link to explains how to reference "books", but jumbles books together with chapters.

Annie_of_the_Stars

@damnation

Ah, now I understand what you meant by not having page numbers. Thanks for clarifying that.

And yes, I'm aware of the mess that the guide is. For the sake of my understanding, I think I'll just make up a general form for books. Also, for practicality, I'll make a table showing where to insert each element into the book or book section item type in Zotero. That should help.

Thank you for everything!