How do I use the IEEE bibliography commands?

Question

I'm trying to layout a short article using the IEEE latex style guide. I'm having difficulty with the final part of their bibliography instructions as I want to reference an external .bib file. I have the IEEEtran.cls file and IEEEtran.bst file in my local folder.

\bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}
% argument is your BibTeX string definitions and bibliography database(s)
\bibliography{IEEEabrv,../bib/paper}

What are 'string definitions'? I presume the bibliography database is the specific file I want to reference, which in my case is ../../references

Answer 1

A string definition is an alias that shortens the work of bibtex-ing.

@STRING{HH = "Proc. IEEE Solid State Sensors Workshop"}

It goes, obviously, into your bibtex file, usually the very top.

And yes, the bibliography database is your references in the bibtex format. As things stand now, your document thinks that your bibliography database is "IEEEabrv,..,/bib/paper}

So you need to do:

\bibliography{../../references}

You can use multiple files also. My bibliography for my last paper was:

\bibliography {%
  bib/fbe2,%
  bib/books,%
  bib/mags,%
  bib/phd,%
  bib/roc,%
  bib/SA,%
  bib/prevWrk,%
  bib/mems}   

BTW, all my bib files end in .bib (e.g. books.bib), and you don't include the suffix in your declaration.