Format a bib in IEEE style automatically

Question

I have a bib file where I put all my references. Now I want to write a new paper in IEEETran style (\documentclass[conference]{IEEEtran}).

I want to integerate my bib to be compatible with IEEE style. How can I do it please?

Note that in the template they use:

\begin{thebibliography}{00}
\bibitem{b1} bla bla
\end{thebibliography}

Answer 1

If you plan to submit to the IEEE you should follow their recommendations if at all possible.

In particular you should not use biblatex-ieee if you plan to submit to the IEEE. That style is only intended for people who for some reason need to recreate the IEEE style for documents that are not submitted for IEEE publishing. See also https://github.com/josephwright/biblatex-ieee/pull/22#issuecomment-206542227

The IEEEtran documentation has the following to say about bibliographies (p. 16, §XIII.C Bibliographies)

Bibliographies are most easily (and correctly) generated using the IEEEtran BibTeX package [link to How to Use the IEEEtran BibTeX Style] which is easily invoked via

\bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}
\bibliography{IEEEabrv,mybibfile}

See the IEEEtran BibTeX package documentation for more information. When submitting the document source (.tex) file to external parties, it is strongly recommended that the BibTeX .bbl file be manually copied into the document (within the traditional LaTeX bibliography environment [thebibliography]) so as not to depend on external files to generate the bibliography and to prevent the possibility of changes occurring therein.

You should definitely have a thorough look at the IEEEtran documentation and the IEEEtran BibTeX Style manual for more details and specific guidance.

Assuming your .bib file is called IEEEexample.bib, you could use

\documentclass[american]{IEEEtran}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{babel}

\begin{document}
\cite{IEEEexample:article_typical}

\bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}
\bibliography{IEEEabrv,IEEEexample}
\end{document}

You would compile that file normally with LaTeX, BibTeX, LaTeX, LaTeX, see Question mark or bold citation key instead of citation number

Once you are done and want to submit your file to the IEEE, compile the file with the LaTeX, BibTeX, LaTeX, LaTeX sequence one last time and replace the two lines

\bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}
\bibliography{IEEEabrv,IEEEexample}

with the contents of your .bbl file to obtain (in this example)

\documentclass[american]{IEEEtran}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{babel}

\begin{document}
\cite{IEEEexample:article_typical}

% Generated by IEEEtran.bst, version: 1.14 (2015/08/26)
\begin{thebibliography}{1}
\providecommand{\url}[1]{#1}
\csname url@samestyle\endcsname
\providecommand{\newblock}{\relax}
\providecommand{\bibinfo}[2]{#2}
\providecommand{\BIBentrySTDinterwordspacing}{\spaceskip=0pt\relax}
\providecommand{\BIBentryALTinterwordstretchfactor}{4}
\providecommand{\BIBentryALTinterwordspacing}{\spaceskip=\fontdimen2\font plus
\BIBentryALTinterwordstretchfactor\fontdimen3\font minus
  \fontdimen4\font\relax}
\providecommand{\BIBforeignlanguage}[2]{{%
\expandafter\ifx\csname l@#1\endcsname\relax
\typeout{** WARNING: IEEEtran.bst: No hyphenation pattern has been}%
\typeout{** loaded for the language `#1'. Using the pattern for}%
\typeout{** the default language instead.}%
\else
\language=\csname l@#1\endcsname
\fi
#2}}
\providecommand{\BIBdecl}{\relax}
\BIBdecl

\bibitem{IEEEexample:article_typical}
S.~Zhang, C.~Zhu, J.~K.~O. Sin, and P.~K.~T. Mok, ``A novel ultrathin elevated
  channel low-temperature poly-{Si} {TFT},'' \emph{{IEEE} Electron Device
  Lett.}, vol.~20, pp. 569--571, Nov. 1999.

\end{thebibliography}
\end{document}

a document that compiles to the same output, but does not depend on external files.

Answer 2

I assume that you have written your references in your ref.bib file. Then in your original tex file, right above the \end{document}, add following lines;

\bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}
\bibliography{ref}

I use this format in IEEE Access paper and the references are automatically designed as follows

Also, keep in mind that you should add your references in bibtex format to the ref.bib file.