How do I cite a chapter from lecture notes?

[PhysicsRock]

TL;DR Summary

Issue with citation of lecture notes / specific chapter.

I am currently working on my bachelor thesis and ran into an issue regarding citation. I found some lecture notes from MIT which are quite useful (https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/8-333-s...s-of-particles-fall-2013/pages/lecture-notes/). Obviously, I'll have to cite them. The lecture notes don't come as a whole, but in individual chapters, where only III.C is relevant for me / is the only one I used. My question is now how I correctly cite these notes. Do I mention the whole course or only the chapter and how is the correct layout? I am using an IEEE reference style.

I hope this is the right forum for my question. Otherwise, I wish to apologize for any inconveniences for the admins.

 

[jedishrfu]

Here's what I found:

https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/IEEE_Reference_Guide.pdf

In IEEE citation style, you should cite only the specific portion of the lecture notes that you used—in your case, chapter III.C—not the entire course, unless the whole set is directly relevant.

General IEEE Format for Lecture Notes:

[#] Author's First Initial. Last Name, "Title of lecture or notes, section or chapter if relevant," Course Name, Institution, location, unpublished lecture notes, Month, Year.

Example for Your Case (Assume Instructor is Dr. John Smith, at Texas State University):
[1] J. Smith, "III.C. Title of the Chapter," *CS 5310: Advanced Algorithms*, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, unpublished lecture notes, Apr. 2025.

Notes:​

• Use the section title (“III.C. Title of the Chapter”) if it has one; if not, you can leave it as just "Section III.C" but the former is more precise.
• If the notes were made available online (e.g., via Canvas or a university website), you can add a URL and access date.
• Always label them as “unpublished lecture notes” unless they are formally published or printed.

 

[PhysicsRock]

Here's what I found:

https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/IEEE_Reference_Guide.pdf

In IEEE citation style, you should cite only the specific portion of the lecture notes that you used—in your case, chapter III.C—not the entire course, unless the whole set is directly relevant.

General IEEE Format for Lecture Notes:

[#] Author's First Initial. Last Name, "Title of lecture or notes, section or chapter if relevant," Course Name, Institution, location, unpublished lecture notes, Month, Year.

Example for Your Case (Assume Instructor is Dr. John Smith, at Texas State University):
[1] J. Smith, "III.C. Title of the Chapter," *CS 5310: Advanced Algorithms*, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, unpublished lecture notes, Apr. 2025.

Notes:​

• Use the section title (“III.C. Title of the Chapter”) if it has one; if not, you can leave it as just "Section III.C" but the former is more precise.
• If the notes were made available online (e.g., via Canvas or a university website), you can add a URL and access date.
• Always label them as “unpublished lecture notes” unless they are formally published or printed.

Thank you very much, this helped a lot!