Note that \label must occur AFTER (or within) \caption . For figures, \caption should occur after the \includegraphics . Note that IEEEtran v1.7 and later has special internal code that is designed to preserve the operation of \label within \caption even when the captionsoff option is in effect. However, because of issues like this, it may be the safest practice to put all your \label just after \caption rather than within \caption{} .