IEEEtran – Journal Names Not Abbreviated with IEEEabrv

Question

I am using the following syntax, with no errors or warnings. However, the journal names are still not abbreviated. I compiled the file numerous times, as well as the bibliography. Everything compiles with no errors.

The syntax:

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

Additional info:
I am using BibDesk and TeXStudio on a macbook.

Do you have any idea what might be the issue? and how to solve it?
Thank you.

Edit:

Example entry from the IEEEabrv file:

@STRING{IEEE\_M\_COM        = "{IEEE} Commun. Mag."}

Example entry from my references file:

@article{dai:2015,
    Author = {Test, T.},
    Journal = {IEEE\_M\_COM },
    Month = {September}
    }

Answer 1

A predefined string should not be inside braces; you must use it literally, in this case with no backslash. TeX won't see the underscores, because BibTeX will do the substitution.

\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@article{dai:2015,
    Author = {Test, T.},
    Journal = IEEE_M_COM,
    Month = {September}
    }
\end{filecontents*}

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

\cite{dai:2015}

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

\end{document}

I used filecontents just for the convenience of a self-contained example. Fix your references.bib file and use that.