Using \citet in IEEETran

You can use citet combined with numbers citations by loading:

\usepackage[numbers]{natbib}
\bibliographystyle{IEEEtranN}

As [number] is allowed to be used as a noun in IEEE, \citet is not necessary. However, I still define a new command \citet, but simply make it the same as \cite. By doing this, I can reuse the Tex source in different places without needing to change \citet to \cite when the former is not supported.