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Academic CV (Curriculum Vitae) for Research: CV Examples

What is an academic CV (or research CV)?

An academic CV or “curriculum vitae” is a full synopsis (usually around two to three pages) of your educational and academic background. In addition to college and university transcripts, the personal statement or statement of purpose , and the cover letter, postgraduate candidates need to submit an academic CV when applying for research, teaching, and other faculty positions at universities and research institutions. 

Writing an academic CV (also referred to as a “research CV” or “academic resume”) is a bit different than writing a professional resume. It focuses on your academic experience and qualifications for the position—although relevant work experience can still be included if the position calls for it. 

What’s the difference between a CV and a resume?

While both CVs and resumes summarize your major activities and achievements, a resume is more heavily focused on professional achievements and work history. An academic CV, on the other hand, highlights academic accomplishments and summarizes your educational experience, academic background and related information.

Think of a CV as basically a longer and more academic version of a resume. It details your academic history, research interests, relevant work experience, publications, honors/awards, accomplishments, etc. For grad schools, the CV is a quick indicator of how extensive your background is in the field and how much academic potential you have. Ultimately, grad schools use your academic resume to gauge how successful you’re likely to be as a grad student.

Do I need an academic CV for graduate school?

Like personal statements, CVs are a common grad school application document (though not all programs require them). An academic CV serves the same basic purpose as a regular CV: to secure you the job you want—in this case, the position of “grad student.” Essentially, the CV is a sales pitch to grad schools, and you’re selling yourself !

In addition to your college transcripts, GRE scores, and personal statement or statement of purpose , graduate schools often require applicants submit an academic CV. The rules for composing a CV for a Master’s or doctoral application are slightly different than those for a standard job application. Let’s take a closer look.

Academic CV Format Guidelines

No matter how compelling the content of your CV might be, it must still be clear and easy for graduate admissions committee members to understand. Keep these formatting and organization tips in mind when composing and revising your CV:

• Whatever formatting choices you make (e.g., indentation, font and text size, spacing, grammar), keep it consistent throughout the document.
• Use bolding, italics, underlining, and capitalized words to highlight key information.
• Use reverse chronological order to list your experiences within the sections.
• Include the most important information to the top and left of each entry and place associated dates to the right.
• Include page numbers on each page followed by your last name as a header or footer.
• Use academic verbs and terms in bulleted lists; vary your language and do not repeat the same terms. (See our list of best verbs for CVs and resumes )

How long should a CV be?

While resumes should be concise and are usually limited to one or two pages, an academic CV isn’t restricted by word count or number of pages. Because academic CVs are submitted for careers in research and academia, they have all of the sections and content of a professional CV, but they also require additional information about publications, grants, teaching positions, research, conferences, etc. 

It is difficult to shorten the length without shortening the number of CV sections you include. Because the scope and depth of candidates’ academic careers vary greatly, academic CVs that are as short as two pages or as long as five pages will likely not surprise graduate admissions faculty.

How to Write an Academic CV

Before we look at academic CV examples, let’s discuss the main sections of the CV and how you can go about writing your CV from scratch. Take a look at the sections of the academic CV and read about which information to include and where to put each CV section. For academic CV examples, see the section that follows this one.

Academic CV Sections to Include (with Examples)

A strong academic CV should include the following sections, starting from the top of the list and moving through the bottom. This is the basic Academic CV structure, but some of the subsections (such as research publications and academic awards) can be rearranged to highlight your specific strengths and achievements. 

• Contact Information
• Research Objective or Personal Profile
• Education Section
• Professional Appointments
• Research Publications
• Awards and Honors
• Grants and Fellowships
• Conferences Attended
• Teaching Experience
• Research Experience
• Additional Activities
• Languages and Skills

Now let’s go through each section of your academic CV to see what information to include in detail. 

1. Contact Information

Your academic curriculum vitae must include your full contact information, including the following: 

• Professional title and affiliation (if applicable)
• Institutional address (if you are currently registered as a student)
• Your home address
• Your email address
• Your telephone number
• LinkedIn profile or other professional profile links (if applicable)

In more business-related fields or industries, adding your LinkedIn profile in your contact information section is recommended to give reviewers a more holistic understanding of your academic and professional profile.

Check out our article on how to use your LinkedIn profile to attract employers .

2. Research Objective or Personal Profile

A research objective for an academic CV is a concise paragraph (or long sentence) detailing your specific research plans and goals.

A personal profile gives summarizes your academic background and crowning achievements.

Should you choose a research objective or a personal profile?

If you are writing a research CV, include a research objective. For example, indicate that you are applying to graduate research programs or seeking research grants for your project or study

A research objective will catch the graduate admission committee’s attention and make them want to take a closer look at you as a candidate.

Academic CV research objective example for PhD application  

MA student in Sociology and Gender Studies at North American University who made the President’s List for for six consecutive semesters seeking to use a semester-long research internship to enter into postgraduate research on the Impetus for Religious In-groups in Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century.

Note that the candidate includes details about their academic field, their specific scholastic achievements (including an internship), and a specific topic of study. This level of detail shows graduate committees that you are a candidate who is fully prepared for the rigors of grad school life. 

While an academic CV research objective encapsulates your research objective, a CV personal profile should summarize your personal statement or grad school statement of purpose . 

Academic CV personal profile example for a post-doctoral university position

Proven excellence in the development of a strong rapport with undergraduate students, colleagues, and administrators as a lecturer at a major research university. Exhibits expertise in the creation and implementation of lifelong learning programs and the personalized development of strategies and activities to propel learning in Higher Education, specifically in the field of Education. Experienced lecturer, inspirational tutor, and focused researcher with a knack for recognizing and encouraging growth in individuals. Has completed a Master’s and PhD in Sociology and Education with a BA in Educational Administration.

What makes this CV personal profile example so compelling? Again, the details included about the applicant’s academic history and achievements make the reader take note and provide concrete examples of success, proving the candidate’s academic acumen and verifiable achievements.

3. Education Section

If you are applying to an academic position, the Education section is the most essential part of your academic CV.

List your postsecondary degrees in reverse chronological order . Begin with your most recent education (whether or not you have received a degree at the time of application), follow it with your previous education/degree, and then list the ones before these.

Include the following educational details:

• Year of completion or expected completion (do not include starting dates)
• Type of Degree
• Any minor degrees (if applicable)
• Your department and institution
• Your honors and awards
• Dissertation/Thesis Title and Advisor (if applicable)

Because this is arguably the most important academic CV section, make sure that all of the information is completely accurate and that you have not left out any details that highlight your skills as a student. 

4. Professional Appointments

Following the education section, list your employment/professional positions on your academic CV. These should be positions related to academia rather than previous jobs or positions you held in the private section (whether it be a chef or a CEO). These appointments are typically tenure-track positions, not ad hoc and adjunct professor gigs, nor TA (teacher assistant) experience. You should instead label this kind of experience under “Teaching Experience,” which we discuss further down the list.

List the following information for each entry in your “Professional Appointments” section:

• Institution (university/college name)
• Department 
• Your professional title
• Dates employed (include beginning and end dates)
• Duties in this position

5. Research Publications

Divide your publications into two distinct sections: peer-reviewed publications and other publications. List peer-reviewed publications first, as these tend to carry more weight in academia. Use a subheading to distinguish these sections for the reader and make your CV details easier to understand.

Within each subsection, further divide your publications in the following order:

• Book chapters
• Peer-reviewed journal articles
• Contributions to edited volumes equivalent to peer-reviewed journals

All of your other research publications should be put into a subcategory titled “Other Publications.” This includes all documents published by a third party that did not receive peer review, whether it is an academic journal, a science magazine, a website, or any other publishing platform. 

Tip: When listing your publications, choose one academic formatting style ( MLA style , Chicago style , APA style , etc.) and apply it throughout your academic CV. Unsure which formatting style to use? Check the website of the school you are applying to and see what citation style they use.

6. Awards and Honors

This section allows you to show off how your skills and achievements were officially acknowledged. List all academic honors and awards you have received in reverse chronological order, just like the education and professional appointments sections. Include the name of the award, which year you received it, and the institution that awarded it to you.

Should you include how much money you were awarded? While this is not recommended for most academic fields (including humanities and social sciences), it is more common for business or STEM fields.

7. Fellowships and Grants

It is important to include fellowships and grants you received because it evidences that your research has been novel and valuable enough to attract funding from institutions or third parties.

Just like with awards and honors, list your grants and fellowships in reverse chronological order. Enter the years your fellowship or grant spanned and the name of the institution or entity providing the funding. Whether you disclose the specific dollar amount of funding you received depends on your field of study, just as with awards and honors.

8. Conferences Attended

Involvement in academic conferences shows admissions committees that you are already an active member of the research community. List the academic conferences in which you took part and divide this section into three subsections:

• Invited talks —conferences you presented at other institutions to which you received an invitation
• Campus talks —lectures you gave on your own institution’s campus
• Conference participation —conferences you participated in (attended) but gave no lecture

9. Teaching Experience

The “Teaching Experience” section is distinct from the “Professional Appointments” section discussed above.  In the Teaching Experience CV section, list any courses you taught as a TA (teacher’s assistant) you have taught. If you taught fewer than ten courses, list all of them out. Included the name of the institution, your department, your specific teaching role, and the dates you taught in this position. 

If you have a long tenure as an academic scholar and your academic CV Appointments section strongly highlights your strengths and achievements, in the Teaching Experience sections you could list only the institutions at which you were a TA. Since it is likely that you will be teaching, lecturing, or mentoring undergraduates and other research students in your postgraduate role, this section is helpful in making you stand out from other graduate, doctoral, or postdoctoral candidates.

10. Research Experience

In the “Research Experience” section of your CV, list all of the academic research posts at which you served. As with the other CV sections, enter these positions in reverse chronological order.

If you have significant experience (and your academic CV is filling up), you might want to limit research and lab positions to only the most pertinent to the research position to which you are applying. Include the following research positions:

• Full-time Researcher
• Research Associate
• Research Assistant

For an academic or research CV, if you do not have much research experience, include all research projects in which you participated–even the research projects with the smallest roles, budget, length, or scope. 

11. Additional Activities

If you have any other activities, distinctions, positions, etc. that do not fit into the above academic CV sections, include them here.

The following items might fit in the “Additional Activities” section:

• Extracurriculars (clubs, societies, sports teams, etc.)
• Jobs unrelated to your academic career
• Service to profession
• Media coverage
• Volunteer work

12. Languages and Skills

Many non-academic professional job positions require unique skillsets to succeed. The same can be true with academic and research positions at universities, especially when you speak a language that might come in handy with the specific area of study or with the other researchers you are likely to be working alongside.

Include all the languages in which you are proficient enough to read and understand academic texts. Qualify your proficiency level with the following terms and phrases:

• IntermediateNative/bilingual in Language
• Can read Language with a dictionary
• Advanced use of Language
• Fully proficient in Language
• Native fluency in Language
• Native/Bilingual Language speaker

If you only have a basic comprehension of a language (or if you simply minored in it a decade ago but never really used it), omit these from this section. 

Including skills on an academic CV is optional and MIGHT appear somewhat amateur if it is not a skill that is difficult and would likely contribute to your competency in your research position. In general, include a skill only if you are in a scientific or technical field (STEM fields) and if they realistically make you a better candidate.

13. References 

The final section of your academic CV is the “References” section. Only include references from individuals who know you well and have first-hand experience working with you, either in the capacity of a manager, instructor, or professor, or as a colleague who can attest to your character and how well you worked in that position. Avoid using personal references and never use family members or acquaintances–unless they can somehow attest to your strength as an academic.

List your references in the order of their importance or ability to back up your candidacy. In other words, list the referrers you would want the admissions faculty to contact first and who would give you a shining review. 

Include the following in this order:

• Full name and academic title
• Physical mailing address
• Telephone number
• Email address

Academic CV Examples by Section 

Now that you have a template for what to include in your academic CV sections, let’s look at some examples of academic CV sections with actual applicant information included. Remember that the best CVs are those that clearly state the applicant’s qualifications, skills, and achievements. Let’s go through the CV section-by-section to see how best to highlight these elements of your academic profile. Note that although this example CV does not include EVERY section detailed above, this doesn’t mean that YOU shouldn’t include any of those sections if you have the experiences to fill them in.

CV Example: Personal Details (Basic)

Write your full name, home address, phone number, and email address. Include this information at the top of the first page, either in the center of the page or aligned left.

• Tip: Use a larger font size and put the text in bold to make this info stand out.

CV Example: Profile Summary (Optional)

This applicant uses an academic research profile summary that outlines their personal details and describes core qualifications and interests in a specific research topic. Remember that the aim of this section is to entice admissions officials into reading through your entire CV.

• Tip: Include only skills, experience, and what most drives you in your academic and career goals.

CV Example: Education Section (Basic)

This applicant’s academic degrees are listed in reverse chronological order, starting with those that are currently in progress and recently completed and moving backward in time to their undergraduate degrees and institutions.

• Include the name of the institution; city, state, and country (if different from the institution to which you are applying); degree type and major; and month/year the degree was or will be awarded.
• Provide details such as the title of your thesis/dissertation and your advisor, if applicable.
• Tip: Provide more details about more recent degrees and fewer details for older degrees.

CV Example: Relevant Experience (Basic)

List professional positions that highlight your skills and qualifications. When including details about non-academic jobs you have held, be sure that they relate to your academic career in some way. Group experiences into relevant categories if you have multiple elements to include in one category (e.g., “Research,” “Teaching,” and “Managerial”). For each position, be sure to:

• Include position title; the name of organization or company; city, state, and country (if different from the institution to which you are applying); and dates you held the position
• Use bullet points for each relevant duty/activity and accomplishment
• Tip: For bulleted content, use strong CV words , vary your vocabulary, and write in the active voice; lead with the verbs and write in phrases rather than in complete sentences.

CV Example: Special Qualifications or Skills (Optional)

Summarize skills and strengths relevant to the position and/or area of study if they are relevant and important to your academic discipline. Remember that you should not include any skills that are not central to the competencies of the position, as these can make you appear unprofessional.

CV Example: Publications (Basic)

Include a chronological (not alphabetical) list of any books, journal articles, chapters, research reports, pamphlets, or any other publication you have authored or co-authored. This sample CV does not segment the publications by “peer-reviewed” and “non-peer-reviewed,” but this could simply be because they do not have many publications to list. Keep in mind that your CV format and overall design and readability are also important factors in creating a strong curriculum vitae, so you might opt for a more streamlined layout if needed.

• Use bibliographic citations for each work in the format appropriate for your particular field of study.
• Tip: If you have not officially authored or co-authored any text publications, include studies you assisted in or any online articles you have written or contributed to that are related to your discipline or that are academic in nature. Including any relevant work in this section shows the faculty members that you are interested in your field of study, even if you haven’t had an opportunity to publish work yet.

CV Example: Conferences Attended (Basic)

Include any presentations you have been involved in, whether you were the presenter or contributed to the visual work (such as posters and slides), or simply attended as an invitee. See the CV template guide in the first section of this article for how to list conference participation for more seasoned researchers.

• Give the title of the presentation, the name of the conference or event, and the location and date.
• Briefly describe the content of your presentation.
• Tip: Use style formatting appropriate to your field of study to cite the conference (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.)

CV Example: Honors and Awards (Basic)

Honors and awards can include anything from university scholarships and grants, to teaching assistantships and fellowships, to inclusion on the Dean’s list for having a stellar GPA. As with other sections, use your discretion and choose the achievements that best highlight you as a candidate for the academic position.

• Include the names of the honors and official recognition and the date that you received them.
• Tip: Place these in order of importance, not necessarily in chronological order.

CV Example: Professional/Institutional Service (Optional)

List the professional and institutional offices you have held, student groups you have led or managed, committees you have been involved with, or extra academic projects you have participated in.

• Tip: Showing your involvement in campus life, however minor, can greatly strengthen your CV. It shows the graduate faculty that you not only contribute to the academic integrity of the institution but that you also enrich the life of the campus and community.

CV Example: Certifications and Professional Associations (Optional)

Include any membership in professional organizations (national, state, or local). This can include nominal participation as a student, not only as a professional member.

CV Example: Community Involvement and Volunteer Work (Optional)

Include any volunteer work or outreach to community organizations, including work with churches, schools, shelters, non-profits, and other service organizations. As with institutional service, showing community involvement demonstrates your integrity and willingness to go the extra mile—a very important quality in a postgraduate student or faculty member. 

While the CV template guide above suggests including these activities in a section titled “Additional Activities,” if you have several instances of volunteer work or other community involvement, creating a separate heading will help catch the eye of the admissions reviewer.

CV Example: References Section (Basic)

References are usually listed in the final section of an academic CV. Include 3-5 professional or academic references who can vouch for your ability and qualifications and provide evidence of these characteristics.

• Write the name of the reference, professional title, affiliation, and contact information (phone and email are sufficient). You do not need to write these in alphabetical order. Consider listing your references in order of relevance and impact.

CV Editing for Research Positions

After you finish drafting and revising your academic CV, you still need to ensure that your language is clear, compelling, and accurate and that it doesn’t have any errors in grammar, spelling, or punctuation. 

A good academic CV typically goes through at least three or four rounds of revision before it is ready to send out to university department faculty. Be sure to have a peer or CV editing service check your CV or academic resume, and get cover letter editing and application essay editing for your longer admissions documents to ensure that there are no glaring errors or major room for improvement.

For professional editing services that are among the highest quality in the industry, send your CV and other application documents to Wordvice’s admissions editing services . Our professional proofreaders and editors will ensure that your hard work is reflected in your CV and help make your postgrad goals a reality.

Check out our full suite of professional proofreading and English editing services on the Wordvice homepage.

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Writing an effective academic CV

June 6, 2019 | 6 min read

By Elsevier Connect contributors

How to create a curriculum vitae that is compelling, well-organized and easy to read

A good CV showcases your skills and your academic and professional achievements concisely and effectively. It’s well-organized and easy to read while accurately representing your highest accomplishments.

Don't be shy about your achievements, but also remember to be honest about them. Do not exaggerate or lie!

Academic CVs  differ from the CVs opens in new tab/window  typically used by non-academics in industry because you need to present your research, various publications and awarded funding in addition to the other items contained in a non-academic CV.

Here are some tips. They are organized into categories that could be used to structure a CV. You do not need to follow this format, but you should address the categories covered here somewhere in your CV.

Tools you can use

If you’re looking to demonstrate the impact your research has had, PlumX Metrics are available in several of Elsevier’s products and services, giving you an overview of how specific papers have performed, including where they were mentioned in the media, how other researchers used them, and where they were mentioned on platforms from Twitter to Wikipedia.

You can also use Mendeley Careers to discover job opportunities based on the keywords and interests listed in your CV and the articles you’ve read in your Mendeley library.

If you’re looking for more specific guidance on how to take control of your career in research and academia, Elsevier’s Research Academy opens in new tab/window has entire sections dedicated to job search opens in new tab/window , career planning and career guidance.

General tips

Start by considering the  length ,  structure  and  format  of your CV.

2 pages is optimal for a non-academic CV, but research positions offer more flexibility on length

Include research-specific details that emphasize your suitability, like relevant publications, funding secured in your name, presentations and patents to the employer.

4 sides  is a reasonable length. Academic recruiters may accept more if the additional information is relevant to the post.

Next, choose a structure for your CV.

Start with the main headings and sub-headings you will use.

In general, you should start  by providing some brief personal details, then a brief career summary.

The first section of your CV should focus on your education, publications and research.

Also address: funding, awards and prizes, teaching roles, administrative experience, technical and professional skills and qualifications, professional affiliations or memberships, conference and seminar attendances and a list of references.

Dr. Sheba Agarwal-Jans talks about writing an academic CV for Elsevier’s Researcher Academy (free registration required).  Watch here opens in new tab/window .

Use legible font types in a normal size (font size 11 or 12) with normal sized margins (such as 1 inch or 2.5 cm).

Bullet points can highlight important items and present your credentials concisely.

Keep a consistent style for headings and sub-headings and main text – do not use more than 2 font types.

Make smart but sparing use of 

bold and italics. (Avoid underlining for emphasis; underlines are associated with hyperlinks.)

Be aware of spelling and grammar and ensure it is perfect. Re-read a few times after writing the CV. Spell check can be useful, though some suggestions will not be accurate or relevant.

Composing your CV

Personal details

Personal details include your name, address of residence, phone number(s) and professional email.

You might also include your visa status if relevant.

Career summary

Use about 5 to 7 sentences to summarize your expertise in your disciplines, years of expertise in these areas, noteworthy research findings, key achievements and publications.

Provide an overview of your education starting from your most recent academic degree obtained (reverse chronological order).

Include the names of the institutions, thesis or dissertation topics and type of degree obtained.

List your most reputed publications in ranking of type, such as books, book chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles, non-peer-reviewed articles, articles presented as prestigious conferences, forthcoming publications, reports, patents, and so forth.

Consider making an exhaustive list of all publications in an appendix.

Publications

Your research experiences, findings, the methods you use and your general research interests are critical to present in the first part of your CV.

Highlight key research findings and accomplishments.

Honors and awards

Indicate any prizes, awards, honors or other recognitions for your work with the year it occurred and the organization that granted the award.

The funding you have attracted for your research and work is recognition of the value of your research and efforts.

As with the honors and recognitions, be forthcoming with what you have obtained in terms of grants, scholarships and funds.

List your teaching experience, including the institutions, years you taught, the subjects you taught and the level of the courses.

Administrative experience

Administrative experience on a faculty or at a research institute should be noted.

This might include facilitating a newsletter, organizing events or other noteworthy activities at your institution or beyond.

Professional experience

Include any employment in industry that is recent (within the last 5 to 10 years) and relevant to your academic work.

Professional experience can explain any gaps in your academic work and demonstrate the diversity in your capabilities.

Other skills and qualifications

Highlight key skills and qualifications relevant to your research and academic work.

Technical and practical skills, certifications, languages and other potentially transferrable skills are relevant to mention in this section.

Professional affiliations and memberships

If you belong to any professional group or network related to your areas of expertise, you should mention them in this section.

Only list affiliations or memberships you have been active with within the last 5 years.

Keep this section short.

Attendance at conferences and seminars

List the most relevant conferences or seminars where you presented or participated on a panel within the last 5 to 7 years.

In an appendix, you can add an exhaustive list of conferences and seminars where you participated by giving a speech, presenting a paper or research, or took part in a discussion panel.

List at least three people who can provide a reference for your research, work and character. Check with them first to make sure the are comfortable recommending you and aware of the opportunities you are seeking.

Provide their names and complete contact information. They should all be academics and all people you have worked with.

Appendices enable you to keep the main content of your CV brief while still providing relevant detail.

Items to list in an appendix can include publications, short research statements or excerpts, conference or seminar participation, or something similar and relevant which you would like to provide more details about.

CVs are not only for job searching. You will need to update your CV regularly and adapt it for the various purposes:

Awards, fellowships

Grant applications

Public speaking

Contributor

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Academic Curriculum Vitae (CV) Example and Writing Tips

Tips for Writing an Academic CV

Academic curriculum vitae format, academic curriculum vitae example, more cv examples and templates.

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A  curriculum vitae (CV)  written for academia should highlight research and teaching experience, publications, grants and fellowships, professional associations and licenses, awards, and any other details in your experience that show you’re the best candidate for a faculty or research position advertised by a college or university.

When writing an academic CV, make sure you know what sections to include and how to structure your document.

Think about length.  Unlike resumes  (and even some other CVs), academic CVs can be any length. This is because you need to include all of your relevant publications, conferences, fellowships, etc.   Of course, if you are applying to a particular job, check to see if the  job listing  includes any information on a page limit for your CV.

Think about structure . More important than length is structure. When writing your CV, place the most important information at the top. Often, this will include your education, employment history, and publications. You may also consider adding a  personal statement  to make your CV stand out. Within each section, list your experiences in reverse chronological order.

Consider your audience . Like a resume, be sure to tailor your CV to your audience. For example, think carefully about the university or department you are applying to work at. Has this department traditionally valued publication over teaching when it makes tenure and promotion decisions? If so, you should describe your publications before listing your teaching experience.

If, however, you are applying to, say, a community college that prides itself on the quality of its instruction, your teaching accomplishments should have pride of place. In this case, the teaching section (in reverse chronological order) should proceed your publications section.

Talk to someone in your field.  Ask someone in your field for feedback on how to structure your CV. Every academic department expects slightly different things from a CV. Talk to successful people in your field or department, and ask if anyone is willing to share a sample CV with you. This will help you craft a CV that will impress people in your field.

Make it easy to read.  Keep your CV uncluttered by including ample margins (about 1 inch on all sides) and space between each section. You might also include bullet points in some sections (such as when listing the courses you taught at each university) to make your CV easy to read.

Be sure to use an  easy-to-read font , such as Times New Roman, in a font size of about 12-pt.

By making your CV clear and easy to follow, you increase the chances that an employer will look at it carefully.

Be consistent.  Be consistent with whatever format you choose. For example, if you bold one section title, bold all section titles. Consistency will make it easy for people to read and follow along with your CV.

Carefully edit.  You want your CV to show that you are professional and polished. Therefore, your document should be error-free. Read through your CV and  proofread  it for any spelling or grammar errors. Ask a friend or family member to look it over as well.

This CV format will give you a sense of what you might include in your academic CV. When writing your own curriculum vitae, tailor your sections (and the order of those sections) to your field, and to the job that you want.

Some of these sections might not be applicable to your field, so remove any that don’t make sense for you.

CONTACT INFORMATION Name Address City, State Zip Code Telephone Cell Phone Email

SUMMARY STATEMENT This is an optional section. In it, include a brief list of the highlights of your candidacy.

EDUCATION List your academic background, including undergraduate and graduate institutions attended. For each degree, list the institution, location, degree, and date of graduation. If applicable, include your dissertation or thesis title, and your advisors.

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY List your employment history in reverse chronological order, including position details and dates. You might break this into multiple sections based on your field. For example, you might have a section called “Teaching Experience” and another section called “Administrative Experience.”

POSTDOCTORAL TRAINING List your postdoctoral, research, and/or clinical experiences, if applicable.

FELLOWSHIPS / GRANTS List internships and fellowships, including organization, title, and dates. Also include any grants you have been given. Depending on your field, you might include the amount of money awarded for each grant.

HONORS / AWARDS Include any awards you have received that are related to your work.

CONFERENCES / TALKS List any presentations (including poster presentations) or invited talks that you have given. Also list any conferences or panels that you have organized.

SERVICE Include any service you have done for your department, such as serving as an advisor to students, acting as chair of a department, or providing any other administrative assistance.

LICENSES / CERTIFICATION List type of license, certification, or accreditation, and date received.

PUBLICATIONS / BOOKS Include any publications, including books, book chapters, articles, book reviews, and more. Include all of the information about each publication, including the title, journal title, date of publication, and (if applicable) page numbers.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS List any professional organizations that you belong to. Mention if you hold a position on the board of any organization.

SKILLS / INTERESTS This is an optional section that you can use to show a bit more about who you are. Only include relevant skills and interests. For example, you might mention if you speak a foreign language, or have experience with web design.

REFERENCES Depending on your field, you might include a list of your  references  at the end of your CV.

This is an example of an academic curriculum vitae. Download the academic CV template (compatible with Google Docs and Word Online) or see below for more examples.

Academic Curriculum Vitae Example (Text Version)

JOHN SMITH 287 Market Street Minneapolis, MN 55404 Phone: 555-555-5555   email@email.com

EDUCATION:Ph.D., Psychology, University of Minnesota, 2019 Concentrations: Psychology, Community Psychology  Dissertation:  A Study of Learning-Disabled Children in a Low-Income Community   Dissertation Advisors: Susan Hanford, Ph.D., Bill Andersen, Ph.D., Melissa Chambers, MSW

M.A., Psychology, University at Albany, 2017 Concentrations: Psychology, Special Education Thesis:  Communication Skills of Learning-Disabled Children Thesis Advisor: Jennifer Atkins, Ph.D. 

B.A, Psychology, California State University-Long Beach, 2015

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

Instructor, University of Minnesota, 2017-2019 University of Minnesota Courses: Psychology in the Classroom, Adolescent Psychology

Teaching Assistant, University at Albany, 2015-2017 Courses: Special Education, Learning Disabilities, Introduction to Psychology

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:

Postdoctoral Fellow, XYZ Hospital, 2019-2020 Administered extensive neuropsychological and psychodiagnostic assessment for children ages 3-6 for study on impact of in-class technology on children with various neurodevelopmental conditions

PUBLICATIONS:

North, T., and Smith, J. (Forthcoming). “Technology and Classroom Learning in a Mixed Education Space.”  Journal of Adolescent Psychology,  vol. 12.

Willis, A., North, T., and Smith, J. (2019). “The Behavior of Learning Disabled Adolescents in the Classroom.”  Journal of Educational Psychology , volume 81, 120-125.

PRESENTATIONS:

Smith, John (2019). “The Behavior of Learning Disabled Adolescents in the Classroom.” Paper presented at the Psychology Conference at the University of Minnesota.

Smith, John (2018). “Tailoring Assignments within Inclusive Classrooms.” Paper presented at Brown Bag Series, Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota.

GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS:

Nelson G. Stevens Fellowship (XYZ Research Facility, 2019)

RDB Grant (University of Minnesota Research Grant, 2018) Workshop Grant (for ASPA meeting in New York, 2017)

AWARDS AND HONORS:

Treldar Scholar, 2019 Teaching Fellow of the Year, 2018 Academic Excellence Award, 2017

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS:

Psychology Association of America National Association of Adolescent Psychology

RELEVANT SKILLS:

• Programming ability in C++ and PHP
• Extensive knowledge of SPSSX and SAS statistical programs.
• Fluent in German, French, and Spanish
• CV Formatting Guidelines With Examples
• CV Samples, Templates, and Writing Tips
• Free Microsoft Word CV Templates

Indiana University. " Curriculum Vitae Guide ." Accessed July 30, 2020.

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Academic Curriculum Vitae (CV) Example and Writing Tips

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Updated July 30, 2020 | Link to article from The Balance Careers

A  curriculum vitae (CV)  written for academia should highlight research and teaching experience, publications, grants and fellowships, professional associations and licenses, awards, and any other details in your experience that show you’re the best candidate for a faculty or research position advertised by a college or university.

When writing an academic CV, make sure you know what sections to include and how to structure your document.

Tips for Writing an Academic CV

Think about length.  Unlike resumes  (and even some other CVs), academic CVs can be any length. This is because you need to include all of your relevant publications, conferences, fellowships, etc. 1  Of course, if you are applying to a particular job, check to see if the  job listing  includes any information on a page limit for your CV.

Think about structure . More important than length is structure. When writing your CV, place the most important information at the top. Often, this will include your education, employment history, and publications. You may also consider adding a  personal statement  to make your CV stand out. Within each section, list your experiences in reverse chronological order.

Consider your audience . Like a resume, be sure to tailor your CV to your audience. For example, think carefully about the university or department you are applying to work at. Has this department traditionally valued publication over teaching when it makes tenure and promotion decisions? If so, you should describe your publications before listing your teaching experience.

If, however, you are applying to, say, a community college that prides itself on the quality of its instruction, your teaching accomplishments should have pride of place. In this case, the teaching section (in reverse chronological order) should proceed your publications section.

Talk to someone in your field.  Ask someone in your field for feedback on how to structure your CV. Every academic department expects slightly different things from a CV. Talk to successful people in your field or department, and ask if anyone is willing to share a sample CV with you. This will help you craft a CV that will impress people in your field.

Make it easy to read.  Keep your CV uncluttered by including ample margins (about 1 inch on all sides) and space between each section. You might also include bullet points in some sections (such as when listing the courses you taught at each university) to make your CV easy to read.

Important: Be sure to use an  easy-to-read font , such as Times New Roman, in a font size of about 12-pt.

By making your CV clear and easy to follow, you increase the chances that an employer will look at it carefully.

Be consistent.  Be consistent with whatever format you choose. For example, if you bold one section title, bold all section titles. Consistency will make it easy for people to read and follow along with your CV.

Carefully edit.  You want your CV to show that you are professional and polished. Therefore, your document should be error-free. Read through your CV and  proofread  it for any spelling or grammar errors. Ask a friend or family member to look it over as well.

Academic Curriculum Vitae Format

This CV format will give you a sense of what you might include in your academic CV. When writing your own curriculum vitae, tailor your sections (and the order of those sections) to your field, and to the job that you want.

Note: Some of these sections might not be applicable to your field, so remove any that don’t make sense for you.

CONTACT INFORMATION Name Address City, State Zip Code Telephone Cell Phone Email

SUMMARY STATEMENT This is an optional section. In it, include a brief list of the highlights of your candidacy.

EDUCATION List your academic background, including undergraduate and graduate institutions attended. For each degree, list the institution, location, degree, and date of graduation. If applicable, include your dissertation or thesis title, and your advisors.

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY List your employment history in reverse chronological order, including position details and dates. You might break this into multiple sections based on your field. For example, you might have a section called “Teaching Experience” and another section called “Administrative Experience.”

POSTDOCTORAL TRAINING List your postdoctoral, research, and/or clinical experiences, if applicable.

FELLOWSHIPS / GRANTS List internships and fellowships, including organization, title, and dates. Also include any grants you have been given. Depending on your field, you might include the amount of money awarded for each grant.

HONORS / AWARDS Include any awards you have received that are related to your work.

CONFERENCES / TALKS List any presentations (including poster presentations) or invited talks that you have given. Also list any conferences or panels that you have organized.

SERVICE Include any service you have done for your department, such as serving as an advisor to students, acting as chair of a department, or providing any other administrative assistance.

LICENSES / CERTIFICATION List type of license, certification, or accreditation, and date received.

PUBLICATIONS / BOOKS Include any publications, including books, book chapters, articles, book reviews, and more. Include all of the information about each publication, including the title, journal title, date of publication, and (if applicable) page numbers.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS List any professional organizations that you belong to. Mention if you hold a position on the board of any organization.

SKILLS / INTERESTS This is an optional section that you can use to show a bit more about who you are. Only include relevant skills and interests. For example, you might mention if you speak a foreign language, or have experience with web design.

REFERENCES Depending on your field, you might include a list of your  references  at the end of your CV.

Academic Curriculum Vitae Example

This is an example of an academic curriculum vitae.  Download the academic CV template  (compatible with Google Docs and Word Online) or see below for more examples.

Download the Word Template

Academic Curriculum Vitae Example (Text Version)

JOHN SMITH 287 Market Street Minneapolis, MN 55404 Phone: 555-555-5555   [email protected]

EDUCATION:Ph.D., Psychology, University of Minnesota, 2019 Concentrations: Psychology, Community Psychology  Dissertation:  A Study of Learning-Disabled Children in a Low-Income Community   Dissertation Advisors: Susan Hanford, Ph.D., Bill Andersen, Ph.D., Melissa Chambers, MSW

M.A., Psychology, University at Albany, 2017 Concentrations: Psychology, Special Education Thesis:  Communication Skills of Learning-Disabled Children Thesis Advisor: Jennifer Atkins, Ph.D. 

B.A, Psychology, California State University-Long Beach, 2015

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

Instructor, University of Minnesota, 2017-2019 University of Minnesota Courses: Psychology in the Classroom, Adolescent Psychology

Teaching Assistant, University at Albany, 2015-2017 Courses: Special Education, Learning Disabilities, Introduction to Psychology

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:

Postdoctoral Fellow, XYZ Hospital, 2019-2020 Administered extensive neuropsychological and psychodiagnostic assessment for children ages 3-6 for study on impact of in-class technology on children with various neurodevelopmental conditions

PUBLICATIONS:

North, T., and Smith, J. (Forthcoming). “Technology and Classroom Learning in a Mixed Education Space.”  Journal of Adolescent Psychology,  vol. 12.

Willis, A., North, T., and Smith, J. (2019). “The Behavior of Learning Disabled Adolescents in the Classroom.”  Journal of Educational Psychology , volume 81, 120-125.

PRESENTATIONS:

Smith, John (2019). “The Behavior of Learning Disabled Adolescents in the Classroom.” Paper presented at the Psychology Conference at the University of Minnesota.

Smith, John (2018). “Tailoring Assignments within Inclusive Classrooms.” Paper presented at Brown Bag Series, Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota.

GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS:

Nelson G. Stevens Fellowship (XYZ Research Facility, 2019)

RDB Grant (University of Minnesota Research Grant, 2018) Workshop Grant (for ASPA meeting in New York, 2017)

AWARDS AND HONORS:

Treldar Scholar, 2019 Teaching Fellow of the Year, 2018 Academic Excellence Award, 2017

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS:

Psychology Association of America National Association of Adolescent Psychology

RELEVANT SKILLS:

• Programming ability in C++ and PHP
• Extensive knowledge of SPSSX and SAS statistical programs.
• Fluent in German, French, and Spanish

We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples. Today, Arizona is home to 22 federally recognized tribes, with Tucson being home to the O'odham and the Yaqui. Committed to diversity and inclusion, the University strives to build sustainable relationships with sovereign Native Nations and Indigenous communities through education offerings, partnerships, and community service.

Research CV Examples and Templates for 2022

Start creating your CV in minutes by using our 21 customizable templates or view one of our handpicked Research examples.

Join over 260,000 professionals using our Research examples with VisualCV. Sign up to choose your template, import example content, and customize your content to stand out in your next job search.

• How do you write a research CV?

To write a research CV, follow these steps:

• Select a CV template that’s right for research/academia.
• Next, add your research goal within your CV summary or objective.
• List your GPA clearly.
• Show that you perform research work independently and how your past experience or skills will be helpful.
• Add your research publications.
• How do you list research experience on a CV?

To add your research experience on a CV, add another entry to your work experience section and list the research work you did in a bulleted list.

• Research CV summary and profile

Ready to start with your Researcher Curriculum Vitae? See our hand picked CV Examples above and view our live Researcher CV Examples from our free CV builder .

• Research CV Objective

A research position is a person engaged in research, possibly recognized as such by a formal title. This is a very broad definition and relates to the fact that research positions generally cover multiple jobs and job titles. It’s important to distinguish between these positions so that we may accurately define research cv objectives.

The first objective to a research cv is to determine if the job you are applying for requires specific qualifications and/or education. For example, it is likely that research assistant roles will require a degree or postgraduate degree to even apply for the position, whereas a research fellow or research associate will usually require a minimum of a master’s degree.

Once you’ve identified your qualifications are sufficient, it is now time to show your expertise in the associated field.

Research positions generally require an advanced understanding of one specific field so it’s beneficial to only include experience, education, study, and training in that field and complementary fields. Make sure you look at the research project and the requirements because the person in charge of the project, grant or funding may be looking for a generalist but it’s normally safer to be very specific about your expertise and your devotion to the field.

The next focus area on your research cv should be on your reading, writing and analytic skills as these are the core skillset many recruiters are looking for on your cv.

Below we go into more detail on research cv formats and some real-life example cvs to help you get started on applying for your next job or position.

• Research CV Formats

Research Assistant CV

Research assistants are researchers employed by a university or a research institute to assist in academic research. In most cases, a research assistant cv should focus on education, qualifications or interests around the area of research the potential candidate is applying for.

Most research assistants will be hired on their subject matter knowledge of the research being undertaken and their abilities in reading and writing. Following orders of the principal investigator or lead will also be crucial in hiring for this position so make sure you include your willingness to do what you’re told in your cover letter.

Research Associate CV

Unlike research assistants, research associates are normally full-time positions that are not under direct supervision or mentoring. Research associate cvs should have a laser-like focus on education and qualifications in their respective field. Be sure to include all awards, published works, and prior research.

Research Consultant CV

Research consultants are experts in their field who are hired to help complete research on behalf of an academic institution or research institute. Sometimes consultants can be hired specifically to fill a gap in the research currently undertaken by a specialist in another field.

Research consultant cvs generally focus on education, credentials and published work. As a consultant, they should demonstrate considerable experience across different projects or research. Make sure in your cover letter to include reasons why you will be highly beneficial to completing a research project or why your experience of working on different projects would be useful to the project at hand.

Research Fellow CV

A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. Your educational qualifications and published work are essential to applying for this position. A doctoral degree or postdoctoral degree is generally considered mandatory unless you have equivalent work experience in the industry.

• Research CV Examples

Please find our Research CV Examples below. If you are after more examples we have a directory of over 200+ real CV examples sorted by position and title.

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Academic CV Example [Full Guide, Free Template + Tips!]

Whether you’re looking to start your Ph.D. or you’re an experienced professional in your academic field, navigating academic expectations and standards can feel overwhelming when preparing your CV.

And, like it or not, a CV can be the difference between landing the position you have your eyes set on or your application going completely unnoticed.

But there’s good news.

We’ve prepared a detailed guide to turn your CV into a compelling presentation of your accomplishments and academic potential and help you take the next step in your academic career.

Some things we’re going to cover include:

Academic CV Example

How to format an academic cv, 11 academic cv layout tips, academic cv templates, what to include in an academic cv.

Let’s get started!

Here’s a great academic CV example made with our very own CV builder :

The CV example above covers the candidate’s entire educational history, is formatted the right way, and has all the other essential experiences documented.

Want your academic CV to look just as impressive?

Browse our free templates!

The first thing you want to do is pick the right format for your academic CV.

You want your CV to be well-structured and easy to read, as well as to highlight your greatest achievements to date.

This is where the reverse-chronological CV format comes in. 

It’s the most popular format out there, and since it starts with your most recent experiences and works its way back, it also does a great job showing off your most recent achievements first.

While different formats may apply to other job hunts, academics should always stick to this classic CV format .

Academic CV Vs Resume

If this is your first time preparing an academic CV, you might be wondering - what is a CV anyway?

The term CV is an abbreviation of the Latin words Curriculum Vitae, and it means “the course of your life”.

Across most of the world, the differences between a CV and a resume are superficial if you’re applying for most jobs.

But in the academic context, a CV is a very in-depth document.

Essentially, your CV is a comprehensive description of everything you’ve ever done. It details your work experience, education, all the achievements you’re proud of, and any publications you have to your name.

Any time you accomplish something new, you should add it to your CV . This includes when you earn a new certificate, finish a new publication, or get a new job.

An academic CV is typically used for applying to post-graduate or graduate institutions, either as a student or as a faculty member. For some colleges, if it isn’t specified that a CV is necessary, you can use a college application resume instead.

Here’s a visual representation of how a CV is different from a resume:

In academic CVs, education comes before work experience, which is the opposite of the typical resume rule. In fact, work experience might not even make the cut if it isn’t relevant to the academic position you’re applying for.

There are several things you should keep in mind when making your academic CV, starting with:

• Keep it visually simple. An academic CV is not the place to show how creative you are with design and colors. Keep the background plain white, with only one or two complementary colors at most to highlight section headings, icons, and links.
• Use the right font style and size. Some CV fonts should never make it to an academic CV. Sticking to a professional font is the way to go. When it comes to size, use 10-12 pt for the main body of your text. Your headings and subheadings can be between 14 and 16 pt, but make sure to keep the font size consistent throughout the CV.
• Make the CV as long as necessary. The goal of an academic CV is to list your whole career path, so there’s no limit to how long a CV should be . Use as many pages as you need to show everything relevant to your career so far.
• Tailor the CV to the position. Research your employer beforehand. Find out what the department you’re applying for values and is looking for, and emphasize that in your CV. Your most impressive and relevant accomplishments should always go first, so if they want experienced educators, put your professional appointments or teaching experience before your other achievements.
• Stay concise. There’s no need to overexplain your academic record or use bullet points to list all your achievements in each education or work entry. A couple of short sentences that convey the point are enough.
• Skip irrelevant information. If you had a part-time job while getting through college, you shouldn’t list it unless it’s related to your field of study. When applying for a position as a professor of mathematics, mentioning your brief teenage gig as a cashier is irrelevant. But your time spent tutoring classmates could make the cut.
• Avoid field jargon. Everyone should have an easy time reading your CV, not just experts in your field. University admissions departments, grant reviewers, and hiring committees alike may not be well-versed in your field but they will be reviewing your application, so make it as accessible as possible.
• Touch base with advisors. Every academic department has a slightly different way of doing things when it comes to CVs. After all, arts and humanities differ from economics, sciences, and mathematics. Expand your professional network and talk to someone more experienced in the field you’re applying for to clear up any confusion.
• Save your CV in the right format.  Unless stated otherwise, always save your CV as a PDF . It’s the best file format guaranteed to keep your CV looking as you intended it across any software or device, whereas Word or Google Doc files might be skewed.
• Name the file appropriately. This might be a no-brainer but it’s worth mentioning. The file containing your CV should be named some variation of your full name, rather than a placeholder name. E.g. John-Doe-Academic-CV.pdf , not draft1final.pdf
• Adjust the file size. If you’re sending your CV through an application portal, there might be a file size limit. Consider compressing your documents with a tool like ILOVEPDF .

You can gain a competitive advantage not just from what your academic CV contains, but also from how it looks .

So, if you really want to stand out from the crowd, take your CV design to the next level with one of our templates.

Our professional CV builder comes with a dozen of modern and professional CV templates you can choose from to easily make a detailed CV while keeping your formatting intact. 

Any of Novorésumé’s templates can be adapted to suit your needs, whether you’re a research candidate or an academic looking to become a tenured professor.

The academic CV has many of the same sections as a resume. They include:

• Contact Information
• Work Experience

But there are also some critical differences between the two. 

For starters, academic CVs put education above work experience. This is especially important when it comes to Ph.D. candidates since research is at the forefront of their position.

Some sections which are considered optional for resumes are mandatory for an academic CV. Examples of this include publications, conferences, or research experience.

Overall, an academic CV should include the following sections, in this order:

• Personal Profile/Research Objective
• Professional Appointments
• Publications
• Grants and Fellowships
• Awards and Honors
• Conferences and Talks
• Teaching Experience
• Research Experience
• Other Activities
• Hobbies and Interests

If you don’t have enough experience in one of the sections listed, there’s no need to add those to your CV. For example, if you don’t have any fellowships or conferences to showcase, you can just skip those sections.

Now, let’s break down how each CV section should be written:

#1. Contact Information

This section should be the easiest to spot, so it should always go at the top of your CV.

Here’s what you should include in the contact information section of an academic CV:

• Full Name. It’s recommended that you use your name as it is in your passport, including any middle names, particularly if you’re a Ph.D. candidate. Adding your middle name or even just the initial to your CV is only optional if you’re already an established academic, and it’s necessary if your middle name is included in your formal academic name.
• Professional Title and Affiliation. If you’re a professor, this is where you should list your title, as well as the institution you’re affiliated with.
• Institutional Address. This should be the mailing address of the institution you’re formally affiliated with or based in. For example, if you’re an assistant researcher at the University of Columbia, you want to give the university’s exact mailing address.
• Home address. Provide your home mailing address.
• Email address. If you have a formal email address provided by the institution you’re affiliated with, you should list that. If not, use a personal email address with some variation of your first and last name (e.g. [email protected]).
• Telephone number. Be sure to include the international dialing code for your number, especially if you’re applying for a position abroad.
• Optional links. For some fields, such as business and marketing, a LinkedIn profile fits in, while for IT-related departments, GitHub can be more appropriate. Other academics could benefit from adding a Google Scholar or ORCiD profile.

Your academic name should be consistent throughout your career as that’s how you’ll be credited when your research is used. If you legally change your name during the course of your career, you might want to keep your academic name the same as it was when you started.

#2. Personal Statement or Research Objective

The next thing you want the admissions committee to see is a short paragraph at the top of your CV, similar to a resume profile .

This short pitch can be a personal statement or research objective , depending on what you’re applying for exactly.

If you’re applying for a research position, such as a Ph.D. or a grant, you should write a research objective. Even if you’ve provided a different document that already details your research goals, your CV’s objective should provide a concise summary that outlines your plans.

Here’s an example of a research objective on an academic CV:

Nutrition and Dietology MA student at Harvard University. Graduated BA in Psychology magna cum laude. Looking to undertake postgraduate research on the connection between digestive inflammation and mental health in adolescents in the USA in the twenty-first century.

A personal statement, on the other hand, consists of a few brief sentences that summarize your academic background and biggest achievements. It’s meant to highlight the essential experiences, skills, and qualities that make you the right candidate for the position.

Take a look at this personal statement for inspiration:

Innovative researcher and lecturer with 6+ years of experience teaching courses on undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Supervised 11 BA theses, 4 MA theses, and 1 Ph.D. dissertation. Published over 17 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 3 books.

#3. Education

The most important part of any academic CV is the education section .

It’s no coincidence that this comes listed before any practical work experience. Academic achievements are valued in academia, and your CV is the place to make yours shine.

Your education should always be listed chronologically, with your most recent degree at the top.

List the information on each entry in the following order:

• Name of the degree. E.g. B.A. English Language, Literature, and Culture
• Name of the department. (Optional) E.g. Department of Linguistics and Literature
• Name of the educational institution. E.g. University of Groningen
• Years attended. If you haven’t graduated yet, you can write down the year of expected graduation. E.g. 2020 - 2024
• Honors. While honors are optional in other fields, academics would do well to include them. E.g. Magna Cum Laude.
• Relevant courses. (Optional) The courses you’ve taken could be useful if they’re relevant to the exact position you’re applying for.
• Dissertation. Provide the full title of your dissertation or project.
• Location of the program. (Optional) If the university or school you attended is less renowned, you can specify its location. E.g. University of Marmara, Istanbul, Turkey
• GPA. (Optional) You should only list your GPA if it’s over 3.5, otherwise, it won’t add to your CV’s academic shine. But adding your GPA isn’t necessary for an experienced candidate at all. If it’s been more than five years since you graduated, or you already have honors listed, it’s not something that you should add to your CV.

Here’s an example of education listed on an academic CV:

Education Ph.D. in French Literature

Department of Linguistics and Literature

University of Maine

2021 - Present  

MA in Literary Theory

Magna Cum Laude

2019 - 2021

Dissertation: The blend of culture, activism, and art in the early work of Richard Guidry  

BA in English Language, Literature, and Culture

Louisiana State University

2016 - 2019

- Literary analysis, Phonology, Cultural Theory, French language, Cajun Poetry

#4. Professional Appointments

If you already have the necessary experience in academia under your belt, make a section for your professional appointments.

This should include:

• Position. E.g. Professor of History.
• Name of the institution. E.g. King’s College, London
• Dates employed. E.g. 2015 - 2022
• Description and achievements. Use short paragraphs to describe your professional appointments, not bullet points.

Professor of Architecture

The University of Montana, 2017 - 2023

• Taught 15 undergraduate and 12 postgraduate courses, mainly focused on the history of architecture and principles of interior design.
• Supervised 9 BA and 5 MA theses.

As you can see, this section is similar to how a work experience section would be formatted in a resume.

It’s important to remember that this section pertains exclusively to contracted, professional appointments in universities and similar institutions.

It’s not meant to describe all of your teaching experience , so don’t detail your time as a Teaching Assistant (TA), adjunct professor, or any part-time teaching job. You have the opportunity to do that in a separate section later on in your CV.

Professional appointments take years, hard work, and academic recognition to achieve, so this section is where your career progression can shine. While most academics have experience teaching as TAs during the pursuit of their Ph.D., that experience should be in a separate teaching experience section further down your academic CV.

Has one of your former students reached out to you for help with their postgrad application? Check out our guide on how to write a stellar letter of recommendation .

#5. Publications

Having published research brings a lot of value to your academic reputation and, by extension, to your CV. Publications show you’ve done research that’s given back to your field and that you’re a dedicated academic.

In fact, if you’re already an established expert in your field, this section can even be listed ahead of professional appointments or education. Publications in peer-reviewed journals have a lot of value since they’re difficult to achieve.

Your publications should be divided by “peer-reviewed” and “other”, and then further subcategorized by where they were published. Examples include:

• Book chapters
• Book reviews
• Contributions to edited volumes
• Web-based publications

Provide full citations for each of your publications, and list them in their respective categories by year of publication.

When citing journals and edited volumes, authorship is usually listed by order of contribution. If your paper is the third in the publication listed, your name should be third in the citation. You can underline your name for each of your publications to highlight which contribution is yours.

However, some fields, like mathematics, always list authors alphabetically. In any case, ensure you’re consistent with your citation format throughout your whole academic CV.

If you have publications under review, you can still list them on your CV. Provide the citation as you usually would but swap out the year of publication for “in press”.

But your publications section shouldn’t necessarily include a full bibliography. If you’re a frequently published writer , make sure to limit your listed publications to the most relevant and recent titles.

Let’s see how this section looks on an academic CV:

Publications:

• Smith, J. (in press). The Mythical Beasts of French Literature: Uncovering Symbolism and Allegory in Magical Creatures. Journal of French Literary Studies, 46(3), 157-179.
• Rousseau, P., Smith, J. , & Dubois, M. (2022). Love, Longing, and Lost Letters: Exploring Epistolary Narratives in 18th-Century French Literature. Studies in French Literature and Culture, 27(2), 82-102.
• Smith, J. , Martin, L., & Dupont, C. (2021). From Boulevards to Backstreets: Urban Imagery and Identity in Contemporary French Literature. Modern French Studies, 58(4), 223-245.

#6. Grants and Fellowships

This section showcases that your research is deemed valuable enough to fund.

Grants and fellowships on an academic CV are must-haves, as they show agencies and admissions committees that you’re equipped to conduct future research projects successfully.

Depending on how many grants you’ve received or applied for, you can divide them into subcategories for “Active Grants”, “Pending Grants”, and “Completed Grants”.

In each subsection, list the grants in reverse chronological order with the following information:

• Name of institution. Provide the name of the institution which provided the funding.
• Duration of funding. Use the dd/mm/yyyy format. E.g. 15/03/2020 - 15/06/2023
• Role and effort. (Optional) If applicable, give the specific role you were given on the approved grant and what percentage of the total work was designated to you.
• Monetary value. (Optional) Mentioning the monetary value is field-specific, so consider checking in with other experts in your field before adding it.

Simple enough, right? Now let’s see it in practice.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) - “Challenge America”

01/2021 - 07/2021

• Project Title: Sunshine Street
• Project summary: Facilitated outdoor workshops and organized art programs for children from families below the poverty line in Middleton, NY.

#7. Awards and Honors

A little showing-off never hurts when it comes to an academic CV.

Take your time to list the awards and honors you’ve received so far, including any scholarships . Start with the latest additions first and work your way back.

Be sure to include:

• Name of the award. E.g. The RSPB medal
• Year it was received. E.g. 2023
• The institution it was presented by. E.g. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
• A brief description. (Optional) If the name isn’t clear enough, you can give a brief introduction to what the award was for.

Here’s an example:

The RSPB medal, 2023

• The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds’ most prestigious medal, which is awarded annually to a single individual in recognition of wild bird protection and countryside conservation.
• Awarded for research on the decline of the hawfinch and proposals for reintroduction to its once-native woodlands. The project was successful, with over 45 hawfinch families now nested in Leicestershire.

#8. Conferences and Talks

If you’ve been invited to speak at conferences or as a guest lecturer at other institutions, you should dedicate a special section to it in your CV.

Use subcategories to list them, such as:

• Campus Talks. You lectured at your home institution’s campus.
• Invited Talks. You lectured at other institutions or conferences.
• Conference attendance. You participated in a conference but didn’t give a lecture. 

Then list each talk and conference, including the following information:

• Name of the institution. E.g. Queen Mary University of London
• Location. E.g. London, United Kingdom
• Department. If applicable, such as in the case of a university guest talk. E.g. The Department of History.
• Dates. Use the dd/mm/yyyy format.
• Title or brief description. Usually, the title is descriptive enough but if you have space, you can clarify the topic of the event.
• Presentation type. (Optional) This applies to conferences, as they can be a session talk, plenary lecture, or other.

Depending on the amount of experience you have with conferences and talks, you could separate them into one section for Conferences, and a separate section for Talks. Keep one section for conferences where you participated but weren’t a speaker, and one for events where you lectured.

Do you have an upcoming conference or talk? Plan ahead and check out 12 Ways to Improve Your Presentation Skills [for Work & Life] !

#9. Teaching Experience

With academic CVs, work experience is divided into distinct sections, such as:

• Professional appointments
• Teaching experience
• Research experience
• Other work experience

If you already have experience as a contracted professor, that should be listed in your professional appointments section at the start of your CV.

For aspiring professors, though, the first of these sections should be teaching experience.

This is where you can list any TA or adjunct professor positions in reverse chronological order, and mention the courses you’ve taught. 

Provide the following information for each entry:

• Name of the institution. E.g. University of Ohio
• Department. E.g. The Department of History and Classics
• Courses. E.g. Roman Poetry of the Republican Period
• Dates taught. Use the mm/yyyy format. E.g. 09/2017 - 06/2020
• Type. Specify if the course was undergraduate or graduate , and whether the course was taught in person or online.
• Duties. (Optional) For TA positions, you should only include your duties if your institution required you to create and teach your own courses.

If you have a lot of experience in this section, tailor it according to your application.

There’s no need to include all the courses you’ve taught if their number is in the double digits. Focus only on the top ten courses that are relevant to the position you’re applying for.

Alternatively, if you’re an experienced academic and your professional appointments section already details enough courses, you can be brief here. Just list the institutions where you were a TA and the dates you taught there.

Here’s an example of how to list teaching experience:

Teaching Assistant

Queen Mary’s College, London

Department of History and Classics

01/2022 - present

• Designed courses on Ancient Roman History and Culture, adjusted to students majoring in Art History, Classics, and Theology. Supervised undergraduate dissertations and assessed students’ performance in class.
• Postgraduate courses: Late Roman Mithraism, Imperial Symbolism in Eastern Roman Mosaics
• Undergraduate courses: Roman Poetry of the Republican Period, Latin Grammar, Introduction to Catullus
• Online courses: Roman Orientalism: The Allure of the East

If you’re using your CV to apply for a position at the beginning of your academic career, you might not have any teaching experience yet.

In that case, you can either list informal experience, such as tutoring, or you can remove the section altogether.

Thinking of applying for a job as a teacher? Check out our step-by-step guide on how to write a teacher resume with examples and templates.

#10. Research Experience

Any academic research position is welcome in this section. Start with your most recent post and work your way back.

• Name of the institution. E.g. Lund University
• Position. E.g. Research Assistant.
• Dates. E.g. 06/2019 - 08/2021
• Description. Specify the research question and explain how the research was conducted, and what methodologies you used.

If you’re an experienced researcher, you should only list the following positions:

• Full-time Researcher
• Research Associate

Research Assistant

Here’s how to list it on your academic CV:

Columbia University

09/2017 - 07/2019

• Collected field samples of fungi on expeditions.
• Analyzed mycelium production in different environments.
• Conducted detailed reports on the effects of fungal spores on the human respiratory system and their potential medicinal uses.

For graduates who don’t have experience yet, any research projects can be listed, not just formal research positions.

#11. Other Activities

This is a versatile section where you can list other optional but relevant information. You can divide your entries here into as many subsections as you deem necessary.

Some activities you can list are:

• Professional service. This can include conferences you’ve organized, journals you review for, students you’ve mentored, public outreach programs, and more.
• Professional memberships. If you’re a member of an association or council, you can mention it in this section. E.g. Voting member of ICOM (International Council of Museums) since 2016.
• Other qualifications. All other certifications , licenses, or qualifications go here.
• Extracurricular university activities . Any clubs or communities you were part of while pursuing your degree can make an appearance here.
• Media coverage. Any coverage you’ve received in the media, including talk show attendance or magazine interviews.
• Non-academic work. If you worked in a corporate environment before switching to academia, any of that work experience would be listed here.

Since these sections are all optional, it’s best to only add impressive activities. Your time as an au pair during your gap year isn’t as interesting as the time you were interviewed for your innovative research.

#12. Languages

The rule of thumb for language skills is that you should only list those you know well enough to read academic texts.

List languages by including your proficiency, starting with your native language. Depending on your field or country of origin, you might want to use the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CERFL) to indicate your level of proficiency.

If you’ve studied one or two foreign languages, you can list your fluency level for reading, writing, and speaking for each. If you’ve studied more than that, you can summarize your fluency with the appropriate CERFL score.

It’s generally best not to list a language if you’re a complete beginner in it. This section is also optional, so if you don’t know any foreign languages, you can skip it entirely.

#13. Skills

As a general rule, academic CVs shouldn’t list any skills.

Unlike in the corporate world, where adding skills to your resume is crucial , in academia, it might seem unprofessional.

However, exceptions are made for scientific and technical fields. If the position you’re applying for requires specialized methods that are worth listing, dedicate a section to highlight those skills.

#14. Hobbies and Interests

Another optional section is hobbies and interests .

These can be personal, professional, or research interests. Generally, it’s best to only mention hobbies and interests that are relevant to your field, if any at all.

For example, if you’re interested in historical reenactments, it might add more value to your application to the Department of History. But for a mathematician, it’s irrelevant.

#15. References

At the end of your academic CV, you can optionally include a list of references .

Choose a few people who are familiar with your work and can refer you. List them vertically and provide the following information for each entry:

• Full name and title. E.g. Jane Donovan, Ph.D.
• Mailing address. This should be a work address, rather than a personal one.
• Telephone number. Be sure to include the country dial code, especially if your CV is going to be reviewed abroad.
• Email address. List their professional email address, not a personal email.

Here’s how it should look on your CV:

Jane Donovan, Ph.D.

Department of Physics and Astronomy

University of Massachusetts

73 Einkorn street

Amherst, MA 94720-3840

+1 907-212-6234

[email protected]

Attach an Academic Cover Letter

An academic CV is only one part of your application. Make sure to also include an academic cover letter so you come across as a professional and well-prepared candidate.

Depending on the nature of your application and your field, you might have to write an academic personal statement or an academic cover letter.

The difference between the two is that an academic personal statement focuses primarily on the applicant, and is meant to highlight your knowledge, expertise, and strengths. 

The academic cover letter, on the other hand, focuses on the job you are applying for and on what makes you the proper candidate for that job.

Here are the steps you need to follow to write one:

• Choose a cover letter template that matches your CV.
• Provide all the essential details in the header. These should include your contact information, such as your full name, phone number, mailing address, and email address.
• Address the letter to the admissions officer or other appropriate recipient. Include their title, email address, institution name and department, and mailing address. Then add a date to your letter right after.
• Start with a formal opening line, such as “To whom it may concern.”
• Write an attention-grabbing introduction explaining why you’re writing.
• In the body of your cover letter, expand on why you’re the right candidate for the position and why you’re a good choice for the institution you’re applying to.
• Summarize your key points, and use a call to action that asks the reader to take some sort of action, such as calling or otherwise contacting you.
• Finish your letter with the appropriate closing line, such as “Best Regards,” or “Sincerely.”

Are you applying for your postgraduate research degree? Check out our detailed guide to writing a motivational letter for a Ph.D. candidate !

Key Takeaways

And that’s our guide to academic CVs! Hopefully, you’ll be more confident when writing your CV and applying for that academic position you have your eye on.

To be on the safe side, let’s recap some of the main points we discussed:

• Academic CVs are used for faculty and research applications in universities. These CVs should highlight education, publications, teaching, research, and other experiences and achievements relevant to the position, not skills or general work experience.
• There’s no page limit you have to be wary of when writing your CV. Academics don’t have to worry about Applicant Tracking Systems rejecting their CV or that a hiring manager might only skim through the contents and discard it without reading. 
• The sections on your CV are listed in order of importance, depending on the position you’re applying for. The top sections are usually Education, Publications, Professional appointments, and Teaching or Research experience.
• Be sure to pair your CV with an appropriate Motivational Letter, Personal Statement, or any other document relevant to your application.

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Writing your Academic CV

How to write an Academic CV [Update 2024]

How do you write a great academic CV? This guide provides step-by-step advice on how to write a CV. We cover both the form and content of a CV and include tips for creating a memorable one.

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• CAREER BRIEF
• 08 May 2019

Toolkit: How to write a great academic CV

Academic CVs differ from those intended for industry roles. Here are some broad rules to follow.

Word count. Academic employers tend to be less prescriptive than industry employers about the length of a CV. Arrange your CV to ensure that a recruiter sees the most important parts first.

Structure. Your CV should contain the following sections in the order:

• Brief personal details and career summary

• Education (most recent first)

• Publications, funding, awards and prizes, teaching and conference attendance (seperated into subsections)

• Technical and professional skills

• References

Collection: Careers toolkit

Design. An academic CV does not need to be beautiful, but it should be legible and consistent in its use of fonts, line breaks, bullet points and other details.

Proofreading. Everyone can make a mistake when writing their CV. Ask someone to check every word.

An example. Check out some examples of model CVs here , by Imperial College London’s careers service.

Dynamic verbs

Use dynamic verbs, which are specific, exciting words that demonstrate changes and accomplishments. Examples include accomplished, led, designed, developed, published, managed, ran, wrote, formulated, fixed and founded.

Geographical differences

It is common in some countries to include a picture of yourself. If you are in doubt, look for examples of CVs that are specific to the part of the world in which you are applying for a job.

Find out more

For a further 38 tips on how to write an academic CV, check out this blogpost .

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01358-5

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Creating an Undergraduate CV

Your curriculum vitae (CV) is a representation of your scholarly identity and trajectory in your field. 

A CV is used to apply to research roles or other academic positions. It shows your academic credentials and achievements, experience conducting research in your field, and other experience relevant to the opportunity you’re targeting.

Your goal is to convey your interest in the field, as well as the relevant skills and knowledge that will prepare you to excel in the target opportunity.

When might I use a CV as an undergraduate?

You may be asked for a CV when you’re applying to a research position, to a fellowship, or to graduate school in the sciences. If you’re applying to a research position in industry, pay attention to whether they ask for a resume or a CV in their posting, as they may prefer a resume. In your cover letter, you can let them know that a CV is available upon request.

Many faculty may be happy to receive either a resume or a CV from undergrads looking to conduct research with them. Remember that in this case, whichever document you submit should still be tailored toward research in their field! If you haven’t done research before, convey your interest and preparedness by showing the transferable skills and knowledge you’ve built through your coursework and other experiences.

What should my CV look like as an undergraduate?

Unlike your one-page resume, your undergraduate CV can be two pages.

Sections on a CV

The sections on a CV are designed to feature the experiences that academics (like professors or researchers) acquire over time. As an undergrad, the sections on your CV will depend on the experience you’ve had so far—and the professors or researchers interested in hiring undergrads won’t expect you to have graduate-level experience. So, don’t worry if you don’t have information to go in all of these categories!

Start with these mandatory sections:

Contact information.

Include your name, address, phone number, email address, and professional website or profile (if you have one).

Include the degree-granting institution and school, the degree you’re receiving, your major or concentration, and your expected graduation date. If you’re writing a departmental thesis, include the title and the names of your thesis advisers. You can include relevant coursework, which we generally recommend keeping to two lines of text or less.

If you have additional higher education, you can also include it. If you’ve studied abroad, for instance, you can include the institution name, the month and year range you attended, and relevant coursework you took during this program.

Your CV may include some of the following sections: 

Research experience.

Include the name of the lab or department and institution, the position you held, the location, and your dates of involvement. We recommend including a brief description of the project, your role, the primary methods used, and key findings.

Publications

This section includes scholarly publications such as journal articles, book chapters, and published conference proceedings.

Format each bibliographic entry according to your discipline’s style guide, with the article or chapter title, journal name, and publication information. Include authors in publication order, bolding your name.

Include publication status if the piece is not yet published—e.g., in preparation, under review, forthcoming. We recommend listing the DOI if the article has been accepted but does not yet have page numbers.

Presentations

This section showcases scholarly presentations you’ve made, usually at conferences or symposia.

Include the author(s) and title of presentation, the conference or symposium name, and the location and date (or month if a range) of the presentation. Specify the format of the presentation—e.g., poster or oral presentation.

Grants / Awards / Academic Honors

List any academic awards, fellowships, grants, or funding received. In each entry, include the award name, award-granting institution, and year of the award.

If the nature of the award will not be clear based on the award name, you can briefly clarify parenthetically.

Teaching Experience

Include the name of the course and institution, the position you held (e.g., Teaching Assistant, Instructor of Record), the location, and month-year range of the teaching engagement. We encourge you to include a brief description of your role.

Additional Professional Experience

On a CV, you may include recent professional experience that is pertinent to your scholarly trajectory. You can title this section by the job area if helpful—e.g., Additional Engineering Experience, Editorial Experience, Museum Experience.

Include the name of the organization, your job title, and the location and month-year range of the experience. You can include a brief description of your role and accomplishments to highlight relevant transferable skills.

Leadership / Activities / Service / Volunteer Work

Include the organization, your position title, the location, and dates of your involvement. You can include a brief description of your role and accomplishments.

Professional Memberships or Affiliations

List any memberships you maintain to professional organizations in your field. Many scholarly associations have low-cost student memberships.

Certifications

Include any relevant certifications or licensures you hold.

Create categories for your skills, such as languages, technical or computer (software, hardware, coding languages), laboratory, machining, and design. In each category, list the relevant items—e.g., language names, tools, programs. For languages, we recommend indicating your proficiency level. Keep each category to 3 lines maximum.

This includes a list of relevant references, including their name, title, institution, and contact information (phone and/or email).

How should I format my CV?

CVs typically have a much simpler format than resumes. You’ll left-justify the content, use one-inch margins all around, and a size 11 or 12 font. Use bold and italics sparingly, and avoid extra design elements. Include a right-justified header includes your last name and page numbers (#/#).

How should I describe my experiences on my CV?

Typically, undergraduate CVs include short descriptions of your experience that focus on field-related content such as a description of the research project and the methods you used. Remember, your reader is likely another scholar in your discipline who will be able to interpret this technical language. It is more common to display these descriptions in paragraph form, but some people prefer bullet points for clarity.

Learning About CV Conventions in Your Field

Many professors, postdocs, and graduate students post their CVs on their departmental or lab website. Their CVs will be a lot longer than yours—some professors’ CVs run up to 15 pages. You may notice that faculty CVs will be, in most cases, less detailed than your undergraduate one, with fewer descriptions: they may be serving as records of research and teaching conducted, rather than job-search documents. Nevertheless, these CVs can help you understand trends and conventions in your discipline.

Can I see what a CV might look like?

Sure! We’ve created a couple of sample undergraduate CVs for your reference.

• Sample Undergraduate Science CV
• Sample Undergraduate Humanities / Social Science CV

Where can I get feedback on my CV?

You can get feedback on your CV from your previous research mentors (faculty, postdocs, grad students), instructors of relevant courses you’ve taken, career counselors , fellowship advisers , or writing consultants .

We recommend always seeking feedback from mentors in your field, as they will be able to offer discipline-specific insights and tips.

Related Resources

Finding an Undergraduate Research Position

Getting research experience during your time as an undergraduate can aid in your pursuit for graduate school or certain career opportunities. There are many opportunities available to conduct research alongside faculty at Columbia or other universities and research institutes.

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A guide to creating a high‐quality curriculum vitae

Michael gottlieb.

1 Department of Emergency Medicine, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago Illinois, USA

Susan B. Promes

2 Department of Emergency Medicine, Penn State Health System, Hershey Pennsylvania, USA

Wendy C. Coates

3 Department of Emergency Medicine, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles California, USA

Associated Data

Introduction.

The curriculum vitae (CV) is nearly ubiquitous in academic medicine, often beginning prior to medical school and continually being refined throughout graduate and postgraduate training. The CV serves as a formal record of your experiences and accomplishments, which can help others to better understand what you have done thus far and your potential qualifications for a position or promotion. 1 An academic CV differs from a resume, in that the latter is much more condensed (typically 1–2 pages) and focuses more on specific skills and qualifications, rather than cataloguing your full academic history.

A well‐crafted CV is important throughout an academic career. A CV is not a static document and can be formatted to serve a variety of needs. One of the most common uses of a CV is to apply for a new job or leadership position. Most chairs and hiring committees will expect a CV and cover letter as the initial component of the application materials. Additionally, the CV is utilized as one of the primary criteria as part of the dossier used for making decisions about promotion and tenure (P&T). We wish to emphasize that the CV should not be the sole criterion for a position or advancement and that it is important to engage in holistic review of applications 2 ; however, the CV is one important component of this process. In addition to the above, a CV is important personally for considering and reevaluating your niche and career path. It can serve as a tool for you and your mentor to discuss your interests and current progress and identify areas for future growth. Finally, the CV serves as a record of your personal progress and achievements and can be invaluable in crafting your personal statement for academic advancement. It can also be a valuable tool to help boost morale and combat imposter syndrome. 3

Despite the important role that a CV plays in career and academic advancement, we have seen wide variations in the quality, format, and structure of CVs. Building upon a recent CV workshop at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Scientific Assembly, we sought to share our experience and insights to help guide resident and attending physicians when embarking on creating or refining their CV.

COMPONENTS OF A CV

While the exact naming conventions and order may vary by institution, we will review the most common components of a CV and provide tangible recommendations for each component. In general, a CV should have a consistent and legible font, appropriate spacing and use of line breaks, bolding to highlight key components or headers, and the dates should be listed in a consistent order (either chronological or reverse chronological). A sample CV is included here as Appendix S1 .

The first page should include your name and degrees at the top. We recommend that your name be written in a larger font and bolded. This allows your name to stand out and reduces the risk of your CV being accidentally confused with another person when there are multiple applicants. The top of the page should also include your contact information, such as your address, phone number, and email address. We generally recommend using your work address for privacy. However, if you are applying for a new job, you may want to consider using an email address that is more confidential, such as your personal email. A cell phone number, work number, or both could be included depending on your preferred contact number(s). Finally, the first page should include the date that the CV was last updated. This will assist you with tracking the versions, as well as the recipient if you send an updated CV later. All subsequent pages should include your italicized name at the top right as a header along with the page number on the bottom right as a footer. This can assist with ensuring that no pages are lost or reviewed out of order if the CV is printed.

The next section is your education. This begins in reverse chronological order with your postgraduate training (e.g., residency, fellowship), followed by graduate training (e.g., undergraduate institution, medical school, masters degree programs). When listing your undergraduate training, make sure to include the institution and dates attended, degree obtained, major(s), minor(s), and any honors (e.g., cum laude, distinctions, Alpha Omega Alpha). You should include any advanced leadership training that does not fall within the above categories (e.g., leadership courses, speaker courses) as a separate section located after the education section, which could be entitled “Additional Training” or “Faculty Development.”

The next component of the CV should contain appointments, such as academic appointments and nonacademic or hospital appointments. For faculty, you should include your current and prior academic appointments along with the dates at each rank. This will be particularly valuable for P&T committees. You should also include all relevant employment. This can include your current role as well as prior clinical roles. These should include the title, department, institution, and date range. As a general rule, you should limit these to jobs most relevant to the current position and should routinely trim these back as you advance your career. For example, being a scribe in the emergency department would be relevant for medical students and residents but would no longer be relevant for a full professor. Some prefer to maintain selected early accomplishments, but these are individual decisions that warrant deliberate consideration. For those with prior careers outside medicine, consider keeping them in, particularly if they are directly relevant to the current role. As an example, if you are applying for a chair position, a history of being the chief financial officer of a company would be relevant regardless of the timing.

You should generally list all honors and awards that you have received along with the corresponding date. If an award is not readily apparent by the name, consider adding a brief description or annotation. As you move forward in your career, you may consider removing less relevant awards and honors, similar to positions as discussed in the preceding paragraph.

Certifications and licensure are important to include along with the dates active. However, you should avoid including information such as your DEA or medical license number unless explicitly required to reduce the risk of this being misappropriated. Additionally, you should include the societies to which you belong. While society memberships could be listed later (given the reduced impact compared with other aspects of your CV), we believe it is valuable to list early because it allows you to abbreviate societies with long names if used later in the CV (e.g., leadership positions, committee roles, invited lectures). However, this may depend on your institution's format.

You should also include a dedicated section on your leadership positions at your institution and within professional societies as well as any committee or task force membership roles within professional societies. While traditionally these are listed in order based on the dates of involvement, you could consider grouping these by organization to demonstrate dedication to a specific group. This can be particularly valuable if you are applying for a leadership role in one of those societies as well as for helping support the citizenship components of your P&T application. For some institutions, this may alternatively be listed in a “service” or “administrative leadership” category.

The teaching section should include your involvement with leading any local, regional, and national curricula. While not as comprehensive as an educator's portfolio, 4 you should consider including sufficient information for the reader to understand the scope, size, and time commitment of the program. It is important to separate this curricular section (i.e., a set of courses) from the latter section on individual courses. You may also consider separating into undergraduate medical education (e.g., medical students), graduate medical education (e.g., residents, fellows), and other learners (e.g., paramedics, nursing). We recommend including the program title, your role, the number of learners, type of learners (specialty and experience level), frequency of the courses, length of the sessions, and dates that the program occurred. As you advance in your career, you may consider removing low‐impact internal teaching activities.

The mentorship section should include any people you are or have been mentoring. When deciding who to include, consider whether you could readily describe the skills, knowledge, insights, or value you have provided to the mentee. This section should include their name, length of mentorship, current role (e.g., faculty role, fellow, resident, medical student), and institution as well as their prior role when you began mentoring them (if applicable). As not all institutional CV formats have a designated location for this, you could consider making this a separate appendix file.

The scientific and scholarly activities section (also known as the research section) can include a wide array of components. We recommend including any research‐specific service roles (e.g., editor, reviewer for professional journals, reviewer for granting agencies) as well as scholarship (e.g., grant funding, abstract or poster presentations, peer‐reviewed manuscripts, books, blog posts), in accordance with your institution's preferred format. We recommend that all publications be numbered and listed in chronological or reverse chronological order, depending on your institution's preference. Publications should be listed in a citation format consistent with your institutional guidelines, and you should consider adding the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) or PubMed identifier (PMID). When listing grant funding, you should include the funding source, amount, grant award name, date(s), and your role. You could also consider adding an annotation here to describe the importance of an item or your contribution to a grant or manuscript. For the research presentations, manuscripts, and book chapters, we recommend putting your name in bold and/or italics to help your name stand out. You could also consider adding your research metrics here (e.g., h‐index, i‐10) to help demonstrate your scholarly impact. 5 , 6

Lectures, podcasts, and nonresearch presentations could be listed within either teaching or scholarship and we advise following your institutional guidelines. 7 These should include the URL, link, or website and data on downloads if available. For individual lectures and didactic sessions, include the institution or professional group, date, location, number of attendees, contact hours (i.e., length of session), and topic. Consider separating this out into local lectures; grand rounds at outside institutions; and invited sessions at regional, national, or international conferences, with higher‐impact (i.e., international or invited) presentations listed first.

Additional categories may be added and may include your fluency in another language or additional expertise (e.g., SPSS, RevMan). It is advisable to be honest when listing these, because they may be challenged. For example, if foreign language proficiency is indicated as “fluent,” it is possible that a prospective employer may wish to conduct the interview in that language. Some people also list a few extracurricular passions (e.g., sports, literature) that may serve to foster a connection with a potential interviewer.

Finally, your last page should include your references. Depending on the position, you could either list your references or add a comment “references available on request.” The latter component may be useful when you are applying for an external position. When including references, identify three references who can speak to your qualifications for a given position. This may include your department chair, mentors, those in similar roles that you are applying for, and those who are a direct supervisor to you. In many cases, your references may not be from your institution. Make sure that your references know they have been listed as a reference. You should include their role and current address, phone, and email to guide the reader when reaching out to them.

BEST PRACTICES FOR MANAGING YOUR CV

In this section, we describe recommended strategies to manage your CV (Table  1 ). Even though institutions often require the same information, each may have a specific format for organizing and/or building your CV. Some institutions furnish a guideline that includes the desired headings and order of the entries on the CV, while others provide an electronic fillable template. By adhering to the desired format for your institution and advancement track (e.g., research, clinician‐educator, tenure), your P&T committee will be able to access all information easily to process academic advancement decisions. Since most formats include similar categories, you can send this version of your CV to prospective employers or other interested parties upon request. However, if you are seeking a new career or hope to delve into a niche within a particular academic realm, it may be useful to tailor your CV to highlight relevant aspects.

Best practices for creating and managing the CV for career advancement

Abbreviations: CV, curriculum vitae; PDF, portable document format; P&T, promotion and tenure.

If you relocate to a new institution, it is prudent to update your CV to the new format as soon as possible. One strategy to ensure you are compliant with the correct CV format for your institution is to reach out to the people in your department who manage this area. It may also be helpful to ask a respected role model who has been successful in the same career track to share their CV as a real‐world example. 1 In addition to simply seeing their formatted CV, it is a good chance to consider your own career aspirations and to identify a potential local mentor.

A busy academician who is working hard to advance in the appropriate career track may generate numerous additions to their CV in a short period of time. Waiting until the last minute during dossier preparation for an academic action may lead to omission of important details, such as collaborators, dates or locations of occurrence, and even the events themselves, so it is critical to develop a process that reliably captures all aspects of each accomplishment (e.g., lectures, awards, publications). There are many strategies, but the most important factor is to identify those that fit into your natural routine. Some examples include real‐time entry as soon as an event or accomplishment occurs, creating an email folder of items to add to your CV, scheduling a recurring calendar event weekly or monthly to update your master CV, or using a voice recorder or handwritten or electronic notes to add events in real time and transfer to the CV at planned intervals. You can also refer to your electronic calendar for details about prior sessions. It is also important to update the details on events that have already been entered as they become available, such as adding DOI, PMID, and publication details (e.g., volume, page numbers). To facilitate this, you could create a Google Scholar alert for your publications and citations. 8 This will allow you to know when your publications are released in print or are assigned to an electronic issue and provide citation metrics as described above.

Some people keep an easily accessible file on their desktop that links to an unpaginated working document of their CV that uses accurate spelling, punctuation, grammar, headings, bold typeface, underlines, logical hyphenations, margins, fonts, alignment, and indentations as they should appear in the final formatted CV (Table  2 ). This can facilitate real‐time updating without the need to reformat the pages after every entry. Another option is to create a table without borders under each section heading with the necessary columns and subheadings. This can be an efficient way to easily add items as a new row with consistent formatting and pacing. When it is time to send your CV to a prospective employer, a professional organization, or your P&T committee, you should present your CV in a visually pleasing, well‐organized manner. This includes formatting page breaks to avoid having items split across pages, including boldface type and/or capitalization for section headers, ensuring consistent alignment, and eliminating spelling and grammatical errors. This will also allow you to add or remove specific components to best meet the objectives for this particular CV.

Strategies for converting your working document into the finalized CV

Abbreviations: CV, curriculum vitae; DOI, digital object identifier; PDF, portable document format; PMID, PubMed identifier.

When updating your CV, we recommend opening the working document and saving each revision as a new file with the updated date listed (e.g., Gottlieb CV [10‐5‐21]). This prevents inadvertent changes to the working document and allows for final formatting prior to dissemination. We recommend saving this as both a PDF and an editable Word document. The PDF can be sent to others to ensure that the formatting is not altered when opened on the recipient's computer.

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS: RESUMES, COVER LETTERS, AND THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

It is important to delineate the difference between a CV and a resume. A CV is generally expected for people applying for academic positions, whereas a resume is more commonly requested for other professional positions that are nonacademic or non–research oriented (Table  3 ).

Comparison of a CV versus resume

Adapted from the Princeton University Center for Career Development Guide. 11

Abbreviation: CV, curriculum vitae.

CVs generally include a comprehensive (exhaustive) list of positions you have held, honors and awards you received, and activities you have participated in up to current time. In fact, curriculum vitae is Latin for “course of (one's) life.” As defined by the Merriam‐Webster dictionary, a resume is a short account of one's career and qualifications. 9 A resume is concise and much shorter than a CV, typically being no longer than two pages in length. The goal of a resume is to highlight your unique attributes, skills, and accomplishments and align them with your career goal to open the door for an interview. It does not contain all the items that are listed chronologically in a CV. 10 Listing a career goal that is in line with the position you are applying for is common practice when preparing a resume. The career goal is generally explicitly stated on the first line of the document under your name and contact information. Research is generally not included in a resume unless it is explicitly required for the position you are seeking. References are also commonly omitted on a resume.

Regardless of whether you are submitting a CV or resume for a job you are seeking, you should prepare a cover letter to introduce yourself and your interest in the position. If there is something that specifically attracted you to the position or the area, this is the place to include that information. If there is a specific area of expertise asked for in an advertisement or mentioned by a recruiter be sure to address it in your cover letter. It is important to address your cover letter to the individual who will be making the decision on who will be invited to interview or possibly a search committee chair or recruiter. The cover letter is an important tool to persuade the reader through a personalized message that you are the right person for the job, though it should not simply be a rehash of your resume or CV. The cover letter should be brief, no more than one page in length. In general, you will need to craft a separate cover letter for each application.

For those individuals with longer CVs, you may want to consider preparing a one‐ to two‐page high‐level executive summary of your key work experiences, personal qualities, and skills you possess that will set you up for success in the position you are pursuing. An executive summary is placed at the top of your document to help the employer zero in on key aspects of your candidacy. It should be direct and focused on the key components you wish to highlight. Think of it as an abstract or teaser of what can be found in more detail in your CV. An executive summary should showcase your best attributes up front.

Curricula vitae are important for a variety of uses, including applying for new leadership and employment positions, seeking academic advancement through promotion and tenure, and reevaluating your niche. This article highlights the key features of a curriculum vitae, recommendations for creating and maintaining a curriculum vitae, and key differences from a resume. We hope this provides a valuable guide for those at any career stage who are seeking to enhance the quality of their curriculum vitae.

Supporting information

Appendix S1. Sample CV.

Gottlieb M, Promes SB, Coates WC. A guide to creating a high‐quality curriculum vitae . AEM Educ Train . 2021; 5 :e10717. doi: 10.1002/aet2.10717 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]

Supervising Editor: Daniel J. Egan, MD.

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Writing the Curriculum Vitae

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This handout provides an overview of strategies for writing an effective curriculum vitae. This topic is particularly important for graduate students who are entering the academic job market for the first time. Although there is some overlap between the two resources, this handout should serve as a supplement to the suggestions available from Purdue's Center for Career Opportunities .

What is a Curriculum Vitae?

Also called a CV or vita, the curriculum vitae is, as its name suggests, an overview of your life's accomplishments, most specifically those that are relevant to the academic realm. In the United States, the curriculum vitae is used almost exclusively when one is pursuing an academic job. The curriculum vitae is a living document, which will reflect the developments in a scholar/teacher's career, and thus should be updated frequently.

How is a CV different from a resume?

The most noticeable difference between most CVs and most resumes is the length. Entry level resumes are usually limited to a page. CVs, however, often run to three or more pages. (Remember, however, that length is not the determinant of a successful CV. You should try to present all the relevant information that you possibly can, but you should also try to present it in as concise a manner as possible.) A more subtle but equally important distinction is that whereas the goal of a resume is to construct a professional identity, the goal of a CV is quite specifically to construct a scholarly identity. Thus, your CV will need to reflect very specifically your abilities as a teacher, researcher, and publishing scholar within your discipline.

What should I include?

Your CV should include your name and contact information, an overview of your education, your academic and related employment (especially teaching,editorial, or administrative experience), your research projects (including conference papers and publications), and your departmental and community service. You should also include a reference list, either as part of your CV, or on a separate page. Also, if you have a dossier containing confidential references available, you should mention that on your CV as well.

What comes first depends both on your background and on the job for which you are applying. Typically, the first item on a CV for a job candidate directly out of grad school will start with the candidate's education listed in reverse chronological order. Frequently the title and even a brief description of the dissertation will be included in this portion. After that, you will want to determine both what the jobs that you are interested in require and where your strengths lie. When determining what comes after your educational credentials, remember that the earlier in your document a particular block of information comes, the more emphasis you will be placing on that block of information. Thus, the most important information should come first.

If you are applying at a research university, research projects, conference presentations, and especially publications become very important. If you are applying to a liberal arts college or community college that strongly emphasizes teaching, then showing your teaching background is of paramount importance. In any case, you will want to be sure that the information that will be most helpful in determining your qualifications for the job for which you are employing comes before information that will be less helpful.

Is there a standard curriculum vitae format?

One of the most important things to remember when working on your curriculum vitae is that there is not one standard format. There are different emphases in each discipline, and a good CV is one that emphasizes the points that are considered to be most important in your discipline and conforms to standard conventions within your discipline.

So how can you find out what these conventions are? A good place to start is to find as many examples as possible of CVs by people in your discipline who have recently been on the job market. You can find these by asking other grad students and junior faculty in your department if you can have a look at their CVs, and you can also make use of the Internet to find CV samples in your discipline.

Resources such as The Curriculum Vitae Handbook by Rebecca Anthony and Gerald Roe (Rudi Publishing: Iowa City, 1994) also include sample CVs for various disciplines. One caveat to remember regarding examples, however, is that they should never be used as models to be followed in every detail. Instead, they should be used as sources of strategies for how to present your own information most effectively. The most effective formatting for you will likely be distinguishable from the most effective formatting for someone else because your experiences and strengths will be different, and you will thus benefit from formatting adapted specifically to your situation.

How should I construct my work description entries?

Two common strategies that apply to CVs as well as resumes are gapping and parallelism . Gapping is the use of incomplete sentences in order to present your information as clearly and concisely as possibly. For example, instead of writing, "I taught composition for four years, during which time I planned classes and activities, graded papers, and constructed exams. I also met with students regularly for conferences," you might write, "Composition Instructor (2000-2004). Planned course activities. Graded all assignments. Held regular conferences with students." By using incomplete sentences here, you cut out unnecessary words and allow your reader to see quickly what you have been doing.

Parallelism is also very important to a strong CV. Generally, you will want to keep the structure of your phrases and/or sentences consistent throughout your document. Thus, if you use verb phrases in one portion of your CV to describe your duties, try to use them throughout your CV. Particularly within entries, make sure that the structure of your phrases is exactly parallel so that your reader can understand what you are communicating easily.

One distinction between the work description sections of resumes and CVs is that bullets are very commonly used in resumes and tend to appear somewhat less frequently in CVs. Whether or not you use bullets to separate lines in your CV should depend on how the bullets will affect the appearance of your CV. If you have a number of descriptive statements about your work that all run to about a line in length, bullets can be a good way of separating them. If, however, you have a lot of very short phrases, breaking them up into bulleted lists can leave a lot of white space that could be used more efficiently. Remember that the principles guiding any decision you make should be conciseness and ease of readability.

How can I improve my CV?

The Purdue On-Campus Writing Lab provides the opportunity to work with one of our graduate instructors in order to get some assistance with your CV, and many other universities offer similar opportunities through their writing centers. Also, consider showing your CV to your dissertation chair in order to get some feedback from him/her. Finally, many departments have job search or job placement committees that provide you with the opportunity to meet with faculty members in your department for extensive editing. If such a resource is available for you, that may be the best source of advice of all.

What other resources are available for help with my curriculum vitae?

There are numerous useful resources, both online and in print. Here are a few.

The Chronicle of Higher Education 's job site features a number of articles that may be helpful to first-time applicants on the job market.

The Curriculum Vitae Handbook by Rebecca Anthony and Gerald Roe (Rudi Publishing: Iowa City, 1994) includes sample CVs for various disciplines and tips for how to write CVs in various contexts.

The Academic Job Search Handbook (3rd Edition), by Mary Morris Heiberger and Julia Miller Vick (who are the authors of the Chronicle 's "CV Doctor" column) also provides sample cover letters and CVs

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Most scholarship, fellowship, research opportunities and graduate school applications require some type of a Curriculum Vitae (CV) or academic resume. This document is very distinct from a traditional job resume. In some cases you may actually upload the document and in others you will translate what is on your CV into an on-line application system.  Regardless, you should think of your CV, also known as an  ‘academic resume,’ as a very organic document that will continue to shift and take shape as you move through your undergraduate experience.  From the outset, your CV will allow you to keep track of everything you have been or are currently involved with, making life a little easier when it comes time to actually document those things in a formal way.  Keep it on your desktop and make a point of updating it regularly.  Much like your Personal Statement, your CV is as unique as you are so, while there are certain formatting suggestions to make your CV more readable, make sure that it is an accurate reflection of the many things you have chosen to spend time on while an undergraduate. 

As you build your CV, keep a few things in mind:

• A Curriculum Vitae (CV)  is Latin for ‘course of life’ and therefore offers you the freedom to include everything that is helping to shape your life as an undergraduate.  In this sense, a CV is less concerned with page count, as is the case when crafting a resume for an employment opportunity, and more concerned with providing a kind of testament to your involvement.  It is distinct from a resume not only in length but also in content and purpose.  A CV is very much about you, as opposed to what you may bring to a position, a specific skill set related to a job, or what you might ‘do’ for a potential employer.  It is also intended to allow selection committees a quickly review all of the things you have been involved with as an undergraduate;
• Honors and Awards
• Undergraduate Research Involvement and Experience, including publications and presentations
• Campus and community involvement – service and volunteer work
• International experience and study, including language proficiencies
• Internships
• Formal employment (work strictly undertaken for pay)

Generally speaking, you should always lead with your education and honors and awards when crafting your CV.  The remaining sections should then be ordered according to the level of importance they hold in your own experience and as indicative of the time you have spent engaged in, for example, undergraduate research or leadership.  Remember, the ultimate design is up to you.  Just make sure to include everything from your freshman year onwards;

• Construct your CV in reverse chronological order, include dates, positions held, titles of research projects and names of mentors, and a brief 1-2 sentence description of each activity, including your honors, awards, and scholarships;
• DO NOT pad your CV or resume.  Nothing is more transparent to a review committee than a student who has included everything-but-the-kitchen-sink in an effort to appear a certain way.  Remember, the name of the game with national scholarship applications is authenticity .  So, when chronicling your involvement, be truthful and include only activities that have required a significant investment of time;
• Be selective in your involvement, identifying those activities that make the most sense of what you hope to do in the future;
• Select a formatting style and stick with it! And, of course, edit, revise, and edit again.  The quality of everything you produce, including your CV, says a lot of your commitment and the seriousness with which you take your scholarship and/or graduate school application process.
• There is no page limit; CVs are generally a minimum of 2 pages and often longer. Please do not reduce your font or margins to try to fit everything into a single page; save that strategy for a job resume. 

Here are some additional benefits for building a strong CV:

• Keeping a detailed record of your involvement will help you to decide what is and may no longer be worth your time and effort; use your CV to help shape your undergraduate experience in a more meaningful way and guide you in deciding the best next steps for you to take;
• Your CV will help to guide the basic impetus for your Personal Statement and potential project or research proposal.  A Personal Statement should not re-hash your CV, but it can draw from of the experiences detailed on your CV into consideration when determining those things that were most significant in your undergraduate experience;
• A CV will help you to identify potential letter writers by clearly distinguishing those ‘sections’ of your undergraduate experience to which you have devoted the most time and energy.  Hopefully you will find letter writers who can speak to those distinct areas of your becoming – leadership, undergraduate research, academics, etc.;
• Your CV will be an important piece of information to provide your letter writers when it comes time to ask them to write on your behalf.  A CV will give them snapshot of all the things you have been involved with and help to guide the things they will be able to speak about in their letters;
• A good CV will surprise you at the end of four or five years as you see, on paper, all of the extraordinary things you have been involved with while at the University of Chicago.

Contact CCRF for further guidance on developing a strong CV and/or consider attending an information session on developing a CV.

For detailed guidance on developing a professional resume (which can draw from your detailed CV), make an appointment to visit Career Advancement .

7 Research Intern Resume Examples for 2024

A strong resume is key for research intern positions. This article provides proven resume examples tailored to the research field. Learn how to highlight relevant skills, educational background, and research experience. Use these templates and tips to create a resume that stands out to hiring managers.

• 26 Aug 2024 - 5 new sections, including 'Place education section wisely', added
• 26 Aug 2024 - 5 new resume templates, including Aspiring Research Intern, added
• 24 Aug 2024 - Article published

  Next update scheduled for 03 Sep 2024

Here's what we see in top research intern resumes.

Show Impact Using Numbers : The best resumes show impact with numbers. Common metrics are time savings , reduced errors , increased data accuracy , and shorter project times . Numbers show the value you brought.

Include Relevant Skills : Include skills on your resume that you have and are mentioned on the job description. Some popular ones are data analysis , programming , statistical software , research methodologies , and database management . But don't include all of them, choose the ones you have and are mentioned in the JD.

Highlight Technical Experience : Experience with tools and techniques is key. Mention software, tools, or programming languages like Python or SPSS . Use phrases like analyzed data sets . This shows hands-on skills.

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widget 2: red / but not serious Here's a short quick tip / warning for people to include. If your symptoms get worse or do not improve after 1 day, go to a lower altitude if you can. Try to go around 300 to 1,000 metres lower.

helpful blue / but not serious Here's a short quick tip / warning for people to include. Here's a short quick tip / warning for people to include. Here's a short quick tip / warning for people to include. Here's a short quick tip / warning for people to include. Here's a short quick tip / warning for people to include. Here's a short quick tip / warning for people to include. Here's a short quick tip / warning for people to include.

Research Intern Resume Sample

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Want to know how your research intern resume measures up? Our resume scoring tool gives you a clear picture of where you stand. It evaluates your resume based on key criteria that recruiters in the research field look for.

Upload your resume now for an unbiased assessment. You'll get a score and specific feedback on how to make your resume stronger for research internship positions.

Place education section wisely

As a hiring manager, I suggest you place your education section at the top of your resume if you are still studying or have recently graduated. This shows your most recent academic accomplishments which are essential for a research intern role. You should include items like your GPA if it is good, research projects, thesis, relevant coursework, and any academic awards or honors that show your skill and dedication.

If you have been working or involved in other research projects outside of academia, list those experiences first. Keep your education details following your practical experiences, with a focus on relevant academic achievements that demonstrate your capability to handle research tasks effectively. For a research intern, always consider which aspect of your background aligns most with the research skills sought by employers and prioritize that in your resume's layout.

Highlighting relevant skills

When applying for a research role, highlight skills specific to research methods. Mention any experience with statistical software like SPSS or data visualization tools such as Tableau.

Include any coursework or projects that show your ability to analyze data, draft reports, or conduct thorough literature reviews.

Research Assistant Resume Sample

Optimal resume length.

Your resume as a prospective research intern should be concise. You should aim for one page. This shows you can summarize your skills and experiences well. Emphasize recent, relevant experiences and leave out less critical details like hobbies.

When listing experiences, focus on your research skills and any projects that showcase analytical thinking. Highlighting experiences with data analysis or scientific research is good. This is because these skills are key for a research intern. If you have more than one page of relevant content, make sure the first page has the strongest points.

Research Scholar Resume Sample

Showing publication experience.

If you have been published, list these publications on your resume. This shows employers you can produce research findings at a professional level.

Include details such as the title of the paper, where it was published, and any co-authors. This makes your resume stand out in the research field.

Research Intern with Data Science Specialization Resume Sample

Aspiring research intern resume sample.

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A Guide to Listing Research and Publications on your Resume or CV

With there being only so much room on your resume or CV, space can get taken up very easily…

Making you wonder…

Should all my publications and research get listed on my resume?

It’s a big question with a simple answer.

If you’ve got work or papers that:

Then you most definitely should include them on your resume. You want your prospective employer to be able to see exactly what you’re capable of and the actual work you’ve done is perfect.

You want to make it easy for the person thinking about hiring you to see your range of experience and knowledge in your field; this is what citing your published work will do.

Papers will also demonstrate some soft skills like good writing and the ability to analyze data .

When you’ve got a good library of publications, how do you choose which ones to include?

What format should you use in your citation?

For answers, you’ve come to the right place.

We’ve pulled together the rules and tips you need for adding your publications to your resume or CV to help get things perfect.

The right time to add publications to a resume or CV

The first thing you need to do is assess the job role that you’re applying for and decide if your published work is relevant.

You only have a small amount of space and it gets full, quickly.

The best advice you’ll get is to only include publications that match the job you’re applying for and support the points you’re making elsewhere in the resume.

To make it easy to follow, here are the main times you’re going to find listing your publications to be useful on your resume or CV:

Deciding which publications to use on your CV or resume

Your first instinct is probably to add everything you’ve ever achieved in life, but you need to make sure you’re targeting your information to the person reading your document.

• When you have papers that confer kudos, make you look more qualified, or demonstrate key skills for the role, these are the papers that you include.
• When you’ve got industry-specific publications or ones that really highlight a skillset, make sure you add them on.
• Articles about hobbies or casual subjects probably aren’t going to impress the hiring manager and can be omitted.

With all of this to think about, you’re probably thinking about which publications are the right ones to add to your resume or CV.

For your curriculum vitae , note down anything that has authority in its field that has been or will soon be published.

These could be:

• Books for academia
• Journal and publication research papers
• Not-yet-published research papers
• Articles of a scholarly nature
• Papers presented at conferences

The right type of publications to list on your resume include:

• Presentations at trade conferences
• Chapters of books or whole books
• Trade association magazine articles
• Industry journal publications

Pro-Tip Not every publication belongs on your CV. Don’t include blogs, website content, or nonscientific or magazine articles. Also, if your thesis didn’t get published, it belongs in your “ Education ” section.

Why are resumes and CVs different for listing publications?

The question of the difference between a CV and resume should probably be tackled first!

Your resume contains a summary of your skills and experience in brief, covering just one or two pages.

Conversely, your CV is packed with detail and will run well over two pages in length.

You should be writing a different resume that’s specific to each position you’re applying for, whilst your CV remains static and you tailor your cover letter for each job you go for.

How does all of this affect how you show your published work?

This breaks it down for you:

Getting to the nitty-gritty…

Examples for listing publications on a resume

You’re here because you’re wondering…

Let’s answer that for you…

We’re going to give you the rules you need to follow for citing publications on your resume. It includes the order you need to use and the simple structure to follow to give you the perfect Publications section of your resume:

• Use a dedicated section called “Publications” so it’s easy for the recruiter to find
• Order it using reverse chronology , meaning you start with the most recently published and give each publication its own bullet point. Pick out your recent and relevant works so you can conserve space for all the other important things
• Pick the right style for your list. You don’t need to follow MLA (Modern Language Association) or APA (American Psychological Association) styling, rather you can make a list that covers the title of the work, where it was published, and the date it was featured. As an example: “Components of Neo-gothic Churches in Nineteenth-Century England” British Journal of Architecture, June 2018

Pro-Tip APA style is a writing style and format for academic documents such as scholarly journal articles and books. It is commonly used for citing sources within the field of behavioral and social sciences. It was developed by The American Psychological Association. MLA style is the leading style of documentation for literary research, as well as academic papers in the humanities field. It was developed by The Modern Language Association.

For including a written publication, it should look like this:

• Title of article or chapter, then the name of the journal/magazine/website
• Last name of the author, then first and middle names or initials
• Publication year
• Issue or publisher’s number, and volume and page numbers where applicable
• If the paper is available online, be sure to add the URL too

To cite a paper presented at a conference:

• Note your role, such as presenter, panelist, or keynote speaker
• The topic or title that was discussed
• Conference or forum name
• Where and when the presentation took place

Imagine you’re looking for a SEO consultant role and the skills you need to be showing are around SEO.

This is an example of how you’d cite relevant publications for these key skills:

• Panelist: “Native SEO and How to Host It” HostCon, 2019
• “SEO in the Next Decade” Internet Trends, June 2019
• “Best Advanced SEO Techniques” Content Guru, Turin Publishing, Dec 2018
• “Hold the Front Page: Modern SEO” Searchzone, Feb 2018

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Examples for listing publications on a CV

We’ve already established that…

Your CV, or curriculum vitae, is what you use instead of a resume in the world of academia.

Rather than picking out the best bits of your publication history for your resume, on your CV you get to show absolutely everything you’ve had published during your career, except obsolete one.

There are a few different things to consider when you’re formatting your publications to go on to your CV :

• Have the right format. With only a few publications to cite you can just add a section called “Research and Publications” within your CV, when your list is more comprehensive you’ll need to use dedicated pages for your citations
• Be consistent with your style of citations , whether you choose to use MLA or APA. A general rule of thumb is that humanities fields like languages, social sciences, and philosophy generally use MLA whilst science and engineering fields tend to opt for APA style.
• Go in reverse chronological order starting with your most recent published work and go back in descending order, all the way back to your first published article
• Don’t refer to publications that are now obsolete , you’re fine to ignore things that have been superseded or aren’t relevant to your job or field any more
• Note work that’s yet to be published but is being peer-reviewed at the time you’re writing your CV. Format these papers in italics and don’t include the name of the journal you have sent them to.
• Highlight your byline when you have co-authors or collaborators by putting your name in bold, remember not to miss out on anyone’s name

Here’s a guide to the different styles that you may be expected to use:

To give you some examples of what your listed publications would look like based on the type of work and the style you decide to use:

Pro-Tip Make sure you keep your list up to date as your career progresses and you get more articles, books, or presentations published. Each time something new goes live, add it to the top of your CV’s Publication and Research section.

When you have publications to cite on your CV or resume, it shows that you have skills, knowledge, and interest in your field. A potential employer will only see this in a positive light; they want you to be engaged in the work that you do.

It’s really important that everything that you include about your published history is correct and up to date, as well as relevant.

You can add publications to your CV or resume in a number of ways, depending on your field and purpose.

To be doubly sure that you’ve got it, here’s how to write publications on a resume and CV:

Publications on your resume :

• Put them in a separate section called “Publications”
• Include each publication in a new bullet point
• List the year and title
• Add the name of the magazine, website, or journal
• Only include publications that are relevant to the job you’re applying for

For your CV, usually, you'd include all your academic publications.

Publications for your CV :

• Include all of your academic publications
• Choose a citation style for your list and stick to it
• Start with the most recent publication and work backward
• Bold your byline when you’ve shared credit
• Don’t use outdated, disproved, or obsolete works

However, you choose to format your list, make sure that it looks tidy and well organized so any hiring manager knows exactly what they’re looking at.

Create my resume now 🔥

If you have licenses or certificates you want to put on your resume, read this article to create an effective certifications section.

Does volunteer experience require resume? How to describe voluntary roles? Volunteering is valuable so check out how to write up your experience in resume.

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