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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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CV Formatting Essentials

In general, the main thing to consider when developing your CV is readability.  It is important because reviewers will likely read 100s of CVs for applications. Therefore you want to make this as easy and painless as possible.  The following are just a few tips we think will help you get started.

• To start, make sure to use 12 point font (or no smaller then 10) and one inch margins (or no smaller then 8)
• The following are some common sections found in a CV:
• Publications
• Presentations
• Professional or Work Experience
• Community or Academic Service
• Honors & Awards
• When describing your experience a CV generally uses a paragraph structure, compared to a resume which is typically formatted using bullet points.
• The emphasis for a CV is on academic accomplishment, research inquiry, methods or techniques used, and analytical approaches.
• Briefly highlight your dissertation or thesis in the Education section. When describing your dissertation or thesis in a CV, you typically include the title within the Education section included just under the degree. The details of the work will be include later within the Research Experience section. For those in the Humanities, you will add a Dissertation section with a brief synopsis of your research. See Humanities  CV sample .
• A CV could include names of collaborators and your PI, research outcomes or future areas of inquiry. Skills and abilities are also included in a CV. Those skills particular to graduate students and postdocs include the ability to analyze data, conduct archival research, test hypothesis, and reason logically.
• Include a reference section.  A Reference section is typically included when applying for a faculty or postdoc position. Follow the instructions. If the position description calls for three references, provide them with three. Be sure to include the name, department, email, address and phone number. Referees for academic appointments generally send the reference letter directly to the institution, so you will want them to know exactly how to contact your references in case the letter does not arrive.
• Include a footer starting on the second page with your name and "page 2 of X".

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How to Put Your Thesis on a Resume

In This Guide:

When it's appropriate to feature your thesis in a resume

A template and example on how to feature a thesis on your resume

Tips to list your thesis on your resume.

A thesis is a statement that explains the general point of a project. Typically, this statement gives the reader a clear idea of the primary points so they can have more context when working through the information to follow. It may also offer a definitive hypothesis, statement, or personal perspective.

The thesis also refers to an academic project that a doctoral candidate completes in pursuit of their professional qualification. We’ll focus on that usage today, looking at how to add this project to a resume.

In this article, you’ll learn

• When it’s appropriate to add a thesis to a resume
• Tips on adding your thesis to a resume
• Key takeaways

When it's appropriate to feature your thesis in a resume

Here are a few instances when you should add your thesis to your resume.

When applying for another degree

Thesis work looks good when you’re applying for other programs. It shows that you’re familiar with academic coursework and have completed significant challenges in your field.

When it’s relevant to the position

A thesis shows that you’ve earned specialized knowledge. When that knowledge pertains to a certain position, the employer must know that. Even if the relevance is a slight stretch, it’s still worth citing on your resume.

When you want to show transferable skills

Gaining a thesis requires refined skills. Those skills are likely transferable . Isolate those skills and think of ways they could apply to your intended position. If the skills relate directly, that’s a great reason to add the thesis to your resume.

Let’s see how you could add your thesis to a resume . It might be challenging to figure out where you should add the information. The following examples should give you some perspective.

Example of a thesis on a resume

Here’s an example of how to cite your thesis under “relevant experience.”

Doctoral Thesis

March 2019 - january 2020.

Produced an accepted thesis on the function of microorganisms in the onset of heart disease. Worked closely with University faculty to achieve insights that have since saved lives. Utilized intense research, communication, and organizational skills to complete the project.

A few concise sentences about impact, structure, and the effort required will help display the work you’ve done.

A thesis on resume template

You could cite your thesis in numerous places in your resume. However, it’s smart to find one place and stick to it.

In a template , you might find space for your thesis under “work experience,” “professional experiences,” “education,” or somewhere in an introduction.

Here are a few things you could note in your description of the thesis.

Make sure to mention your GPA

Your GPA holds a lot of weight. Noting that you could finish a thesis and maintain a solid GPA is smart. You can also note any grading that came from your thesis work, specifically.

List relevant research projects

Cite particular research projects that occurred within your thesis work. These will all highlight different skills or unique knowledge that you have.

A key thing to remember is that you can apply skills gained while earning your thesis. You can also use your thesis in numerous areas of the resume.

Understanding how to add a thesis to your resume intelligently can help you stand out and utilize the skills you gained through your doctoral process.

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Building Your CV Guide for Graduate Students

This guide is designed for graduate students in all fields and is not tailored to any specific discipline. It offers introductory advice on how to write or update a CV. Before moving forward, we encourage you to:

• Find several sample CVs from your discipline (check assistant professors’ CVs from faculty profiles on your department website)
• Speak with your mentors and advisors to understand specific expectations of CVs in your discipline 
• Request your trusted peers, mentors, or advisers to review your CV draft and collect feedback

The insights you gain from these additional sources along with this guide and sample CVs will help you write and revise your CV based on your goal. You can also make an appointment to meet with a career adviser from the Center for Career Development to review your CV and provide feedback. 

What is a CV

Your CV is a written record of an entire history of your scholarly achievements. It usually includes nearly all aspects of your academic experience. Your CV will continue to grow as you progress in graduate school and beyond. It is a living document with no length limit. It is best to build your CV as early as possible and revise it throughout your doctoral training to capture the developments in your academic career. 

If you are curious about the differences between a CV and a resume, please review our CV vs. Resume Guide .

When do I need a CV?

Your CV is the first of many documents you will be asked to send when you apply for: 

• Academic positions such as tenure-track faculty (e.g., assistant professors), non-tenure track faculty (e.g., visiting assistant professors, teaching assistant professors, lecturers), and postdocs
• Research positions at national laboratories or research institutions 
• Fellowships, scholarships, and awards 
• Research grants 

How can I format my CV?  

There is no single formula to format your CV, though some fields have style preferences. Check the following key rules to design an effective CV that captures your readers’ attention: 

• Choose a layout that allows you to present your accomplishments concisely, clearly and consistently so that readers can easily skim your CV and find the information they need. 
• Make your CV stylistically consistent. For example, if you make one heading in bold and title case (e.g., EDUCATION), all the headings of your CV should follow the same style (e.g., RESEARCH EXPERIENCE). 
• There is no page limit, so do not use fonts smaller than 11 points and keep one-inch margins on all sides. 
• Organize headings in decreasing order of importance to put your most relevant accomplishments on the first and second pages of your CV to capture your readers’ attention.
• Use reverse chronological order when organizing information in each section, with your most recent information at the top and the oldest at the bottom of each section.
• Don’t forget to check for spelling errors and typos to avoid making grammatical mistakes.

Should I tailor my CV for each application?

Even though differences among your CVs won’t be substantial, tweaking your CV based on readers’ specific expectations is important. 

For example, suppose you are applying for faculty positions in different types of institutions (e.g., teaching-focused liberal art college vs. research-focused university). You may need to emphasize different aspects of your academic achievements relevant to each audience (e.g., put teaching experience first over research when applying for a faculty position that primarily involves teaching). 

What information should I include? 

Your CV should be organized with headings to draw your readers' attention. CV headings are the titles of each section to highlight different aspects of your experiences or accomplishments. They help readers quickly locate key information on your CV. 

Getting started

Start building your CV with the common headings suggested below to ensure that you are not overlooking anything relevant. The final headings you need in your CV will be based on your discipline and the positions/fellowships you are applying for.

Please schedule a one-on-one career advising appointment using Handshake for help developing or updating your CV. 

Related documents

Common headings.

• Honors & Awards

Publications

• Experience (e.g., Research Experience, Teaching Experience) 

Conferences & Presentations

• Professional Affiliations/Memberships

Additional Headings

• Research & Teaching Interests

Skills & Languages 

• Student Advising & Mentoring 
• Patents (mostly for Ph.D. students in engineering and natural sciences)
• Media Coverage  
• Professional Experience

List each institution, degree, field concentration and date your degree was (or is expected to be) conferred. You do not need to add starting dates for each degree. 

Remember that your highest degree or degree-in-progress should be listed first since CVs use reserve chronological order. You can also include your dissertation title and the names of your adviser(s) and dissertation committee members. CVs usually do not include high school information. 

Honors & Awards 

Include dissertation awards, scholarships, fellowships, research or teaching-related awards, and other honors relevant to your field. You may consider listing them under “Education” instead of creating a separate heading if you only have a few awards. 

List the names of the awards/honors, the awarding institutions, and the date awarded. If you were selected to receive a fellowship or award but had to turn it down, you may consider listing it here and note it was "declined."

List relevant experience that highlights your scholarly accomplishments. Include your organization/employer, position title, location and employment timeframe.

You can also use one-to-two bullets (also known as accomplishment statements) to describe your significant accomplishments in each position, which offers a good understanding of your unique scholarly contributions to readers. Avoid using too many bullets as they are more commonly used in resumes than CVs.

Instead of using a general "Experience" heading, it is more effective to subdivide it. For example, "Research Experience" and "Teaching Experience" are the most used experience headings in CVs. 

If you’ve worked as a research assistant under a specific faculty member/Principal Investigator (PI), a research group/lab or a research center, list that under research experience. You can include research internships outside academia, such as national labs, government agencies and private companies if they are directly relevant to your field of study. 

Include all full-time, part-time, volunteer and adjunct teaching experiences as a teaching assistant, assistant in instruction, co-instructor, solo-instructor, or lecturer in your teaching experience section. Along with your titles, institutions where you taught, and employment timeframe, include the name of each course taught to demonstrate your competencies. 

If relevant to your goal, you may add additional experience headings such as "Other Professional Experience," "Administrative Experience and "Museum Experience." What you  include may vary depending on your field and the positions/fellowships you are applying for.

If you plan to use your CV for tenure-track faculty positions, postdocs and fellowships that primarily involve research, this is one of the core sections you need to highlight. If possible, include this heading on the first or second page of your CV. 

Please note that your dissertation itself is not considered a publication in academia, so do not include it here. To list your publications, use the citation style of your academic discipline (e.g., APA, MLA, IEEE, Chicago). You can make your name bold to highlight your authorship. 

Since there are prestige hierarchies among academic publications, you can create subheadings to differentiate types of publications. For example, your publications may be categorized as below. 

• Peer-Reviewed Articles or Refereed Journal Articles
• Books 
• Book Chapters 
• Book Reviews
• Conference Proceedings 
• Technical Reports 
• Web-based Publications 
• Other Publications (non-academic publications such as blog posts)

If your work is accepted or/and in the final process of production, it should be considered published work. When listing it, replace the year of publication with the term "accepted," "forthcoming," or "in press." 

If you have several manuscripts you submitted to a journal for review, you could create a "Manuscripts in Submission" subheading.

You may have a "Manuscripts in Preparation" subheading if you have ongoing research projects to submit for publication in the near future. Do not list too many in preparation or submitted items in your CV because they are not officially accepted or published yet.

Along with the publications section, this is another core area to showcase your research accomplishments. Similar to your publications, follow the citation style of your field. In general, you need to include the names of presenters, the presentation or poster titles, the names of conferences, and the dates you presented.

You may subcategorize them to demonstrate different types of scholarly engagement. For example, you may consider subheadings such as:

• Paper Presentations
• Poster Presentations
• Invited Talks & Lectures
• Campus Presentations
• Panels/Workshops Organized

If you have an accepted paper or presentation but a conference was canceled due to COVID, you can list it with an additional note in parentheses (e.g., canceled due to COVID).

List any volunteer work contributed to your department, university and professional associations, such as a committee member, manuscript reviewer, and department representative. 

You may categorize them with the following subheadings:

• Departmental Service such as department student organizations, department committees and department seminars organized
• University Service such as campus-wide committees and graduate student organizations
• Disciplinary Service or Professional Service such as journal/conference paper review, ad hoc or regular committees affiliated with professional associations and conferences organized

If you develop a CV to apply for academic positions (e.g., assistant professors), your readers are interested in your service activities. Even though they are not directly related to research performance, this section highlights the way you’ve volunteered to give back to academic communities.

This section is optional, but if your field requires specific foreign languages or technical skills to conduct research, you may want to consider adding this section to your CV. As for languages, specify the extent of your proficiency (e.g., advanced reading and conversational knowledge) for each language.  

Professional Associations/Memberships

List your memberships in international or national scholarly organizations by including the names of the organizations. 

As a graduate student, it is common to include at least three academics who are willing to write letters of recommendation (e.g., adviser(s), dissertation committee members). Include their names, titles, institutions, and contact information (e.g., email addresses).

Accomplishment statements

To write effective bullets or accomplishment statements in CVs, start with an action verb, then offer detailed descriptions by covering the following aspects:

• What: What did you do exactly? Be detailed and explain each part using quantitative and qualitative terms.
• How: How did you do this? Did you lead or work on a team? 
• Results or Why: Share the outcomes of your action to show the value of your contributions or highlight the purpose of your work. What was the goal of the project? Did this lead to a publication? 

Remember not to overuse bullets since they are optional in CVs. Include one or two most significant and relevant aspects of each work if you decide to use bullets in your CV. If your target readers are scholars with a similar academic background and are familiar with your field-specific jargon, you may use your field vocabulary to describe your work. 

Examples of accomplishment statements include:

• Applied a general circulation model to analyze the regional climate impacts, which led to three conference presentations and one peer-reviewed journal article 
• Examined the relationship between medieval material culture and visual culture in religious communities in southern France 
• Analyzed the effectiveness of anti-corruption audits on governments by examining changes in management and bureaucratic organizational structures
• Collaborated with three graduate research assistants and two postdocs to design novel experiments that assess cell mobility to determine the path of least hydraulic resistance
• Facilitated weekly precepts involving discussion of lectures and readings on 19th-century British and American literature for a total of 30 undergraduate students
• Developed and implemented learning lessons to introduce materials science to 50 first-year undergraduate students, later adopted by the department 
• Integrated multimedia and humanities to offer theoretical and historical understandings of global art history using film and instructional technologies

For more information on creating bullets/accomplish statements (e.g., action verbs), please review the Transforming Your CV to a Resume guide .