How to List Publications on a Resume and CV

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To help you create a compelling application, we’ve create a step-by-step guide on how to add publications to your application document the right way.

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Publications on a resume vs a CV

If you’re applying to graduate school or an academic position, you’ll be submitting a CV. A CV is a longer document, so you’ll have room for a publications section to show academic committees that you’re qualified to teach or study in your field. All other job applications use a resume.

Including publications on a well-written resume is optional.

When applying for a job, your main goal is to demonstrate to the hiring manager your preparedness for the role, so only list relevant publications on your resume.

For example, if you’re a lawyer applying for a job in contract law, you might wish to list a publication you wrote about contract law.

Unlike with resumes, listing your publications when you write an academic CV is expected.

If you’re applying for an academic role, your CV publications are used to evaluate your depth of knowledge in a particular subject. Unless you lack publications altogether, this section should always be included.

To give a brief overview:

Listing Publications: Resume vs CV

Resume for a Job	Academic CV
Publications are optional	Publications are required
Includes only highly relevant publications	Includes all publications necessary to show you're an expert
No particular way to format publications	Follows a major style guide (e.g., IEEE, AMA, APA)

How to put publications on a resume for a job

Your goal when applying for a job with a resume is to keep your publications:

relevant to the job
brief

1. Decide where to put your publications

Once you’ve decided to include publications on your resume, the next step is to decide where to put them.

Depending on the number of publications you wish to list, you can use a dedicated publications section, or list your publications within your education section.

This choice is similar to the choice you’d make about how to list your relevant coursework or your certifications on your resume:

If you have only one or two publications, list them in your education section
If you have more than two publications, use a dedicated publications section

Most templates you find online don’t have a publications section, so if you go with the second option, you’ll have to add a “Publications” header to the resume template you choose.

2. Choose a format

While there are no strict rules about formatting publications on a resume, consider referencing a popular style guide in your field.

If you’d like to showcase a particular publication, organize your list so that publication comes first.

Whether you choose to use a formal style or an informal one, be consistent with your formatting to show hiring managers that you have good attention to detail.

3. Provide the necessary information

Be sure to include the:

title of the article, book, or chapter
name of the journal, website, or conference the publication was featured in
year it was published

Publications on resume examples

Example in an education section:

Example using a dedicated publications section:

Here’s what a publication might look like on a resume:

An example of publications listed on a resume — A publication on a resume.

If you still aren’t sure how to format your publication section, try an AI resume builder that can take care of the formatting for you.

How to list publications on a CV for academic roles

Your goal when applying for a position or program with an academic CV is to keep your publications:

relevant to the position or role
thorough

If you’re still unsure where to place your publications, check out our video by Career Advisor Corissa as she outlines clear steps for how to include them on your academic CV:

To expand on Corissa’s tips, here are three steps on how to list your publications:

1. Create a dedicated publications section

Having a separate publications section is an important aspect of CV format.

The publications section is most commonly organized in reverse chronological order. While listing publications chronologically is acceptable, starting with the most recent publication at the top ensures that academic committees see that you’re actively involved in your field.

You can also include publications that are in a submitted or pending stage in your CV.

2. Determine which style guide to use

Unlike resumes, CVs require strict adherence to specific style guides because citing sources is a regular requirement in graduate school and research positions.

However, different specialties have different formatting rules. For example:

medical journals often use AMA
academic papers written in the humanities field mostly use MLA
technical papers tend to use the IEEE style guide

Include your CV publications using the proper style guide to demonstrate your knowledge of citation rules.

3. Choose which publications to include

Your publications section should run as long as necessary to communicate how much you know about a subject. Depending on the amount of experience you have, your CV publications section may take up a page or longer.

However, leave out publications that are either obsolete due to newer studies, or publications that are irrelevant to the role you’re applying for.

Publications on CV examples

Here’s how this will look on an finalized academic CV:

Sample CV Publications Section Using APA Formatting — This CV publication section uses APA style guide formatting.

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