Rules of Writing the Academic CV

Rules of Writing the Academic CV

**Please note this advice is continually checked and updated! Including for COVID19.**

We’ve looked at the 12 Sentences That Should Be Included in Your Academic Cover Letter, the Research Statement and The Teaching-Centric Cover Letter.  Today we look at the Curriculum Vitae, or just CV.

Today’s post is a long overdue post on CVs. 

The CV genre allows for a great deal of individuality; nevertheless, there is no universal agreement on the worth or attractiveness of any one style. In this post, I'll outline the expectations that govern my own works.

These expectations will result in a CV that is very legible and well-organized in the manner of an American academic CV. CV writers from the United Kingdom and Canada will notice that the font is bigger, the length is longer, the margins are broader, and the white space is more numerous than you are used to seeing. These are the standard requirements for CVs in the United States (again, admitting of enormous variation among fields and individuals).

These standards apply to resumes that are submitted as pdf attachments as part of a job application. Even while the CV may be written in a word processing application like as Word, it should be provided as a PDF to guarantee correct formatting on the other end.

(source Instagram @journey.to.tenure.track (C) Ginny Natale) 

The Importance of Peer Review.

The CV is organized on the organizing idea of promoting peer review and competitiveness. Professional job posts (full-time, TT) in Academia are exceedingly competitive; and are usually the first to be filled. Publications are very competitive and come in the second position, with peer-reviewed publications earning the place of honor in the hierarchy—in the sciences, peer-reviewed or it doesn't count. Fellowships and grants, as well as awards and prizes, reflect a high level of competitiveness in the field. Invited lectures *could* imply a greater degree of individual recognition and distinction than a voluntarily submitted paper to a conference; this is reflected in the order in which they appear on the schedule. As a result of teaching in this environment, that is, as a list of courses taught, it is not considered competitive, and as a result, it is not given high priority and goes lower down in the CV. Extra training that you seek out on your own time and in your own way is basically non-competitive. Etc., etc., etc.

 

Without further ado: Dr. N’s Rules of the CV.

General Formatting Rules

• Single spaced
• 12 point font throughout
• One inch margins on all four sides.
• No switching of font sizes for any element, EXCEPT the candidate’s name at top, which can be in 14 or perhaps 16.
• Headings in bold and all caps.
• Subheadings in bold only.
• NO ITALICS OF ANY KIND EXCEPT FOR JOURNAL AND BOOK TITLES (Brits, I’m talking to you)
• No explanations of grants/fellowships (ie, “this is a highly competitive fellowship…”).
• No personal stories.
• No “My work at the U of XX is difficult to condense…” etc. etc. One possible exception: a separate heading for “Dissertation” with a VERY short paragraph abstract underneath. I disapprove of this. Some advisors insist on it. One year or so beyond completion, it should be removed.
• One or two full returns (ie, blank lines) before each new heading.
• One return/blank line between each heading and its first entry.
• No “XXXX, cont’d” headings. Page breaks will constantly move as CV grows.
• YEAR (but not month or day) OF EVERY ENTRY THROUGHOUT CV LEFT JUSTIFIED, with tabs or indent separating year from substance of entry. Why, you ask? Because candidates are evaluated by their productivity over time. Search and tenure committees wish to easily track yearly output. When you produce is as important as what you produce. Year must be visible, not buried in the entry itself.   (table formatting another option as described in comment stream)
• NO NARRATIVE VERBIAGE ANYWHERE. Brits, I’m talking to you.
• Left justify all elements of the cv.
• Do not full/right justify any element of the cv.
• No bullet points at all, ever, under any circumstances. This is not a resume.
• No “box” or column formatting of any kind. This interferes with the constant adjustments a dynamic professional CV will undergo on a weekly/monthly basis.
• No description of “duties” under Teaching/Courses Taught
• No paragraphs describing books or articles.  

 

Heading Material:

• Name at top, centered, in 14 or 16 point font.
• The words “Curriculum vitae” immediately underneath or above, centered, in 12 point font.  This is a traditional practice in the humanities and social sciences; it might be optional at this point in time, and in various fields.  Please doublecheck with a trusted advisor.
• The date, immediately below, centered, is optional.  Senior scholars always date their Vitas
• Your institutional and home addresses, tel, email, parallel right and left justified.

[YOUR LEGAL NAME]

CURRICULUM VITAE

[TODAYS DATE]

CONTACT INFORMATION
Business Address:

[YOUR DEPARMENT]

[UNIVERITY NAME]

[DEPARTMENT ADDRESS]

[CITY, STATE, ZIP CODE]

Telephone: (XXX) XXX-XXXX
Email: [YOUR UNIVERSITY EMAIL]
NIH My Bibliography: [YOUR WEBSITE URL]

EDUCATION

20XX - present    Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, [UNIVERSITY],[STATE]

20XX                  Ph.D. Sociology [UNIVERSITY],[STATE OR COUNTRY]

20XX                  M.A. Sociology [UNIVERSITY],[STATE OR COUNTRY]

20XX                  B.A. Sociology, summa cum laude,            [UNIVERSITY],[STATE]

20XX                  B.S. Biology, cum laude [UNIVERSITY],[STATE OR COUNTRY]

RESEARCH SUPPORT
Ongoing
[…]
Completed
[…]

Content:

Education. Always. No exclusions. List by degree, not by institution. Do not spell out Doctor of Philosophy, etc.; it’s arrogant. In decreasing order, list the following degrees: Ph.D., M.A., and B.A. Please include the name of the department, the name of the university, and the year of graduation. Please do not include a start date for your project. You may add Dissertation/Thesis Title, and potentially Dissertation/Thesis Advisor if you are ABD or just 1 year or so from Ph.D.. Remove this after that point. Do not include any additional verbiage.

Professional Appointments/Employment. This must go directly under education, presuming that you have/had them. Why? Because the reader must be able to instantaneously “place” you institutionally. These are contract posts only– tenure track or instructorships. Ad hoc adjunct employment do not fit here; only contractual roles of 1+ years in duration. Postdoctoral jobs also go here. Give institution, department, title, and dates (year only) of employment. Be sure to reflect joint appointments if you have one. ABD applicants may have no Professional Appointments, and in that case the Heading may be bypassed. TA-SHIPS, ETC. ARE NOT Identified UNDER PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT. COURSES THAT YOU TAUGHT AS AN ADJUNCT ARE NOT LISTED UNDER PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS.

Grants and Fellowships (if you are in a field where these differ categorically from Awards and Honors). Give funder, institutional location in which received/utilized, year period. Listing $ amount looks to be field-specific. Check with a trustworthy senior adviser. Year(s) on the left side.

Publications. Subheadings: Manuscripts in Submission (give journal title), Manuscripts in Preparation, Web-Based Publications, Refereed Journal Articles, Book Chapters, Conference Proceedings, Encyclopedia Entries, Book Reviews, Books, Edited Volumes, Other Publications (this section can include non-academic publications, within reason) (this section can include non-academic publications, within reason). Please notice that future publications ARE mentioned in this area. If they are already in the printing stage, with the complete citation and page numbers available, they may be included the same as other published works, at the very top as their dates are farthest in the future. If they are in press, they might be mentioned here with “in press” in lieu of the year.

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

Manuscripts in Preparation

[INSERT FULL CITATION]

                            Currently Under Review
                            [INSERT FULL CITATION]

                            Published (Include DOIs or URL)
                            [INSERT FULL CITATION]

 

 Awards and Honors. Give name of award and institutional location. Year at left. Always in reverse descending order. Listing $ amount appears to be field-specific.  Check with a trusted senior advisor. DO NOT INCLUDE UNDERGRADUATE HONORS. Nothing, I mean nothing, makes you look more unprepared to be a faculty than putting information from your college days, or worse, your High School Valedictorian award. Seriously, no one cares if you were or weren’t Valedictorian, sorry not sorry kiddo.

Conference Activity/Participation. Subheadings: Panels Organized, Papers Presented, Discussant. These entries will include: Name of paper, name of conference, date. Year (Year only) on left as noted above. Month and date-range of conference in the entry itself (ie, March 22-25).  No extra words such as: “Paper title:”  Future conferences SHOULD be listed here, if you have had a paper or panel officially accepted.  The dates will be future dates, and as such they will be the first dates listed. COVID update: If you were accepted to a conference but it was cancelled, you can still list it! Just write in parentheses: “cancelled due to COVID-19”

RECENT CONFERENCE LECTURES AND PARTICIPATION

        20XX [LAST NAME, FIRST INITIAL] “Managing Disclosures and Stigma Resistance of                         Invisible Illnesses at Work” American Sociological Association, [Online due to                             COVID-19]
        20XX [LAST NAME, FIRST INITIAL] “Concerns of IBD patients with chronic fatigue”                         Graduate Student Senate Research Symposium, Kent State University, OH

Teaching Experience. Subdivide either by area/field of teaching or by institutional location, or by Graduate/Undergraduate, or some combination of these as appropriate to your particular case. 

Format in this way:  if you’ve taught at more than one institution, make subheadings for each institution.  Then list the courses vertically down the left (ie, do NOT use the year-to-left rule that applies everywhere else).  To the right of each course, in parentheses, give the terms and years taught. This allows you to show the number of times you’ve taught a course without listing it over and over.  Give course titles BUT NEVER GIVE COURSE NUMBERS! Course numbers are meaningless outside your campus.

 Teaching Employment & Experience

Lakeland Community College, [CITY, STATE]
20XX                 Adjunct Instructor, Introduction to Sociology (face-to-face)

Kent State University, [CITY, STATE]
20XX-20XX    Instructor, Interpersonal Relationships and Family (online)
20XX              Instructor, Global Inequalities in Society (online)
20XX              Instructor, Introduction to Sociology (online)
20XX              Guest Lecturer: Introduction to Sociology (face-to-face)
20XX              Guest Lecturer: Sociology of Health and Illness (face-to-face)
20XX              Guest Lecturer: Data Analysis (face-to-face)
20XX              Instructor, Data Analysis Laboratory (face-to-face)
20XX              Guest Lecturer: Social Problems (online)
20XX              Guest Lecturer: Health and Healthcare (face-to-face)

 

COVID update: identify all recent courses as F2F or online or hybrid. This is vital data now. This is when brackets, i.e. [..], come in handy.

Condense this paragraph if you've taught more than 15 courses; it's not required for an experienced teacher to painstakingly discuss every course they've ever taught. Just make sure you've covered all of your bases.

TA experience goes here. No narrative verbiage under any course title. Nobody talks about "obligations" or anything like that in this document. One minor exception to this overall pattern. If your department is one that has its “TAs” genuinely construct and sole-teach courses, then this needs to be disclosed. "(Instructor of record)" after the course title is one conceivable addition, as is "(As TA, I devised and sole-taught all of the courses indicated here)." Don't go on and on about nothing.

Research Experience. RA experience belongs here, as well as lab experience. If the study was done by a team on a multi-year, complicated topic, a little amount of clarification may be provided here. It's best if you only have one well-written sentence.

COVID update: if research was delayed owing to COVID19, you can indicate that, within restrictions. Unfortunately, many colleges are NOT changing their standards or expectations to the epidemic, so go here with care. In disclosing this, I'm not making an excuse.

Service To Profession. Include journal manuscript review work (with journal titles [mss. review CAN be given its own distinct heading if you perform a lot of this work]), leadership of professional organizations, etc. Some folks place panel organizing under service; check conventions in your profession.

Departmental/University Service. Include search committees and other committee activity, nominations to Faculty Senate, etc. Sorry to be a hassle, but here the tradition is that the Title or Committee be left justified, with the year in the entry. Don’t ask me why, and merely a tradition, not a hard regulation.

COVID update: if you have to undertake COVID response work, be sure to list. If COVID hindered your capacity to accomplish publications or teaching due to a handicap, write that. Please don't place the blame on the tragedy, but rather provide an explanation for any gaps or production shortfalls.

ACADEMIC SERVICE AND ENGAGEMENT
20XX-PRESENT              Executive Committee New York City Epidemiologic                                                      Forum (NYCEF)
                                          Member
                                          Chair: [NAME], Columbia University

Teaching Areas/Courses Prepared To Teach. [Optional]. You may submit a short list of course names (titles only!) that indicate your areas of teaching preparation. No more than 10 courses should be mentioned here.

Languages. [Optional unless your job post demands multi-lingual speaking] All languages must be listed vertically, with ability in reading, speaking, and writing clearly delineated using words such as: native, fluent, excellent, conversational, good, can read with dictionary, etc.

 Memberships/Affiliations in Professional Organizations. [optional] All professional organizations of which you are a member listed vertically. To show sustained dedication to a profession, including years of prior employment when you are older and those years have already passed.

 

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS MEMBERSHIPS

•  American Sociological Association (ASA)
• Medical Sociology
• Families
• Mental Health
• Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS)
• North Coast Sociological Association (NCSA)
• Alpha Kappa Delta (AKD) Honors Society
• Eastern Sociological Society (ESS)
• Gerontological Society of America (GSA)
• The Alzheimer's Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment (ISTAART) 

 

References. [optional] List references vertically. Please provide your complete name and position title in the space provided. Do not refer to references as “Dr. xxx,” or “Professor xxx.” This gives the impression that you're a graduate student, which is exactly what you are. Please provide your complete postal address, phone number, and email address at the university. To do otherwise is unprofessional, even if we know nobody is going to utilize the snail mail address. Never use the words "Ph.D. Committee member" or anything like to explain who or what you're referring to. A single "Teaching Reference" may be an exception to this rule. This is the fourth of a series of four mentions.

What is NEVER included:

• ANYTHING FROM YOUR UNDERGRADUATE AND HIGH SCHOOL YEARS!!!  Remove all undergraduate content, other than listing your BA degree under Education.
• Overseas travel. Not relevant that you went to Cabo last summer.
• Anything you’d see on a business resume.
• Lectures by Special Guests. Putting “guest lectures” for other individuals at your university or including on-campus comments to some round table or other in your conference section is fairly typical, and very very unprofessional. It gives the impression that you're trying to inflate the size of your resume. Guest teaching in the course you TA’d in? Readers know this is padding.
• Campus or Departmental Talks. These are presentations that your own department or campus has requested that you deliver. These aren't considered "Invited Talks," although they may still be listed as Campus Talks or Departmental Talks on the website. Create a list similar to that of "Invited Talks.". Under no circumstances may guest lectures in courses be posted here or elsewhere on the CV. That is padding.
• Student Volunteering Outside of Class. Students, athletes, and others may all benefit from being involved. Adding this part to your resume gives the impression that you are a graduate student desperately trying to "add a line" to your resume. It's possible that it may come out as clingy or desperate.
• Community Involvement/Outreach. This includes work with libraries and schools, public lectures, etc.
• Media Coverage. ONLY if the media coverage was impactful, otherwise delete. Coverage of your work by the media.
• Related Professional Skills. ONLY include training in GIS and other technical skills relevant to the discipline. More common in professional schools and science fields; uncommon in humanities.
• Non-Academic Work. Include only if relevant to your overall academic qualifications. More common in Business, sciences. Editorial and publishing work possibly relevant in English and the Humanities.  
• Rearranging the order of the content. Don’t do it. First, the search committee is v very tired. Second, in order to hide or reduce gaps in research production, students make alterations to this sort of formatting (such as rearrangement of material or obscuring the year in an entry) as a result of having children, sickness, COVID19, or elderly parents in their lives for a couple of years. What is the appropriate course of action in such circumstances: to brave out the gap and keep to the formatting JTTT advised, or to adjust the formatting to give the most emphasis to what you have done without calling attention to your failure to attain the utmost amount possible? My advice is to stick to the formula. You don’t want your CV to stick out for being “weird” or “unprofessional” or, worse, “an uninformed grad student wrote this”
• Career goals. This should be 1-2 sentences and put in your Cover Letter announcing that you’re applying for the job.

*Candidates seeking employment in the United Kingdom or Canada may choose to seek the advice of specialists in those countries to see if this American style CV will be detrimental to their chances of landing a job in those nations.*

~JTTT

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