What should an academic CV include?

Education, research experience, publications, conference presentations, teaching experience, grants and awards, service (committee work, journal review, mentoring), languages and technical skills, professional memberships, and references. Length is 4-15 pages depending on career stage; the convention is comprehensive listing.

How long should an academic CV be?

PhD application CV: 3-5 pages. Postdoc CV: 5-8 pages. Tenure-track faculty CV: 8-15 pages. Compressing to private-sector resume length strips out the content search committees expect to see.

What's the difference between an academic CV and a resume?

Academic CVs are comprehensive records, not marketing documents. They include every publication, every conference talk, every course taught, every grant submitted. Private-sector resumes use marketing language and quantified outcomes; academic CVs use plain academic verb language and field-standard citation format.

Should I include under-review or in-preparation work on my academic CV?

Yes, in clearly marked sub-sections. Search committees value transparency about pipeline. Hiding work in progress reads as inflated when the publication eventually appears.

What citation format should I use on an academic CV?

The format your field uses, applied consistently. APA for psychology and social sciences; MLA for humanities; Chicago for history; AMA for medicine; ACS for chemistry; IEEE for engineering. Mixing styles signals the candidate didn't proofread.

Do I need a cover letter for a PhD application?

Yes, almost always. PhD applications typically require a personal statement, a statement of purpose, and sometimes a research statement and diversity statement. The cover letter (or statement of purpose) carries the marketing work; the CV is the record. See our academic cover letter examples for guidance.

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Academic CV: Template, Examples, and Format for PhD Applications

An academic CV is a different document from a private-sector resume. It's longer (4-15 pages), comprehensive, and built around publications, presentations, teaching, grants, and service. The strongest academic CV examples for PhD applications and faculty roles list everything in reverse chronological order and let the work speak for itself.

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Why academic CVs are different

Academic hiring committees read CVs as comprehensive records, not marketing documents. Private-sector resume conventions (one page, marketing language, quantified outcomes) actively hurt academic applications. Search committees expect to see the full publication list, every conference presentation, every course taught, every grant submitted, and every service role held. The CV format is the convention; truncating or stylizing reads as the candidate not understanding the field.

For PhD applications, the CV is shorter (3-5 pages) and focused on undergraduate research, coursework, presentations, awards, and any publication work. For postdoc applications, the CV expands to include the dissertation, peer-reviewed publications, conference talks, teaching roles, and any grants received. For tenure-track faculty applications, the CV is at full length (8-15 pages) with everything documented.

The second filter is field-specific convention. Sciences and engineering CVs lead with publications and grants; humanities CVs lead with publications, talks, and book reviews; education CVs lead with teaching experience and certifications. Read 2-3 CVs from current faculty in your field before drafting yours; the field-specific conventions matter.

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What to include on an academic CV

Contact. Name, university affiliation, email (institutional preferred), and ORCID ID.

Education. PhD, MA/MS, BA/BS in reverse chronological order. Include institution, degree, field, expected or actual completion date, dissertation title, and advisor name.

Research Experience. Lab affiliations, research projects, methodologies. Reverse chronological. Lead with current postdoc or doctoral research; for PhD applicants, lead with undergraduate research and any RA roles.

Publications. Peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, books, conference proceedings. Use field-standard citation format consistently. Mark first-author or corresponding-author work clearly. Separate sub-sections for under-review and in-preparation work.

Conference Presentations. Talks, posters, panels. Distinguish invited talks from contributed talks. Include co-authors if relevant.

Teaching Experience. Courses taught (institution, course number, role: instructor of record vs TA, semesters), guest lectures, curriculum development, teaching certifications.

Grants & Awards. Funded grants (PI or co-PI, amount, agency, dates), submitted grants, fellowships, awards. Include rejection-resubmission history if relevant.

Service. Department, university, and field service: committee work, journal review, conference organization, mentoring.

Languages & Technical Skills. Field-relevant. For sciences: lab techniques, software, programming languages. For humanities: archive access, languages, paleography or specialized methods.

Professional Memberships. Field associations and societies.

References. 3-5 academic references with institutional affiliation, position, email, phone.

Skills to put on a academic / phd resume

Lead with the hard skills that ATS keyword scanners can verify. Use soft skills sparingly, and only when paired with a phrase that proves them.

Hard skills

•Field-specific research methodologies
•Statistical analysis (R, SAS, SPSS, Stata)
•Programming for research (Python, MATLAB, Julia)
•Lab techniques relevant to discipline
•Archival research and paleography (humanities)
•Survey design and IRB protocols
•Grant writing and budget development
•Manuscript preparation and revision
•Peer review for journals and conferences
•Conference organization and panel chairing

Soft skills

•Mentoring undergraduate and graduate researchers
•Cross-disciplinary collaboration
•Conference presentation and panel discussion
•Teaching across course levels
•Department and university committee service
•Field service through journal review and editing

ATS keywords for academic / phd resumes

These are the terms applicant tracking systems are tuned to find on a academic / phd resume. Embed them naturally in your bullets and skills section - don't list them as a flat keyword wall.

PhDpostdocfacultyacademicresearchpublicationpeer-reviewedconference presentationteachinggrantfellowshipdissertationthesisinstructor of recordteaching assistantprincipal investigatorco-PItenure tracklectureradjunctORCIDfirst authorcorresponding authorservicereview

Sample academic / phd resume bullets

Use these as a model - replace the numbers and contexts with your own. Every bullet leads with a quantified outcome, not a duty.

1
PhD in Molecular Biology, Stanford University (expected May 2026); dissertation: 'Single-cell transcriptomic landscape of pancreatic islet differentiation' under Dr. [Advisor]; defended March 2026.
2
Lead author on 4 peer-reviewed publications in Cell Reports, Nature Methods, eLife, and Genome Research; co-author on 6 additional publications. Two manuscripts under review at the time of CV submission.
3
Presented at 8 international conferences (3 invited talks, 5 contributed) and 12 regional or institutional symposia; recipient of best graduate poster at the 2024 Cold Spring Harbor Single Cell Conference.
4
Instructor of record for Cell Biology Lab (BIO 215, 60 students per semester) for 3 semesters; redesigned the unit on RNA-seq introduction adopted by 2 other instructors in the rotation.
5
Co-PI on $480,000 NIH R03 grant on islet cell biology (2024-2026); contributed primary aim and budget to PI's grant proposal preparation, attended grants management workshops on PI track.
6
Service: program committee for 2 conferences (Cold Spring Harbor Single Cell, Keystone Symposia Diabetes), reviewer for Cell Reports and PLOS Genetics, mentored 4 undergraduate honors thesis students.

Recommended resume structure

Section order matters. ATS systems and human screeners both expect this layout for academic / phd resumes.

1Contact
2Education
3Research Experience
4Publications
5Conference Presentations
6Teaching Experience
7Grants & Awards
8Service
9Languages & Technical Skills
10Professional Memberships
11References

Academic CVs are 4-15 pages depending on career stage. PhD application CVs are 3-5 pages; postdoc CVs are 5-8 pages; tenure-track faculty CVs are 8-15 pages. Use the field's standard citation style consistently. Lead with the section your field weights most: sciences and engineering lead with publications, humanities lead with publications and talks, education leads with teaching.

Relevant certifications

PhD or doctoral degree
Postdoctoral fellowship affiliation
Field-specific certifications (clinical research, biosafety, etc.)
IRB / ethics training (CITI Program)
Teaching certifications (CIRTL, AAC&U)
Specialized methodology certifications

Salary range (USD)

$45,000 – $175,000

Median $78,000

Source: AAUP faculty compensation survey (US, 2025); postdoc / lecturer / tenure-track ranges · As of 2025-04-01

Common mistakes on academic CVs

Compressing to private-sector resume length

Academic CVs run 4-15 pages. Compressing to 1-2 pages strips out the content search committees expect to see. The convention is comprehensive listing; embrace the length.

Using marketing or quantified-outcome language

"Spearheaded research that yielded 35% improvement..." reads poorly on academic CVs. Use plain academic verb language: investigated, analyzed, demonstrated, established. Quantification is appropriate in publication abstracts, not in the CV's bullet structure.

Inconsistent citation format

Pick the citation style your field uses (APA, MLA, Chicago, AMA, ACS, IEEE) and apply it consistently across publications, presentations, and proceedings. Mixed styles signal the candidate didn't proofread.

Hiding under-review or in-prep work

Search committees expect transparent listing of work in progress. Include under-review and in-preparation sections; mark each clearly. Honesty about pipeline is preferred over inflated claims.

Skipping teaching for research-track applications

Even research-heavy postdoc and faculty applications now expect teaching experience documentation. Include TA roles, guest lectures, and any pedagogy training.

Generic objective or summary statement

Academic CVs don't include objectives or summaries. The cover letter (research statement, teaching statement, diversity statement for some applications) carries that work. The CV is the record.

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