If you’ve ever published an article in an academic journal or presented a paper at a conference, you’ll want to present these publications on your resume or CV.

Including publications on your resume shows hiring managers that you’re knowledgeable about your industry and increases your chances of landing a job interview.

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.

We’ll start by settling the CV vs resume debate and compare the two before moving into a step-by-step guide on how to add publications to your application document.

If you’re applying to graduate school or an academic position, you’ll be submitting a CV. 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.

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:

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

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.

Be sure to include the:

Example in an education section:

Education

Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR – May 2012

B.S. Agricultural Sciences – GPA 3.6/4.0

Example using a dedicated publications section:

Publications

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

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

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

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.

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:

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

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.

MLA journal publication example

AMA journal publication example

APA journal publication example

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

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