Academic CV Guidance
Academic CV Guidelines
The New School does not have a standard template for the academic CV because of the great variety of fields and practices of our faculty. But there are numerous resources and ‘guidelines’ for preparing the academic CV, sometimes offering contradictory or less than optimal advice (e.g., never use bullets / use bullets, never italicize / use italics judiciously; begin with a paragraph that summarizes your work / don’t summarize your work). Links to some of them, along with sample CVs, are included below. The key things to keep in mind are:
- CV is complete and that it includes your entire academic and professional history
- CV is clean and easy to read
- Dates are included (month, year) on professional activities including:
- conference presentations
- performances
- exhibitions
- invited talks
- Order the categories and the items within each category (such as teaching, service, research and creative practice, education) from most important to least important. E.g., a traditional scholar working in a field most typically featuring single-authored books should list a single-authored book publication before listing a (more recently published) co-edited volume. Peer-reviewed articles will typically come before and be a separate category from non-peer-reviewed articles.
- Within a category, generally list items chronologically from most recent.
- Date the CV in smaller font at the end.
- Have a senior faculty member review your CV before submitting
More Resources
- The NIH has some valuable resources including a guide to writing a CV and a broader and more comprehensive guide to Resumes and CVs.
- The Graduate College of the University of Illinois offers guidelines and samples.
- Harvard’s template for CVs is available here.
- Yale has resources for Resumes and CV’s here.
- The Association of American Medical Colleges offers advice, a Word template, and Tips and Strategies.
- A professional academic career advisor has created a substantial website that includes her ‘rules‘ for the academic CV.
- CVTemplates.net offers free downloadable templates by category such as academic, teaching, scholarly.
- The Guardian has an article about the 10 irritating mistakes on academic CVs.
Note that in preparing a reappointment review dossier, your CV will likely include your entire history, but the dossier may include only select items from the review period.