The CV – Section III: Scholarship / Professional Productivity, Part 1

This is the next part in a series of posts on editing, styling, and formatting curriculum vitae.

The next section in this CV series covers a lot of activity, so I’ll break it down into a couple of sections. This post will review subsections A and B.

Though entered in chronological order, all entries in subsection A should be numbered by type (peer-reviewed articles, books, chapters etc.), not listed by date. See the sample CV section.

In subsection A, start with peer-reviewed journal articles, listing oldest to most recent. Formatting style may vary, but your CV should remain consistent. If you’re not sure how to format, just follow PubMed style. The CV sample linked above also shows how to note pre-press (accepted but not yet in print) and submitted papers.

Be sure to bold your name and list all authors; however, if there are numerous authors (≥ 20 or so), the list can be truncated.

Article titles use “down style” capitalization, in which only the first word or proper names are capitalized, though many titles in PubMed do not adhere to this.

Journal titles should always be formatted using PubMed’s abbreviations, unless the journal is not indexed in PubMed; in these cases, use the journal’s own abbreviation or the full name.

Add PMID, PMCID identifiers—this helps readers quickly look up your articles.

If you have a paper that was published in a journal not indexed in PubMed, list the doi (digital object identifier), which will be listed near the top of your article online. Most journals also have a “cite this article” link somewhere on the webpage, which will allow you to download the citation or copy and paste.

You can list a PMID, PMCID, or doi (consistently), but to save space on your CV, there’s no need to list two or all three. One identifier is sufficient.

Include either doi or full URL for electronic-only publications.

Book chapters should include chapter authors, chapter title, book editor(s), book title, city/place of publisher, publisher name, and year of publication. You can also list the start and end page numbers of your chapter. Books use headline-style capitalization; chapters do not.

Meta-analyses and major review papers can be separated into their own category titled “Reviews.” Don’t include a “case report and review of the literature” here; add that to the peer-reviewed publications list. Reviews listed here are usually invited by a journal.

The abstracts category seems to cause some confusion. Entries here are just that—abstracts. List only presentations (poster or oral) that were the result of an accepted abstract submission. Invited lectures and other presentations go elsewhere on your CV.

Abstracts are listed similarly to publications: authors, title, then the full, official title of the conference where presented, city and state or city and country*, then month and year. If the abstract was published, usually in a supplemental issue of the journal associated with the organization sponsoring or arranging the conference, include the citation after the abstract listing, again following the same format as publications. *If a meeting is virtual, you can either just omit the location, or note “(virtual)” in place of the location.

There’s also no need to note whether each abstract was presented as a poster or oral presentation, unless that’s your personal and consistent preference.

Most CVs simply divide subsection A into publications and abstracts. If, however, you have several pages of publications, consider subsections as noted on the CCOM CV template.

As for subsection B, “Areas of Research Interest and Current Projects,” list topics of interest in your clinical or lab research, along with any current projects that are not being performed with formal grant funding. These might include projects assigned to residents or fellows, such as chart reviews, patient or colleague surveys, QI projects, or offshoots of formal lab research projects.

The advantage of listing your clinical and research interests is that when your CV is submitted or circulated among colleagues, you might find connections with faculty interested in your work, and collaborations can be discussed. Likewise, if you are moving in a new direction with your studies or research, this section can highlight your new interests and future plans.

As always please feel free to contact me with any CV or other editing questions at kristina-greiner@uiowa.edu.