How to List Publications on a Resume — The Definitive Guide

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Having peer-reviewed articles, books, or blogs make it to the publication stage may take several months of hard work and dedication.

It also shows a degree of specialization in various subjects and can prove your expertise.

That said, are these things that you should be listing on a resume?

Should You List Publications on Your Resume?

You should list publications on your resume when applying for a job that involves research and writing. Professors, researchers, or scientists typically include publications on their resumes. It is not recommended to include publications outside of these fields unless they are relevant to the job. 

Resumes should always be limited to two pages max, meaning space is precious and limited.

Employers outside of academia or research fields do not tend to care much about published materials, so it’s best to cut this section.

Unless your desired job requires research and writing, having a solid work history in the field often trumps written work. It can be thought of as proven experience vs. desk work.

An employer wants to see what it is you’ve done, not what it is you know and understand.

If you are seeking a job that involves research and writing, however, a publications section is welcomed and recommended by most employers.

How Do You List Publications on Your Resume?

Publications should be listed in their own “publications” section on a resume. This section may either be placed below the education section or below the experience section. List the name of the publication in quotes, where it was published, and the publication date.  

How to format publications from academic journals

While the rules of how to format a publication can be bent for non-academic resumes, let’s look at the most common formatting for academic publications.

Academic publications start with the author’s name, as this makes them easily searchable in online databases.

Academic publications also often have more than one author, so it’s important to attribute credit to those who helped you.

The rest of the formatting follows this order: last name, first initial, title, place of publication, volume number, issue number, date, and page numbers. 

An academic journal publication in MLA format will look like the following:

Publications

In APA format, it is nearly the same, but without quotation marks and with the pages and year switched. This looks like the following example:

Publications

Should you list publications in APA or MLA format?

Science or engineering fields tend to prefer APA style, whereas humanities fields usually use MLA.

It is unlikely that you’ll be chastised or passed over for using the wrong format here, but it is best to keep things as readable and familiar as possible for your potential employer. 

On the other hand, if you are choosing to include publications for a field outside of academia, such as for journalism or other writing fields, you may choose to list publications without using APA or MLA formatting. 

How to format publications on a resume (informally)

For jobs that do not require publications as a formal part of the work, one may choose to list publications in an “informal” and brief way.

This keeps the section short and increases readability for fields where perhaps publications are rarer.

The formatting for publications in non-APA or MLA formats should follow the following order: title, name of publishing magazine/journal, and the date.

The author’s name is not typically included here. Use proper capitalization and punctuation, and keep it brief. 

The title should be written as a proper title, with capitalized words and using quotation marks at the beginning and end. This part is sometimes written in bold but is most often written in regular text.

The publishing magazine or journal should also be capitalized, as it is a proper title. This is typically written in italics.

When listing dates, they should be written with only the month and year of publication. Do not use abbreviations for the month. The month should either be written as the full word (December) or the number (12). 

When formatted correctly, a publication will look like the following:

How do you list a publication with many authors?

When listing a publication with multiple authors, it is important to give credit where credit is due. Make sure you list the other author and yourself in the case of a two-author publication.

Put your own name in bold. For publications with three or more authors, use the phrase ‘et al’. 

Let’s look at an example of a two-author publication if your name is Jane Doe:

Publications

In contrast, let’s try an example with ten authors. To keep it short, only list the first author on the list, include “…”, [your name], and “…et al.”

This looks like the following if your name happens to be Jane Doe:

Publications

Because of the way many academic search engines function, it is important to keep whoever is listed first on the journal first on your publication description.

This name is the most important when searching electronically, so do not put your own name first unless it is published as such.

Should you mention forthcoming publications on a resume?

Forthcoming publications that have not been approved or have been sent back for editing before approval should not be listed on a resume. Resumes should only list accomplishments that have been completed or are ongoing, except in circumstances such as fresh graduates with little experience.

Resumes, unlike CVs, are to be kept short and to the point with work experience and accomplishments. Because of this, unfinished accomplishments such as future jobs or future publications should not be included for brevity’s sake.

It also comes across to an employer as having nothing better to include. They may believe that you have so few past accomplishments that you are relying on a publication that hasn’t even been published (and possibly never will be). 

Marcel Iseli

Hey fellow Linguaholics! It’s me, Marcel. I am the proud owner of linguaholic.com. Languages have always been my passion and I have studied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics and Sinology at the University of Zurich. It is my utmost pleasure to share with all of you guys what I know about languages and linguistics in general.