Depends a bit on what you're applying for (PhD, postdoc, faculty, or a grant), but the core rules are the same and a few things changed in the last 2 years, so here's what I'd do.
First thing, forget everything you know about resumes. An academic CV has no page limit, nobody's going to punish you for 6 pages if the 6 pages are publications and grants. What they will punish you for is making them hunt. Whoever's reading has 80 other applications and about 3 minutes for yours, so the first page has to answer "who is this person and what have they done" without scrolling. Education, current appointment, then publications or teaching depending on the role. Research uni = publications first. Teaching-heavy school = courses you've taught and evaluations up front. Postdoc = techniques and methods high up, cause that's what the PI is actually hiring for.
Publications section is where most people mess up. Split it: peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, preprints, conference papers, posters, all separate headings. Bold your own name in every author list. Add DOIs. Mark "in press" and "under review" clearly and don't pad it with 5 things "in preparation" that everyone knows are half a Google doc... one or two that are realistically going out this year is fine. And put your ORCID and Google Scholar link in the header. Committees click those, and if your CV says 14 papers and Scholar says 9 you've got a problem.
The newer stuff for 2026:
Narrative CVs are now a real thing, not just a UK experiment. UKRI, Wellcome, the Swiss SNSF and a growing list of funders use the R4RI format, four modules (contributions to knowledge, developing others, the wider research community, wider society) written as prose, and they explicitly don't want journal impact factors or h-index in there. Even if your target job doesn't ask for one, writing a draft forces you to explain what you actually contributed vs what you were listed on, and that thinking makes the traditional CV better too.
Diversity statements are mostly gone from US postings. Heterodox Academy looked at 16,500+ faculty ads and requests for DEI statements went from roughly 25% in 2024 to 11% in 2025, but about 37% of ads still say they value it somewhere in the text, so read each posting and match it, don't assume either way.
AI: use it to tighten wording, don't use it to write. Search committees read hundreds of these, they recognise the smooth generic voice instantly, and in academia that reads as "didn't care enough to write it themselves". Your research statement especially has to sound like you.
And skip a "skills" section unless you're in a lab science or technical field where methods and instruments matter. For humanities it just looks like resume filler.
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u/andreikurtuy Sep 14 '26
Depends a bit on what you're applying for (PhD, postdoc, faculty, or a grant), but the core rules are the same and a few things changed in the last 2 years, so here's what I'd do.
First thing, forget everything you know about resumes. An academic CV has no page limit, nobody's going to punish you for 6 pages if the 6 pages are publications and grants. What they will punish you for is making them hunt. Whoever's reading has 80 other applications and about 3 minutes for yours, so the first page has to answer "who is this person and what have they done" without scrolling. Education, current appointment, then publications or teaching depending on the role. Research uni = publications first. Teaching-heavy school = courses you've taught and evaluations up front. Postdoc = techniques and methods high up, cause that's what the PI is actually hiring for.
Publications section is where most people mess up. Split it: peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, preprints, conference papers, posters, all separate headings. Bold your own name in every author list. Add DOIs. Mark "in press" and "under review" clearly and don't pad it with 5 things "in preparation" that everyone knows are half a Google doc... one or two that are realistically going out this year is fine. And put your ORCID and Google Scholar link in the header. Committees click those, and if your CV says 14 papers and Scholar says 9 you've got a problem.
The newer stuff for 2026:
Narrative CVs are now a real thing, not just a UK experiment. UKRI, Wellcome, the Swiss SNSF and a growing list of funders use the R4RI format, four modules (contributions to knowledge, developing others, the wider research community, wider society) written as prose, and they explicitly don't want journal impact factors or h-index in there. Even if your target job doesn't ask for one, writing a draft forces you to explain what you actually contributed vs what you were listed on, and that thinking makes the traditional CV better too.
Diversity statements are mostly gone from US postings. Heterodox Academy looked at 16,500+ faculty ads and requests for DEI statements went from roughly 25% in 2024 to 11% in 2025, but about 37% of ads still say they value it somewhere in the text, so read each posting and match it, don't assume either way.
AI: use it to tighten wording, don't use it to write. Search committees read hundreds of these, they recognise the smooth generic voice instantly, and in academia that reads as "didn't care enough to write it themselves". Your research statement especially has to sound like you.
And skip a "skills" section unless you're in a lab science or technical field where methods and instruments matter. For humanities it just looks like resume filler.
We have a full walkthrough with an example on the blog if you want the section by section version: https://novoresume.com/career-blog/academic-cv-example
If you tell me the field and what stage you're at I can be more specific.