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Tips on Listing Publications in your Resumé
There are many industries where publication of your own work is a critical part of your career development. College professors are one obvious example, as are scientists and researchers, but the list is by no means limited to them. As professionals in industries that require us to actively publish research studies, essays, articles, textbooks, etc. we have to find ways to account for such publications on our resumés. There are a number of things to consider in deciding how to present your publications in your resumé.
First, ask yourself how relevant the publications are to your career objective. If you have recent publications that support your career objective, make sure to create a separate heading on your resumé and list the publications in reverse chronological order. Follow the appropriate style for your field (AP, MLA, etc) when listing your publication, omitting your name from the listing if you were the only author of the text, as that is implied.
Avoid listing publications that do not support your career objective on your resumé. You are striving for relevance, not completeness, as would be the case with an academic curriculum vita. Although it may be helpful to mention other publications to your potential employer in your cover letter, you do not want your resumé to look padded out with extraneous material.
If you have submissions in progress, or are working on texts that you know will be published at the later time, and they support your qualifications for the job, you may include them on the resume under a sub-heading of "submitted to (publication name) or "to be published in (publication name"î. However, if you decide to include works in progress, be certain that they will get published at some point in the future. This is mostly critical for freelance magazine, newspaper or creative writers who are applying for positions, but it is a good rule for academic job hunters as well. You do not want to promote yourself with publications that may well turn out to be so much vaporware.
If your list of non-relevant publications is fairly extensive, do not dismiss it altogether from your resumé. You want your employer to be aware that you have either published or are in the process of publishing your work. You should create a section within your resumé dedicated to publications and provide a selection of the most important, with a notation that this represents a selection of you works. Don't list so many that it overwhelms the rest of your resumé. Limit yourself to three to five representative publications, in reverse chronological order in this section. This will give your employer an idea of your work, the publications and audiences you have reached.
At the end of your publication listings, include a statement that tells the employer a complete listing of publications can be provided upon request. In your professional summary or cover letter you can indicate the total number of publications you've produced in your career. Create a separate document that includes a complete bibliography of your publications, following the appropriate style manual for your field. You should make sure that the list of your publication credits any co-authors properly, as well. You should have a printout of this list, along with your resumé that you can bring to any job interview, or forward to the hiring manager at their request. In addition, if asked about your publications, offer your potential employer a copy of any of your articles for their review (although if given the appropriate reference information, your employer, if interested, will be able to locate your publications on their own).
Overall, disclose any information about publications if it supports your career objective and highlights your qualifications for the job. Review the information you list carefully and make sure that names and dates of publications are correct -- even minor mistakes can raise questions about your credibility. Including irrelevant publications just to show off that you're a published author can actually be detrimental to your job hunt, since it can make a hiring director believe that you're padding out an otherwise unimpressive resumé with makeweight.
