Academic CV
Academic CV template, section by section
An academic CV lists your education, training, appointments, service, honors, funding, teaching, presentations, clinical work and publications, each under its own heading. Your medical school sets the headings, their order and how dates are written. Gather every part with the template below, then print it in your school’s format.
Updated
The sections, in order
Harvard Medical School’s CV instructions list these parts in this order. ScienceDex’s AAMC format, a generic academic medical CV for schools not listed, uses the same order. AAMC’s own CV template, Create My CV, is laid out differently: it puts residency and fellowship under Education, newest first. Other schools ask for the same kinds of entries in a different order.
| Part | What goes in it | Example entry |
|---|---|---|
| Header | Your name and degrees, work contact details and the date you prepared the CV | Ada Lane, MD, MPH · Date prepared: Nov 4, 2026 |
| Education | Each degree, with the institution and the year | 2012 MD, Alder Valley School of Medicine |
| Postdoctoral training | Internships, residencies, and clinical and research fellowships | 2012-2015 Resident, Internal Medicine, Alder Valley Medical Center |
| Appointments | Faculty ranks, hospital appointments and other professional positions | 2018- Assistant Professor of Medicine, Alder Valley School of Medicine |
| Leadership and service | Administrative leadership, committees, professional societies, grant review and editorial work | 2021- Member, Residency Selection Committee, Department of Medicine |
| Honors and prizes | Each award, with the year and who gave it | 2022 Teaching Award, Department of Medicine |
| Funding | Funded projects, projects submitted for funding, training grants and unfunded projects | 2023-2026 Co-investigator, sepsis screening study, Alder Valley Foundation |
| Teaching and mentoring | Courses, teaching of residents and fellows, clinical and research supervision, mentees and teaching of peers | 2019- Course director, Clinical Reasoning, second-year medical students |
| Presentations | Local invited presentations, then regional, national and international ones | 2024 Sepsis care in small hospitals / Grand rounds, Department of Medicine |
| Clinical work | Licensure and board certification, practice activities, clinical innovations and patient education | 2015 Board certification, Internal Medicine |
| Bibliography | Your publications, grouped by type and numbered | 1. Rivera AB, Lane A, Okafor M. Sepsis screening in rural emergency departments. Alder Valley Med J. 2024;12(3):145-52. |
| Narrative report | Your main contributions, written for reviewers outside your field | Up to two single-spaced pages at Harvard Medical School |
Order and dates
Schools differ on which entry comes first and how much of each date to show.
| School or template | First entry in each list | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Harvard Medical School | The earliest | Faculty based at affiliated clinical institutions give the month and year for degrees, postdoctoral training and appointments, such as 07/99-06/05. All other dates need only the year |
| Stanford | Either the earliest or the most recent, the same in every list | Month and year for education and appointments |
| UCSF | The earliest | Years on the CV |
| AAMC’s CV template | The most recent, for education and appointments | Years |
Date the CV itself. Stanford asks for the date of the latest update, and its Office of Academic Affairs will ask you to update a CV more than 4 months old. AAMC’s template puts a Last updated line under your contact details.
What to leave off
- Harvard Medical School asks you to drop a category and its heading when it does not apply to you.
- It also asks you to report each activity, role or achievement once.
- Stanford asks you to leave off personal identifiers such as your birthdate, marital status, children and Social Security number.
- Stanford asks you to remove dollar amounts, and to leave off citation metrics, such as the h-index, and impact factors.
- AAMC’s CV tips add your age, DEA numbers and salary history to the list.
- Harvard Medical School and UCSF ask you to spell out acronyms that reviewers outside your field may not know.
An example academic CV
Ada Lane is an assistant professor of medicine. The first page of her CV follows Harvard Medical School’s order and dates, oldest entry first.
| Section | Dates | Entry |
|---|---|---|
| Header | Prepared Nov 4, 2026 | Ada Lane, MD, MPH, Department of Medicine, Alder Valley School of Medicine |
| Education | 05/2008 | BA, Biology, Alder Valley College |
| Education | 05/2012 | MD, Alder Valley School of Medicine |
| Education | 05/2018 | MPH, Alder Valley School of Public Health |
| Postdoctoral training | 07/2012-06/2015 | Resident, Internal Medicine, Alder Valley Medical Center |
| Faculty academic appointments | 07/2015-06/2018 | Instructor in Medicine, Alder Valley School of Medicine |
| Faculty academic appointments | 07/2018- | Assistant Professor of Medicine, Alder Valley School of Medicine |
| Appointments at hospitals and affiliated institutions | 07/2015- | Attending Physician, Hospital Medicine, Alder Valley Medical Center |
| Committee service | 2021- | Member, Residency Selection Committee, Department of Medicine |
| Local invited presentations | 2024 | Sepsis care in small hospitals / Grand rounds, Department of Medicine |
Your school’s format
AAMC’s advice is to follow your institution’s guidelines for the CV you submit with promotion and tenure materials. ScienceDex prints your CV in these formats:
- Harvard Medical School
- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
- Stanford School of Medicine
- UCSF School of Medicine
- Yale School of Medicine
- Penn Perelman School of Medicine
- Columbia University Irving Medical Center
- UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
- AAMC, a generic academic medical CV for schools not listed
Each format page shows that format’s sections, with a link to the school’s guidelines where ScienceDex has one. Choose yours in School CV formats.
Build it in ScienceDex
Pick your format. In Format and promotion target, pick your school’s format, or AAMC if your school is not listed. The format sets your sections and your Word file. Target rank and Appointment or promotion, on the same page, set the readiness checklist.
Bring in what you have. Upload a Word CV, paste PMIDs, PMCIDs or DOIs, or import your ORCID works. Every row stays editable. A row to check shows a note, such as Possible duplicate or Fields to verify, until you choose Mark as reviewed.
Check the preview. The live preview beside your form shows what the Word file prints, under your format’s headings. To change the order, drag a row by its handle, or use the up and down arrow keys on the handle.
Download Word or PDF. Download a Word file you can edit, for example to match your school’s own template, or print the CV and save it as a PDF. To print your name and the page number on every page, set Running header and page numbers to Included in the Export center, under Export.
Faculty privacy sets out who can open your CV.
Questions
Should an academic CV list the newest or the oldest entry first?
Follow your school. Harvard Medical School and UCSF ask for the oldest entry first. Stanford accepts either order when every list uses the same one. AAMC’s CV template lists education and appointments newest first.
What should I leave off an academic CV?
Stanford asks faculty to leave off their birthdate, marital status, children, Social Security number and dollar amounts. AAMC’s CV tips add age, DEA numbers and salary history.
Do I keep headings for sections I have nothing in?
Harvard Medical School asks you to drop a category and its heading when it does not apply. ScienceDex leaves empty sections out of the Word file unless you set Empty sections to Included in the Export center.
Is there an academic CV template in Word?
Harvard Medical School publishes a pre-formatted Word template on its CV guidelines page, and AAMC links a CV template, Create My CV, from Preparing Your Curriculum Vitae. In ScienceDex you download your CV as a Word file in the format you choose.
Sources
- Faculty of Medicine CV Guidelines Harvard Medical School. Read .
- General Instructions for Preparation of the Faculty of Medicine Curriculum Vitae Harvard Medical School. Read .
- How to Organize your CV/Candidate’s Statement Stanford Medicine Office of Academic Affairs. Read .
- CV Guidelines for Appointments, Reappointments, and Promotions Stanford Medicine. Read .
- The UCSF CV in the Advance Application UCSF Faculty Academic Affairs. Read .
- Preparing Your Curriculum Vitae AAMC. Read .
- Create My CV AAMC. Read .
- Curriculum Vitae: Tips and Strategies AAMC. Read .