How to List Publications on a Resume: APA, MLA and Chicago

To list publications on a resume, add a "Publications" section, pick one citation style, list the newest work first and bold your own name. Then label unfinished work by its exact status, such as "in press" or "under review."

That is the short answer to how to list publications on resume. The details decide whether a hiring manager trusts the section. Most guides show one tidy APA entry and stop. They skip the harder questions: what to do when you are fifth of twelve authors, how "submitted" differs from "in press," and when a resume should become a CV.

This guide covers all three styles, every publication status and a clear rule for choosing a resume or a CV.

#Should publications go in a separate section or elsewhere on your resume?

Where the section goes depends on the job, not just your publication count. Use this decision table.

Pitt Career Central¹ recommends adding publications to a "Relevant Experience" or "Academic Experience" section when you have limited experience, and creating a dedicated section once you have substantial work. Our research assistant resume example shows a short publications list in action.

For industry roles, less is more. In ASBMB Today², career advisor Nicole Matrone advises scientists to "avoid CV-style listing and choose first-authored publications or highlight those that are most relevant to the job." That article also suggests placing a "Selected publications and conference proceedings" section last on an industry resume. An unpublished thesis goes elsewhere; see our tips on listing your thesis title and advisor.

Not sure which document you need? Our explainer on what CV stands for breaks down the difference.

#How do you format publications on a resume in APA, MLA and Chicago style?

Here is the same article in all three styles. Swap in your details and keep the punctuation exactly as shown.

Notice three differences. APA uses initials and puts the year right after the authors. MLA uses full first names and cuts to "et al." at three or more authors. Chicago also uses full names but keeps up to six authors.

In the MLA line, Garcia's name disappears behind "et al." The next section shows how to fix that on a resume.

DOIs belong in URL form. The University of Portland's Chicago 18 guide⁵ notes that DOIs should now be formatted as a URL, such as https://doi.org/10.1086/718629, and that the older "doi:" prefix is deprecated.

If your field has its own style, such as AMA in medicine or IEEE in engineering, use that instead. Consistency matters more than which style you pick.

#How do you list publications with multiple authors on a resume?

The official rules differ sharply:

• APA 7: List all authors up to 20. With 21 or more, list the first 19, an ellipsis, then the final author, per Purdue OWL³.
• MLA 9: With three or more authors, list only the first author followed by "et al.," per Purdue OWL's MLA guide⁴.
• Chicago 18: List up to six authors. With more than six, list the first three and "et al.," per the University of Portland guide⁵. Older guides still show the Chicago 17 rule, so check which edition they follow.

Here is the problem those rules create. If you are the fourth of eight authors, a strict MLA or Chicago entry drops your name entirely. A hiring manager then sees a paper with no visible link to you.

On a resume, adapt the style. List authors through your own position, bold your name, then add "et al." On a CV, follow your field's full convention, because academic readers expect it.

The contribution note is optional. It works well on industry resumes, where a manager cares more about what you did than where your name appears.

#How do you list in-press, submitted and under-review publications?

Status labels are where resumes most often overstate. A journal name next to a submitted paper can look like an acceptance. Use this ladder:

The APA rule on submitted work is explicit. The University of Melbourne's APA 7 guide⁶ says: "Do not list the name of the journal to which was submitted." Once accepted, James Cook University's APA guide⁷ shows the in-press format: author, "(in press)," title, then the journal name.

Some career centers take a looser approach on resumes. Pitt Career Central¹ shows a submitted paper with the journal name and "(Submitted, March 2024)." That is acceptable on an industry resume if the status is unmistakable. Never drop the status label.

#What publications should you include, and what should you leave off?

Relevance beats volume on a resume. A data science manager wants the paper where you built the model, not the one where you ran a survey in a different field. Our guide on how far back a resume should go applies here too: older work earns space only when it is still relevant. See more academic and education resume examples for layouts that keep papers short.

Non-academic writing counts. Marketers, policy analysts and journalists can list bylines, white papers and reports. Keep the format simple: title, outlet, date and a link.

Where do articles written about your work go?

#How do you make a publications section ATS-friendly?

Applicant tracking systems read text, and a publications section is mostly text. That helps. Problems come from layout choices: citations inside tables, text boxes, or two-column templates. Our guide to how ATS works explains why simple structure parses best.

Italics and bold are fine. A plain ATS-friendly resume template keeps both readable.

Also remember that paper titles rarely contain job-posting keywords. A title like "Readmission rates in rural hospitals" does not say "Python" or "logistic regression." Echo those skills in your experience section so both the software and the recruiter connect your research to the job. Our resume keywords guide shows how. Our guide on how to put research experience on a resume shows how to write those method-first bullets.

Once the section is ready, run the whole resume through the Rezoom ATS resume checker to confirm the citations parse cleanly and the keywords land.

Publications often sit alongside other academic sections. If you have them, see our sibling guides on how to list Latin honors on resume and how to list languages on resume. For the letter, our research assistant cover letter example shows how to mention a paper in one line.

#Frequently asked questions

#Sources

We opened and read each page below. The small numbers in the text point here. Pages that carry no publication date show n.d.

1. Pitt Career Central, University of Pittsburgh2024

   Add publications to experience sections when limited, create a dedicated section when…

   careercentral.pitt.edu (opens in a new tab)

2. ASBMB Today2020

   Nicole Matrone advises avoiding CV-style listing on industry resumes and choosing first-authored…

   asbmb.org (opens in a new tab)

3. Purdue OWL2026

   APA 7 lists up to 20 authors; 21 or more lists first…

   owl.purdue.edu (opens in a new tab)

4. Purdue OWL2026

   MLA 9 lists the first author and "et al." for three or…

   owl.purdue.edu (opens in a new tab)

5. University of Portland Library2025

   Chicago 18 lists up to six authors, first three plus "et al."…

   libguides.up.edu (opens in a new tab)

6. University of Melbourne Library2026

   APA 7: do not name the journal for a manuscript submitted for…

   library.unimelb.edu.au (opens in a new tab)

7. James Cook University Library2026

   APA 7 in-press format: author, (in press), title, journal name

   libguides.jcu.edu.au (opens in a new tab)