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Should I attach my soon-to-be-published manuscript when submitting my CV?

I've just recently submitted my first paper to a scientific journal and want to apply for an internship at a certain institution. I'm pretty confident that my paper will be accepted but I know the review process is long. Should add it to my CV and write "under review" and attach the manuscript along with it? I feel as if them reading the manuscript will better my chances at my getting it.

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    If your field has a culture of using preprint servers, uploading the paper to a such and putting a reference to that on your CV is probably better (note that "under review by journal X" does not actually count for anything for the people reading the CV). Dec 5, 2014 at 13:36
  • @TobiasKildetoft But if the paper is under review and not yet accepted, won't the journal have second thoughts about accepting it if a 'free' version exists online.
    – user119264
    Dec 5, 2014 at 14:55
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    In mathematics, the standard practice is to post preprints to the math arxiv, and list it on the CV as 'submitted' with a link to the arxiv copy. A few people seem to also include the name of the journal to which the paper has been submitted, but personally I find that somewhat tacky (the fact that I have chosen to submit to (say) the Annals of Mathematics does not mean it will/should be accepted there).
    – Aru Ray
    Dec 5, 2014 at 15:11
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    @user119264 Note the clause "If your field has a culture of using preprint servers." For instance, if you're working in math, physics, etc. where it's totally ok to disseminate preprints before publication, there's no reason not to list your manuscript on your CV with an active link to it. But if it's against the culture in your field or the policy of the particular journal you want to publish it in, you don't want to upload it. So, whether uploading a preprint is a good idea depends on the culture in your field (or, more importantly, the policy of that particular journal). Dec 5, 2014 at 15:25
  • Related (possible duplicate): Should I post publications in preparation (or just submitted) on my CV?
    – ff524
    Dec 7, 2014 at 1:52

3 Answers 3

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As others have said, it depends on the culture of the discipline you are in.

I also think it is important where you are in your career. If you are an undergraduate, for example, with a manuscript on which you are an author, I would be impressed even without the acceptance yet. Most undergraduates in my field (biology) have not done much (or any) hands-on research so this would be a big CV booster! Since you say this is your first manuscript, I assume you are early in your career so it may help you stand out from your peers. I have seen graduate students and even professors include submitted manuscripts on CVs and personally have not found it tacky.

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When you submit an application, you will usually be told what to include. Follow those rules first. If there is room to submit other materials then, providing your manuscript seems like a good idea. The usefulness of providing the manuscript will of course vary depending on the role of the position you seek. Posting the manuscript somewhere can be useful for several reasons but when applying for a post, people evaluating an application (one of probably many) will not want to have to spend time gathering the materials themselves, they want it provided with the application (unless clearly stated otherwise).

What you need to ask yourself if the manuscript will reflect well on you? From your answer, apparently so, but a poor manuscript should probably be avoided. An assessment of the future publishing of the manuscript is not something I generally would rely on.

The person or committee evaluating applications will chose to judge your manuscript as they see fit. Usually, a written thesis or manuscript can help to assess important aspects of a person's capability. A person evaluating the application will of course also try to judge if you are the sole originator or if others have a large imprint on the work. It is therefore important to provide a good account for what is truly yours and what can be attribute to others, i.e. list the contributorship to the work. If you want to see discussions on such issues, please search the tag on on contributorship here on academia.sx.

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  • This is only for a 2-4 month summer internship. Will they really spend that much time on reviewing my manuscript when they possibly have 1000s of other applications?
    – user119264
    Dec 8, 2014 at 20:40
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Post it on a preprint site such as arXiv for the physics / maths / Comp Sci folk or in Research Gate for us other mortals or even an institutional repository. Then list it is "in review", "submitted", "in-press" or whatever stage it is as in your CV. Link the item in your CV to the preprint at arXiv, RG, institution. This way you give them the choice. Visit the link or not. When published just change the link to the DOI in your CV.

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