CV question--would my title be "author"?

[scientific]

Hope this is the right subforum.

I'm writing my CV. I contributed a page/chapter to an online textbook in my field; it's an NSF- funded project. It is open for professors of a specific list of the field to contribute to and for students (if professors agree/give permission). 

What would my official title be? It's hundreds of pages now, but I think the page I wrote is used in a course now. Would it be author, editor, contributor? 

[TakeruK]

I'm not sure what you are asking / how you are structuring your CV.

Usually, people list their publications without any "title". You would cite your contribution the same way you would cite a chapter in a book, using your field's standard reference/bibliography style. Typically, it will be something like:

Author1 Name, Author2 Name, "Chapter title" in "Book name", eds. Editor Names, publisher, etc. 

[scientific]

It actually didn't occur to me that it counts as a publication. Thanks!

[fuzzylogician]

6 hours ago, scientific said:

It actually didn't occur to me that it counts as a publication. Thanks!

I think it's worth being slightly careful here. You say "I contributed a page/chapter to an online textbook in my field" -- I'm not sure what that means; as long as you are listed as an author on this page/chapter, you're definitely good to go. If you're not credited anywhere, that's a lot less clear. Are you able to consult with your advisor about how to list it? I'm sure someone looked your contribution over before it made it into the textbook (was it peer-reviewed?). 

[TakeruK]

2 hours ago, fuzzylogician said:

I think it's worth being slightly careful here. You say "I contributed a page/chapter to an online textbook in my field" -- I'm not sure what that means; as long as you are listed as an author on this page/chapter, you're definitely good to go. If you're not credited anywhere, that's a lot less clear. Are you able to consult with your advisor about how to list it? I'm sure someone looked your contribution over before it made it into the textbook (was it peer-reviewed?). 

Definitely this. I was assuming that this is like one of those books in my field where each chapter has its own list of authors and you're one of them. Also, I was going to make a similar comment regarding peer-review: most CVs have separate publication sections delineating peer reviewed work and non peer reviewed work. In my field, actual peer review usually involves a process where a referee makes comments about your work to the editor and you have to address them. If someone just looked it over before approving it, then it doesn't count as peer review in my field (often published conference proceedings are in this second case: someone reads it over quickly to ensure that everything is in order, but it's still a non-reviewed publication).

If you are not actually listed as an author of this chapter, but you helped out in some other role, then list that other role. For example, if you contributed to it as part of your class final project, then list that. Or, if you contributed it to as part of a summer research program, then list it as a bullet point there, for example.

[scientific]

Well, I think it's a bit complicated, so I'm going to describe more in-depth the situation, but still try to keep it vague since I'm personally uncomfortable with revealing the project itself.

A professor I took a class from has a long-term goal of creating an "online textbook." The goal is to make this field more accessible and to reduce textbook costs in the future. A group of us wrote "pages" on specific topics that were either accepted and edited, or taken out. I wrote the original page and practice questions on one specific topic, but it has since been edited by others, including the professor himself. On the page, I am listed as the original writer. 

It is an NSF-funded project that has become open to many other universities and predominantly professor write the chapters now. I know that the professor who started the project does currently use it as his course's textbook (for teaching both lower and upper div courses; my topic woul be an upper div page). I hesitate to call it a publication since when I wrote it, it seemed more like a simplified and shortened way to describe this topic (subtopic--it'd be similar to if I wrote a page on adding exponents in the section of exponent math). It's now been edited to a more "textbook" quality by the professor after I graduated, however.

 

 

In short, I wrote the original overview of a topic with practice questions, and it has since been edited by one other person (undergrad at the time as well) and added to by the professor. I did not do any editing myself, but the page was edited by others and is currently used as a part of upper div curriculum.

So, would this still be a publication? It feels important enough to add to a CV, considering that it is NSF-funded and teaching/writing oriented, unless it's not really worthwhile to mention. 

 

FUTHERMORE, would a poster someone else presented but that I am listed as a third author on be mentioned on my cv, or is that a faux paus? What's the difference when discussing poster/journal publications? 

edit: clarifications and typos

Edited April 4, 2017 by scientific
additional question

[TakeruK]

Regarding the textbook: This is a class project. You're right that the situation is complicated so there's no easy way to put this in your CV. I don't think it fits in the publications section. I also do not think this counts as peer-reviewed. I think if you want to include this in your CV, you would have to be a little creative. How much other science writing do you do? If you blog about science or have done other things you might group together as "outreach" or "science communication" or "science education" then you could include this project with the other stuff. Otherwise, if you already have a section on service/leadership/volunteering, then maybe mention it there. Alternatively, if you have a section on projects, you could list this here too, after any research projects you have.

Note: This type of entry is good to have in a CV at the applying to grad school level. But once you are a grad student, I would remove this entry. I don't think it really belongs in an academic CV. It's normal to reflect on your CV and cull old/irrelevant material at each stage of your career. 

Note #2: If you choose to not put this in your CV now, you should definitely write about it in the your SOP. I personally think this is a better place for this entry than your CV, but it's your choice.

Regarding the poster presentation, yes, include it in your poster presentations. But it depends on what you have there so far. If you have like 3 or fewer entries including this 3rd author one, then keep it. Otherwise, I would not include it since having 3 first author posters + 1 3rd author poster is not very different than just 3 first-author posters. Adding that 3rd author poster makes it look like you are trying to CV-pad. Similar to my above note, if you do include this 3rd author poster for now, eventually you will reach a point where you have many first author posters, and there's no longer a need to include non-first author posters. And then later on, you will probably want to limit the number of posters to just 4 or 5 instead of every single poster.