Academic CV Template — auto-updating, BibTeX-powered, open-science ready

Self-updating academic CV built with RenderCV. Write one YAML file per section, keep publications in a .bib file, and let GitHub Actions render a fresh PDF every time you push.

Live example: Marine Denolle's CV (PDF) — a 16-page academic CV maintained entirely through this system.

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Why put your CV on GitHub?

For researchers who value open science and technical transparency, a versioned CV in a public repo will most efficiently save you time to adapt your CV for various requests. It will gather your research impact stats pulling Google Scholar citation and github metrics automatically. Each section in the CV is a separate YAML file for modular writing. This template was modified from render-cv and entirely vibe coded after with Claude Opus 4.6 and Sonnet 4.6 using VsCode CoPilot agentic tools.

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Quickstart

Prerequisites

# Install pixi (cross-platform package manager)
curl -fsSL https://pixi.sh/install.sh | bash

(Or use the Dockerfile for a pre-built environment.)

1. Fork and clone

git clone https://github.com/your-username/marine-cv.git
cd marine-cv
pixi install

Rename the repository!

2. Copy the template

cp -r template/ my-cv-docs/
mv my-cv-docs/Your_Name_CV.yaml my-cv-docs/Jane_Doe_CV.yaml

3. Edit your data

Each section is a separate YAML file — edit only what you need:

File	What to put in it
Your_Name_CV.yaml	name, email, website, social links, section list
employment.yaml	positions, institutions, dates
education.yaml	degrees, advisor names
your-publications.bib	all publications (BibTeX)

See marine-cv-docs/ for a complete working example across all section types (grants, talks, datasets, mentoring, etc.).

4. Configure group members and Google Scholar ID

Author formatting — edit DEFAULT_GROUP_MEMBERS in src/rendercv/bibtex_parser.py so your mentees appear italic in author lists and your own name appears bold.

Citation counts — add your Scholar ID to social_networks in your CV YAML:

social_networks:
  - network: Google Scholar
    username: YOUR_SCHOLAR_ID   # from scholar.google.com URL: ?user=YOUR_ID

5. Render

pixi run -- rendercv render my-cv-docs/Jane_Doe_CV.yaml

Your PDF is at my-cv-docs/rendercv_output/Jane_Doe_CV.pdf. Push to GitHub and the deploy-cv.yaml workflow commits a fresh render automatically.

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Repository structure

marine-cv/
├── template/                   ← START HERE — copy and edit these files
│   ├── Your_Name_CV.yaml       ← main config (!include for each section)
│   ├── employment.yaml         ← employment section stub
│   ├── education.yaml          ← education section stub
│   └── your-publications.bib  ← example BibTeX entries
│
├── marine-cv-docs/             ← live working example (Marine Denolle's CV)
│   ├── Marine_Denolle_CV.yaml  ← main config
│   ├── *.yaml                  ← one file per CV section
│   ├── denolle-pub.bib         ← 66 publications
│   └── rendercv_output/        ← rendered PDF/HTML (auto-committed by CI)
│
├── scripts/                    ← automation (run by GitHub Actions)
│   ├── generate_publications.py     ← BibTeX → publications_section.yaml
│   ├── fetch_citations.py           ← Google Scholar h-index + citation counts
│   ├── fetch_github_stats.py        ← GitHub/PyPI metrics
│   ├── fetch_youtube_stats.py       ← YouTube channel stats
│   ├── update_cv_stats.py           ← writes research_impact_summary.yaml
│   └── calculate_grant_totals.py    ← Lead PI vs Co-PI totals
│
├── src/rendercv/               ← RenderCV library + custom BibTeX parser
│   └── bibtex_parser.py        ← edit DEFAULT_GROUP_MEMBERS here
│
├── .github/workflows/          ← 5 targeted GitHub Actions (see below)
├── tests/                      ← CI tests for publication generation
└── Dockerfile                  ← known-working build environment

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Publications from BibTeX

Keep all publications in a .bib file and generate the formatted section:

python scripts/generate_publications.py > my-cv-docs/publications_section.yaml

Then reference it in your CV YAML:

sections:
  publications: !include publications_section.yaml

What the generator does:

• APA-style author lists with bold PI and italic mentees
• Extracts DOIs → https://doi.org/ links
• Pulls media coverage URLs from BibTeX note fields (\url{https://...})
• Adds Google Scholar citation counts from cache
• Skips placeholder doi: XX for in-review papers

Media coverage in BibTeX:

@article{Your2024,
  ...
  note = {\url{https://news.university.edu/press-release}},
}

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Research impact summary

The first section of the CV auto-computes 6 metrics from local data files:

Row	Source	Auto-updated?
Research Citations	citation_cache.json (OpenAlex + Google Scholar)	Monthly (OpenAlex) / Manual (Google Scholar)
Publications	publications_section.yaml (T1/T2/T3 tier counts)	On-push
Research Funding	grant_support.yaml (Lead PI vs Co-PI totals)	On-push
Open-Source Software	github_stats_cache.json + PyPI	Monthly
Mentoring	phd_advisees.yaml, postdocs.yaml, undergraduate_students.yaml	Manual
Broader Impact	training_schools.yaml + YouTube stats	Monthly

Citation sources:

• OpenAlex (primary, auto-updated monthly) — fetched reliably from GitHub Actions
• Google Scholar (reference, manual) — fetched locally on your machine (Google blocks CI automation)

Regenerate at any time:

python scripts/update_cv_stats.py

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GitHub Actions (5 workflows)

No library tests, no PyPI publishing, no executable builds.

Workflow	Trigger	What it does
deploy-cv.yaml	push to marine-cv-docs/** or manual	Renders CV, commits PDF/HTML
validate-publications.yml	push to .bib or scripts	Regenerates + validates YAML, auto-commits
update-citations.yml	1st of month @ 2:00 UTC	Fetches OpenAlex citation metrics
update-stats.yml	1st of month @ 3:00 UTC	Fetches GitHub/PyPI/YouTube stats
calculate-grants.yml	push to grant_support.yaml	Computes grant totals

One optional secret: add YOUTUBE_API_KEY in Settings → Secrets → Actions to enable YouTube stats. Everything else uses the built-in GITHUB_TOKEN.

The automated chain each month:

1st @ 2:00 UTC  →  citation_cache.json updated
1st @ 3:00 UTC  →  research_impact_summary.yaml updated
                   (triggers deploy-cv.yaml)
                →  rendercv_output/ updated with fresh PDF

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Manually updating Google Scholar citations

Since Google Scholar blocks automated requests from CI environments, manual updates are handled locally:

Option 1: Use the helper script (recommended)

# Fetches your Google Scholar h-index and citation count
python scripts/fetch_google_scholar.py

# Updates CV with both OpenAlex and Google Scholar metrics
python scripts/update_cv_citations.py

Option 2: Hand-edit the cache

Manually add Google Scholar metrics to marine-cv-docs/citation_cache.json:

{
  "metrics": {
    "gs_h_index": 42,
    "gs_total_citations": 8000,
    "gs_last_updated": "2026-06-08T14:30:00"
  }
}

Then update the CV:

python scripts/update_cv_citations.py

Cache structure

Both sources coexist in citation_cache.json:

{
  "metrics": {
    "openalex_total_citations": 5000,     ← Auto-updated monthly (CI)
    "openalex_h_index": 35,                ← Auto-updated monthly (CI)
    "i10_index": 28,                       ← Auto-updated monthly (CI)
    "gs_h_index": 42,                      ← Manual update (this script)
    "gs_total_citations": 8000,            ← Manual update (this script)
    "gs_last_updated": "ISO timestamp"    ← When you last updated
  }
}

Your CV displays both: "5000 citations (OpenAlex) | 8000 citations, h-index: 42 (Google Scholar, last known)"

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Customization reference

Theme and colors — edit the design: block in your CV YAML:

design:
  theme: moderncv   # classic | moderncv | sb2nov | engineeringresumes
  colors:
    name: rgb(128, 0, 0)
    section_titles: rgb(69, 128, 179)

Add or remove sections — each !include line in your CV YAML is one section; delete or reorder to taste.

Publication display template — customize the layout per-entry:

design:
  templates:
    publication_entry:
      main_column: "AUTHORS (DATE). **TITLE**. JOURNAL_WITH_DOI\nMEDIA_COVERAGE"

BibTeX author bold/italic — edit DEFAULT_GROUP_MEMBERS in src/rendercv/bibtex_parser.py. Your PI name is matched automatically.

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Troubleshooting

rendercv: command not found → Use pixi run -- rendercv render ...

YAML indentation errors → Use 2 spaces, never tabs. Quote strings containing : or #.

Citations not appearing → For OpenAlex (auto): Run python scripts/fetch_citations.py --force-refresh → For Google Scholar (manual): Run python scripts/fetch_google_scholar.py or hand-edit citation_cache.json (see above)

Publications YAML invalid → Run python scripts/generate_publications.py locally and check stderr for the full traceback.

url: https://doi.org/XX appears for in-review papers → This is filtered automatically. Re-run generate_publications.py if you see placeholder URLs in the output.

Google Scholar fetcher fails with network errors → This is expected behind some firewalls/VPNs. Hand-edit citation_cache.json instead (see "Manually updating Google Scholar citations" above).

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Acknowledgements

Built on RenderCV by Sina Atalay (MIT license). RenderCV handles YAML → Typst → PDF; this repository adds BibTeX integration, automated data pipelines, and a personal-CV-ready GitHub Actions setup.