How to Write a Journal Author Bio

Most journal submission systems ask for more than a manuscript and an author list — they also ask each author to supply a short “About the Author” (or “Notes on Contributors”) bio: a few sentences summarizing who the author is, professionally, for readers of the published piece. Despite the name, this is not a CV, a cover letter, or any of the other author-identifying documents already covered elsewhere on this site — it is a distinct, brief, reader-facing piece of writing with its own conventions. This guide covers what an author bio is, how it differs from adjacent authorship documentation, what to include, and how to write one well.

What Is an “About the Author” Bio in Scholarly Publishing?

An author bio is a short, third-person biographical note — typically somewhere in the range of 40–100 words, though exact limits vary by journal — that appears alongside a published article to tell readers who wrote it. It usually covers current position and institutional affiliation, relevant credentials, and research interests or areas of expertise. Many journals label the field “Notes on Contributors,” “Author Biography,” or simply “Bio” in their submission system, and it is usually collected per author, since multi-author papers need one bio per contributor rather than a single combined statement.

This is different in kind from the manuscript’s scholarly content: it is not evaluated by peer review, it does not need citations, and it is written for a general or semi-general readership rather than for specialists assessing the work itself. Its function is closer to a jacket blurb or conference-program biography than to any part of the paper proper.

How a Bio Differs From Other Byline-Adjacent Author Information

Scholarly publishing collects several distinct pieces of information about each author, and it is easy to conflate them because they are gathered around the same time, during manuscript submission. They serve different purposes and are read by different audiences:

Author bio — a short, narrative, reader-facing introduction to who the author is. Optional at many journals, required at others (particularly in the humanities, social sciences, and general-interest or professional publications).
Institutional affiliation — the formal department/institution listing under the byline, used for indexing, correspondence, and institutional attribution. Structural, not narrative, and governed by the journal’s formatting rules rather than the author’s own prose.
Corresponding author designation — identifies who handles editorial correspondence and post-publication queries. A role marker, not a biography.
CRediT contribution statement — a structured record of which of the fourteen standardized CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) roles (formalized as ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022) each author performed on this specific paper — Conceptualization, Data Curation, Writing – Original Draft, and so on. It answers “what did this person do on this paper,” not “who is this person.”
Funder biosketch — a longer, structured CV-like document such as the NIH biosketch or NSF biosketch (SciENcv), required in grant applications rather than journal submissions, and far more detailed than a bio: full publication history, funding history, and a personal statement of qualification for the proposed research.

An author bio is the only one of these written primarily as prose for a general reader, rather than as structured, standardized metadata. It is also the only one that is genuinely optional at a large share of journals — check the specific journal’s Instructions for Authors, since requirements vary widely by field and publisher.

What to Include

Within the tight length most journals allow, a scholarly author bio typically covers, roughly in this order:

Name and current position. Full name as it appears on the byline, current title, and institutional affiliation (“Jane Smith is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at [Institution]”).
Highest relevant credential, where it strengthens the reader’s sense of expertise (a doctoral degree, a professional certification directly relevant to the article’s subject).
Research focus or areas of expertise — one clause naming the specific subfield or research question the author works on, not a list of every topic they have ever published on.
One or two notable, relevant credentials if space allows — a major grant, a book, an editorial role, or a career-defining project. Selectivity matters more than completeness here; this is not the place for a full publication list.
An ORCID iD, if the journal’s bio field or author metadata form supports it — increasingly common practice, since it gives readers and downstream systems an unambiguous, persistent way to distinguish the author from anyone with a similar name. See CASRAI’s guide on registering, finding, and searching for ORCID iDs if the author does not yet have one.

What generally does not belong in a scholarly author bio: a chronological CV, an exhaustive publication list, personal details unrelated to the author’s professional identity, or promotional language about the article itself. Journals in some fields (author-facing literary or trade publications, for instance) allow more personal or informal detail than academic journals typically do — match the register to the specific publication, not to a generic template.

Length and Format Conventions

There is no single universal word limit — it is set by each journal’s Instructions for Authors, and ranges widely by field and publisher. A commonly seen convention across many academic and literary journals caps the bio at roughly 50 words per author, though some allow up to 100–150 words, and a few request a fuller paragraph. Because this varies so much, the only reliable step is to check the specific target journal’s submission guidelines before writing — a bio drafted to one journal’s limit will often need trimming or expanding for another.

Format conventions to check per journal:

Whether a bio is required, optional, or not collected at all (many STEM journals skip it entirely and rely only on affiliation plus a CRediT statement).
Whether it is entered as plain text in the submission system, uploaded as a separate file, or requested only after acceptance for the published “Notes on Contributors” page.
Whether a headshot photo is requested alongside it (common in professional and trade journals, rare in most research journals).
Per-author versus combined format for multi-author papers — almost always per-author, one short bio per contributor, not a single paragraph covering the whole author team.

Writing in Third Person: Why and How

Author bios are conventionally written in the third person (“Dr. Smith studies…”) even though the author is the one writing it. This is a stylistic convention, not a factual claim about authorship — readers understand the bio was self-supplied, and third person simply reads as the standard register for this kind of note, the same way a conference-program biography or a book-jacket bio is written in third person. First person (“I study…”) is not typically wrong, but it is unconventional in most academic and journal contexts and will read as a departure from house style unless the journal’s own instructions specifically request it.

Practical technique: draft the bio the way you would describe a co-author you respect, in one or two sentences, rather than the way you would describe yourself in an email. This usually produces the right tone — informative and credential-forward rather than either falsely modest or self-promotional.

Where the Bio Appears

Depending on the journal and publisher, an author bio can surface in several places, not just one:

A dedicated “Notes on Contributors” section printed with the published article, common in humanities and social-science journals.
The journal’s website, on a per-author profile or article landing page.
Press or promotional material if the article is featured (a press release, a journal newsletter, a social-media summary).
Conference proceedings, if the same or an adapted piece is presented at a conference tied to the journal.

Because the same bio can end up reused across more than one of these contexts, it is worth writing a version that reads well without any surrounding context (it should not depend on a caption or headline to make sense), and worth keeping it current — a bio submitted at manuscript submission may not be updated again before publication, sometimes months later, so avoid phrasing that will read as stale after a normal publication timeline (e.g., naming a position the author expects to leave soon).

Step-by-Step: Drafting Your Bio

Check the target journal’s Instructions for Authors for the exact word limit, format, and whether a bio is required at all.
Draft in third person: name, current title and affiliation, one clause on research focus.
Add at most one or two additional credentials or achievements genuinely relevant to the article’s subject or the journal’s readership.
Include an ORCID iD if the field supports it.
Cut ruthlessly to the journal’s word limit — trim adjectives and secondary credentials before cutting the core position/affiliation/focus sentence.
Read it back as if describing a colleague; remove language that reads as self-promotional rather than informative.
Reuse and lightly adapt for other venues rather than starting from scratch each time, but always re-check the receiving journal’s own length and format rules first.

Multi-Author Papers: Coordinating Bios Across Co-Authors

On a multi-author paper, each contributor typically supplies their own bio independently, but it is worth having one author (often the corresponding author) do a light consistency pass before submission: matching tense and level of formality across bios, confirming every co-author’s affiliation and title is current, and checking that no bio duplicates information already captured elsewhere (for instance, restating full grant numbers that belong in an acknowledgments or funding statement rather than a bio). This is a light editorial pass, not a requirement to make every bio read identically — some variation in voice across co-authors is normal and expected.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Treating the bio as a mini-CV. A bio that lists every degree, every prior position, and a dozen publications reads as a resume excerpt, not a biography, and will almost always exceed the journal’s word limit.
Writing in first person for a journal whose house style expects third person (or vice versa) without checking the actual instructions.
Reusing an outdated bio across multiple submissions without updating title, affiliation, or research focus.
Confusing the bio field with the CRediT contribution statement and describing what you did on this specific paper instead of who you are professionally — these answer different questions and are usually separate fields in the submission system.
Skipping the ORCID iD when the field supports one, which is a small, free step that improves disambiguation of the author’s identity across their published record.
Ignoring the journal-specific word limit and submitting a generic bio that then gets mechanically truncated by editorial staff, sometimes awkwardly mid-sentence.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should a journal author bio be?

There is no universal standard — it is set by each journal. A commonly used convention across many academic and literary journals is around 50 words per author, though some allow up to 100–150 words or a full paragraph. Always check the specific journal’s Instructions for Authors rather than assuming a fixed length.

Should an author bio be written in first or third person?

Third person is the conventional register for scholarly and journal author bios, even though the author supplies their own text. First person is not necessarily wrong, but it departs from the norm at most academic journals unless the journal’s own guidelines specifically request it.

Is an author bio the same thing as a CRediT contribution statement?

No. A CRediT statement records which standardized contributor roles (Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing, etc.) an author performed on that specific paper. A bio is a short, narrative introduction to who the author is professionally. Many submission systems collect both, as separate fields with different purposes.

Do all journals require an author bio?

No. Requirements vary widely by field and publisher — many journals in the humanities, social sciences, and professional/trade fields request one, while a large share of STEM journals do not collect one at all, relying instead on affiliation and (increasingly) a CRediT statement.

Should I include my ORCID iD in my author bio?

Where the submission system’s bio or author-metadata field supports it, yes — an ORCID iD is a persistent, free identifier that disambiguates you from other researchers with similar names and links your published record together. See CASRAI’s guide on registering and finding ORCID iDs for how to set one up if you do not already have one.

Can I use the same author bio for every journal I submit to?

You can reuse the core content (position, affiliation, research focus), but you should still check each journal’s specific word limit and format requirements before resubmitting the same bio elsewhere — a bio trimmed to one journal’s 50-word limit may need expansion, and vice versa, and stale details (an outdated title or affiliation) should be refreshed before each submission.