I found myself updating the cv today and ended up debating whether to include an “under review” and “works in progress” heading. I’ve never included such headings, and have often found an “under review” section presumptuous, if not slightly pretentious. Nonetheless, I’ve been thinking about it. What say you readers?
Perverse Egalitarianism
an otherwise excellent blog
Perverse Egalitarianism 
I think “Under Review” is less pretentious than “Work in Progress,” and is genuinely informational, since stuff you send out to a journal is at least plausibly complete, well-written, and could find a home at the journals they are at. Where it stands overall depends on one’s comfort level with that sort of self-promotion.
Good point. I do think “under review” is useful in certain circumstances, e.g. promotion, tenure etc, since it shows you’re actually doing something. However, when I look at cv’s that do have an “Under Review” section, or think about including such a thing on my cv, it seems superfluous; why not simply wait until the article gets accepted somewhere? “Works in Progress” seems appropriate if and only if you have a book contract or something like that, otherwise, I’ve seen cv’s that have a short precis for something that may or may not ever see the light of day…completely superfluous.
I agree with Eric. “Under Review” means that you’ve finished something and it is under review somewhere and might soon be “Forthcoming” – while “Works in Progress” is kind of vague “Thing I’m Writing About” which everyone knows could be just nothing or some project you’ll abandon. It reads as “Thought in Progress” to me…
I think it depends on where you’re at in your development. If, e.g., Fredric Jameson has a few “works in progress” listed on his web page, you probably assume that you’ll be seeing them soon. On the other hand, if you see the CV of an ABD graduate student with no publications but three articles listed as “under review,” you’re more likely to be skeptical.
The advice I received (as a grad student, anyway) was to avoid listing articles “under review,” but to list revise/resubmit and (obviously) forthcoming.