Below is a list of some common acronyms and jargon academics tend to throw around. Send us an email to add more terms that made you scratch your head when you first heard them.
2–2, 2–3 (Teaching Load)
Shorthand for the number of courses a professor teaches per semester (or per term). A 2–2 means two courses in the fall and two in the spring (standard at many research universities). A 2–3 means two in one semester, three in the other. Heavier loads (like 3–3 or 4–4) are common at teaching-focused institutions.
CFP – Call for Papers / Call for Proposals
An invitation from a journal, conference, edited collection, or funding agency to submit work on a specific theme or competition.
CFHSS – Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Umbrella organization representing Canadian scholarly associations; organizes the annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
CIHR – Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Canadian federal agency funding health-related research.
CV – Curriculum Vitae
Academic résumé listing education, publications, teaching, service, and grants.
EDI – Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Guiding principle and policy requirement in Canadian and U.S. academia, often tied to grant applications and institutional practices.
F&A – Facilities and Administration costs
Also called “indirect costs” or “overhead”; the percentage of a research grant allocated to the university rather than directly to the project.
FTE – Full-Time Equivalent
A measure of employment or teaching load; one full-time position equals 1.0 FTE.
IRB – Institutional Review Board
U.S. equivalent of the Canadian REB; oversees research involving human participants to ensure ethical standards are met.
NEH – National Endowment for the Humanities
U.S. federal agency supporting research, education, and public programs in the humanities.
NIH – National Institutes of Health
U.S. federal agency funding biomedical and health-related research (sometimes supports social/behavioral health sciences).
NSERC – Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
Canadian federal agency funding natural sciences and engineering research.
NSF – National Science Foundation
U.S. federal funding agency for science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and some social sciences (e.g., sociology, political science, anthropology, economics).
PI – Principal Investigator
The lead researcher responsible for a grant or project.
RA – Research Assistant
A student or staff member hired to help with tasks such as data collection, analysis, or literature review.
REB – Research Ethics Board
Canadian equivalent of the U.S. IRB; reviews and approves research involving human participants.
R&R – Revise and Resubmit
A common peer-review decision for journal submissions, meaning the manuscript is not yet accepted but revisions are invited.
SSHRC – Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
Canadian federal agency funding research in the social sciences, humanities, and arts.
TA – Teaching Assistant
A graduate student (or more rarely a senior undergraduate student) who supports teaching through grading, tutorials, or labs.
TT – Tenure-Track
Refers to academic positions that lead to a tenure review.
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