Cardona has authored over 1,300 scientific publications in international journals, ten monographs on solid state physics and co-authored a textbook on semiconductors. Since 1972, Cardona has served on the Board of Editors of at least seven journals, including being the Editor-in-Chief of Solid State Communications from 1992 to 2005.
Some of his works include:
* Manuel Cardona: Modulation Spectroscopy, Academic Press 1969. Lib of Congress 55-12299
* Manuel Cardona, Gernot Günterodt and Roberto Merlin: Light Scattering in Solids I-IX (nine volumes) Springer Verlag; 
* Pere Bonnin: Manuel Cardona i Castro, Fundació Catalana per a la Recerca, Barcelona 1998 
* Peter Y. Yu and Manuel Cardona, Fundamentals of semiconductors, 4 editions 1996-2000,