Competition
for publication space and for editors’ attention is now very high, and
it is no longer sufficient to send a manuscript to a journal editor
along with a letter saying little more than “please find my manuscript
attached”. The cover letter is your opportunity to directly address the
editor of your target journal. It can be used to set your study apart
from others and directly explain to the editor why your findings are
important and why they should be published in their journal.
There
are a number of important components of a cover letter, all of which
should be included. These components are described in detail in Edanz
Cover Letter Template, which is shown on the following page and can be
downloaded from: www.liwenbianji.cn/coverletter. This template can be
used to develop your own cover letters by following the suggestions in
the comments and replacing the bracketed sentences with the types of
sentences explained. The format of this letter is applicable for most if
not all submissions, although additional sections may be required for
some types of paper; for example, information about deposition of
clinical trial data would most likely need to accompany a report of a
clinical trial, and information about the deposition of sequence data
into public databases would possibly need to be provided where such data
has been obtained.
As always, the target journal’s instructions
to authors should be consulted; these will most likely outline the
information that absolutely must be included in the cover letter.
Another source of this information is the journal’s submission webpages.
Although not all of the components listed below and described in the
cover letter template will be described as required on the target
journal’s webpages, all should be included in your letter, because to do
so will increase your chances of grabbing the editor’s attention. The
following principles apply to cover letter development:
• Some
journals have different editors for the different areas of research the
journal covers and you can choose the most appropriate one based on
area and occasionally also editor profiles. Address your letter
personally to the appropriate editor, e.g., “Dear Dr. Smith”. If one
cannot be readily identified, address your letter to the
editor-in-chief. • Begin by providing the title of your
manuscript, the section/publication type you would like to see it
published as, and the name of the journal you are submitting it to. •
You then need to provide a very brief background and rationale for your
study, explaining why you did what you did. This can be followed by a
brief description of the results. • The following paragraph is
very important. You will need to explain the significance of your
findings to the research community, and specifically to the readers of
your target journal. If you find it difficult to explain why the readers
of that journal would be interested in your findings, then you may need
to select a more appropriate journal. Editors will only send papers to
review that they think will be of interest to their readers. Studying
the ‘aims and scope’ of your chosen journal might help with this.
•
The last paragraph of the letter should contain any statements or
declarations required by the target journal. These usually include
declarations of any conflicts of interest, grant support or other
sources of funding, a statement that all authors have read and approved
the manuscript and a statement that the same manuscript has not been
submitted elsewhere. Confirmation of each author’s qualification for
authorship may also be required. • Finally, include details for correspondence and a polite farewell.