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 the attached Edanz Cover Letter Template, which 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.
以下是cover letter写作的几个要点
The following principals 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.
