#Journal manuscript cover letter how to
#Journal manuscript cover letter full
#Journal manuscript cover letter professional

Thank you for your consideration of this manuscript. Please address all correspondence concerning this manuscript to me at. The paper should be of interest to readers in the areas of _. I/We confirm that this work is original and has not been published elsewhere nor is it currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. I/We wish to submit a new manuscript entitled “” for consideration by the. This offers a good starting point for your cover letter and may help to guide you on the main criteria to follow:

#Journal manuscript cover letter professional

Keep it professional by avoiding humour and do not exaggerate the importance of your work.Ī useful template from SPIEis provided below. Stay focused. Don’t over-embellish any of your findings and stay sharply focused on why your article fits the journal’s criteria.Keep it simple. Avoid over-use of jargon and acronyms.Unless there are particular reasons why you need to add more detail, the one-page rule is widely agreed upon as a good guideline for length.

Be brief and try to keep your letter to one page. Many journals have templates or specific advice on what they expect you to include.

Review the journal guidelines. Always review the journal’s Information for Authors section.

A general ‘rule’ is that journals do not consider papers which are under review by other journals.

Submission ethics: Ensure that your paper has not been submitted to another journal, which will be a case of duplicate submission.

Be sure to check that their details are correct and valid.

Reviewers: If journal policy allows or invites this, you can also include details of potential reviewers for your paper.

Results: Briefly describe significant results and conclusions.

Novelty: Describe what your methods and research results add to current understanding – why they are novel or how they have approached an existing problem in a new way.

This is crucial as it will ‘flag up’ to the journal whether or not your article is likely to be within the aims and scope of the journal.

Scope: Make reference at the start to the title, journal scope and why your article is relevant.(Do not use the salutation ‘Dear Sir’, especially because many editors are women!) Showing that you know the name of the editor is a good sign that you have evaluated the journal before submission. Editor: Address the letter to the specific journal editor or, alternatively, write ‘ Dear Editor’.

#Journal manuscript cover letter full

Contact: Provide your full contact details.

This is especially relevant to highly technical or niche papers. It is therefore essential that you provide a concise summary of what your research adds, and how it will contribute to the journal, in your cover letter. This is particularly important because the initial editor screening your paper, who is deciding if it warrants peer review, may not necessarily be an expert in your particular specialism.

Importance of a cover letterĭespite the prevalence of online submission systems for articles, the cover letter provides an additional means to tell the journal and its editors why they should consider your article.

#Journal manuscript cover letter how to

How to write a Cover Letter for submission

Core Skills for Early Career Researchers.

Excluding peer reviewersĭuring submission you may enter details of anyone who you would prefer not to review your manuscript. Intentionally falsifying information, for example, suggesting reviewers with a false name or email address, will result in rejection of your manuscript and may lead to further investigation in line with our misconduct policy. If you wish to do so, please provide institutional email addresses where possible, or information which will help the Editor to verify the identity of the reviewer (for example an ORCID or Scopus ID). You may suggest potential peer reviewers for your manuscript.

If you are submitting a manuscript to a particular special issue, please refer to its specific name in your covering letter.

Confirmation that the content of the manuscript has not been published, or submitted for publication elsewhere (see our Duplicate publication policy).

Confirmation that all authors have approved the manuscript for submission.

A declaration of any potential competing interests.

However, some alternatives that are also appropriate include Best regards, Thank you for your time and consideration, or Respectfully. A common closing salutation is Sincerely, followed by your name.

An explanation of any issues relating to journal policies When closing a cover letter for journal submission, it’s important to maintain a professional and courteous tone.

An explanation of why your manuscript should be published in BMC Biology.

Cover letterĪ cover letter that includes the following information, as well as any additional information requested in the instructions for your specific article type (see main manuscript section above): Please make sure you have the following information available before you submit your manuscript: Author informationįull names and email addresses of all co-authors on your manuscript.