How to Write a Journal Submission Cover Letter
Hi this is. Kevin with word advice today. We're going to be looking at how to write a tight strong concise journal submissions cover letter cover letters can impact an editor's decision to review your study and ultimately decide whether or not it gets published in a journal. This video will explain one why you should care about writing a powerful cover letter to what you should include in the letter and three how exactly you can structure it and we're going to be looking at a sample cover letter to give you an idea of what the real thing looks like. Why does a cover letter even matter. Well your research papers role is to prove the merits of your work. A strong introductory cover letter is the key to getting your foot in the door. It will help you. Highlight the significance of your study and give the editor a reason to read. Further part of the decision-making process about whether or not to publish an article is based on a business model and editors must therefore accept articles that will interest their readership. So in your cover letter is the one golden opportunity to really convince these editors that your work is worthy of further review. So let's talk about what you should include in your cover letter. The most important thing to remember is to follow your target journals guide for authors. No matter what other advice you read online. Make sure you prioritize the information requested by the editors failure to include required statements will lead to automatic rejection. And that is obviously something you want to avoid. Here is a list of the most common elements you must include in what information you should not include. Editor's name when known the name of the journal to what you are submitting the title of your manuscript article type whether it's review research case. Study etc the submission date which is usually the same day as your cover letter is sent a brief background of study and research question a brief overview of methodology that you used in the study principle findings and significance to the scientific community that is how your research advances our understanding of a concept corresponding information about other authors involved in the study and a prior and current publishing status of your paper indicate that your paper has not been previously published and is not currently under consideration by another journal and that all authors involved have proved of and have agreed to submit the manuscript to this journal in addition to these essential elements.
There is a lot of other information that is commonly requested to see this list in greater detail visit word vice.com and read the articles on the journal. Cover letter here are some on our resources. Here are some things you should avoid when writing your cover letter. Don't use too much jargon or include too many acronyms be sure not to over embellish your findings or their significance avoid words such as novel first-ever and paradigm these types of statements show bias. And we'll make the editor question your ability to assess your works merits objectively. Don't drop names listing people who might endorse your paper and discussing authors reputations do not interest editors they want to know if your content fits their criteria so focus solely on addressing that point. Don't write too much in the letter. The letter is only meant to be an introduction in brief overview so although you should adequately explain your work and its significance keep the cover letter to one page in length or less always keep a professional tone and don't try to be too entertaining. Although a joke may lighten the mood also has too much potential to go wrong so now let's talk about how to structure your cover letter overall. You want to use formal language when writing this letter you should also be aware that structure for emailed cover letters will differ from those of PDF or hardcopy you can find those. Formatting differences on many websites including our resources page so here is a sample of the journal.
Submissions cover letter on the left hand. Side in green is the sample we have composed on the right is the information that you need to input and here in the black is the template language you can use when making your own cover letter. The first part of the letter is the address and you must include the graduate degree of the person to whom you are sending the letter the position at the journal the name of the journal the journals address and the submission date so let's look at the sample Edith Warshaw PhD editor-in-chief awesome science journal the name of our hypothetical journal Cincinnati Ohio 4 1 0 7 3 June 24 2016. Now this date will generally be the date that you send the letter. If you are submitting on this same day in the salutation you should keep it simple dear doctor. Warshaw or musa Warshaw. But you should note that you should not use terms such as mrs. or sirs as those can be presumptuous of a certain gender in the first paragraph. You will introduce your paper you should include your paper title. The title of the journal to which you are submitting the type of paper that you have written and one to two sentences that pitch or summarize the study design your research question your major findings and the conclusions that you've reached again on the left-hand side in the black is your template language so you can include this regardless of the content of your study. I am writing to submit our manuscript entitled x marks the spot for consideration as a journal of education research article a journalist of education is the name of this journal and the type of article is a research article now in the section that follows here. It's only a hypothetical of your study. But you can use this. As an example for what you might write about your own study we examine the efficacy of using x factors as indicators for depression and why subjects in Z regions through a 12-month prospective cohort study and can confirm that monitoring the levels of X is critical to identifying the onset of depression regardless of geographical influences.
As you can see here this is only one sentence but you can write as many as one to two sentences and briefly talk about the conclusions that your study has reached in the second paragraph. You want to talk about the purpose of your research and the contribution that it will bring to this journal that includes the context that prompted your research the reader profile that is the readers of this particular journal the name of the journal and you want to discuss the achievements of previous literature that inspired your study and the gaps in knowledge that you are filling with this study you also want to identify the aspects of the journals aim and scope that align with your paper that is the journals readership and what the articles of the journal aim to educate as well as show further and broader use of the work in this area of research so as you can probably tell before you submit your paper you want to do a lot of research about the journal - what you submitting so that you know what the readership is and what the aims of the journals are so let's read our example here given that there has been an alarming increase in depression rates among teenagers coupled with a lack of any uniform practical test for screening students we believe that the findings presented in our paper will appeal to and this is the target audience or readership education policymakers who subscribe to the Journal of education or your journal although prior research has identified a few methods that could be used in depression screening such as X&Y the applications developed from those findings have been cost prohibitive and difficult to administer on a national level so the context that prompted your research will probably differ wildly from our example here thus our findings will allow your readers to understand the factors involved in identifying the onset of depression in teenagers or whatever your study aims to identify or discuss better and develop more cost-effective screening procedures that can be employed nationally here we have the template language again in doing so we hope that our research this is the aim and scope of your research so we hope that our research advances the toolset needed to combat the concerns preoccupying the minds of many school administrators.
The third paragraph of your cover letter will discuss similar. Works that inspired or influenced your paper here. You need to list. The author's and the title of the journal that these works are published in here. You should list one to three authors. Who wrote papers related to your research as well as all the information about these papers you can list up to five but you should note that every paper that you cite here should be highly relevant to your own study so let's look at the template language. This manuscript expands on the prior research conducted and published by names of the authors in their paper name of the paper published in name of the journal and the year in which it was published. This manuscript examines a different aspect of or takes a different approach to the issues explored in the following papers in the fourth paragraph you should talk about potential reviewers and include any additional means that are needed this includes the reviewers name their institution their email and their expertise so let's look at the template language you can see this part here is all templates so you could essentially copy and paste this into your cover letter if you need should you select our manuscript for peer review. We would like to suggest. The following potential reviewers referees because they would have the requisite background to evaluate our findings and interpretations objectively and a tip we include here is that you should include three to five reviewers since the journal will likely use at least one of your suggestions. So it's better to have a wider field of reviewers from which to choose.
And after listing these reviewers you're going to talk about why you're including them. So each named author has substantially contributed to conducting the underlying research and drafting this manuscript. Additionally to the best of our knowledge none of the above suggested persons have any conflict of interest financial or otherwise this information is important to include because it tells the journal that all of your researchers are willing participants and that there is no legal or ethical conflicts of interest. As we mentioned earlier there might be other information you want to include that the journal asks for in this part of the cover letter in the fifth paragraph. You're going to ask for any frequently requested additional information this is basically a nicety and is a good way of closing out your cover letter. If you require any additional information regarding our manuscript please do not hesitate to contact us directly via the resources below. And lastly it's very important to be polite as possible so thank you for your time and consideration and directly below this you're going to write sincerely. And the name of the lead author of the study and below this lead authors name. You're going to include any other authors that were included in this study here professors. John Spencer and Deborah Abrams and the institution at which the study was conducted. And at the very bottom of your cover letter you want to include these corresponding authors. The name of the institution the institution's address your email address and your telephone number so basic information for a much more detailed rundown on what include in this journal submissions process. Please visit our resources page at this link and if you found this video helpful feel free to like share and subscribe to our YouTube channel. If there are any other videos you would like to see on journal. Preparation or academic writing feel free to leave a comment below or send us a direct message.
Thanks and happy writing.
There is a lot of other information that is commonly requested to see this list in greater detail visit word vice.com and read the articles on the journal. Cover letter here are some on our resources. Here are some things you should avoid when writing your cover letter. Don't use too much jargon or include too many acronyms be sure not to over embellish your findings or their significance avoid words such as novel first-ever and paradigm these types of statements show bias. And we'll make the editor question your ability to assess your works merits objectively. Don't drop names listing people who might endorse your paper and discussing authors reputations do not interest editors they want to know if your content fits their criteria so focus solely on addressing that point. Don't write too much in the letter. The letter is only meant to be an introduction in brief overview so although you should adequately explain your work and its significance keep the cover letter to one page in length or less always keep a professional tone and don't try to be too entertaining. Although a joke may lighten the mood also has too much potential to go wrong so now let's talk about how to structure your cover letter overall. You want to use formal language when writing this letter you should also be aware that structure for emailed cover letters will differ from those of PDF or hardcopy you can find those. Formatting differences on many websites including our resources page so here is a sample of the journal.
Submissions cover letter on the left hand. Side in green is the sample we have composed on the right is the information that you need to input and here in the black is the template language you can use when making your own cover letter. The first part of the letter is the address and you must include the graduate degree of the person to whom you are sending the letter the position at the journal the name of the journal the journals address and the submission date so let's look at the sample Edith Warshaw PhD editor-in-chief awesome science journal the name of our hypothetical journal Cincinnati Ohio 4 1 0 7 3 June 24 2016. Now this date will generally be the date that you send the letter. If you are submitting on this same day in the salutation you should keep it simple dear doctor. Warshaw or musa Warshaw. But you should note that you should not use terms such as mrs. or sirs as those can be presumptuous of a certain gender in the first paragraph. You will introduce your paper you should include your paper title. The title of the journal to which you are submitting the type of paper that you have written and one to two sentences that pitch or summarize the study design your research question your major findings and the conclusions that you've reached again on the left-hand side in the black is your template language so you can include this regardless of the content of your study. I am writing to submit our manuscript entitled x marks the spot for consideration as a journal of education research article a journalist of education is the name of this journal and the type of article is a research article now in the section that follows here. It's only a hypothetical of your study. But you can use this. As an example for what you might write about your own study we examine the efficacy of using x factors as indicators for depression and why subjects in Z regions through a 12-month prospective cohort study and can confirm that monitoring the levels of X is critical to identifying the onset of depression regardless of geographical influences.
As you can see here this is only one sentence but you can write as many as one to two sentences and briefly talk about the conclusions that your study has reached in the second paragraph. You want to talk about the purpose of your research and the contribution that it will bring to this journal that includes the context that prompted your research the reader profile that is the readers of this particular journal the name of the journal and you want to discuss the achievements of previous literature that inspired your study and the gaps in knowledge that you are filling with this study you also want to identify the aspects of the journals aim and scope that align with your paper that is the journals readership and what the articles of the journal aim to educate as well as show further and broader use of the work in this area of research so as you can probably tell before you submit your paper you want to do a lot of research about the journal - what you submitting so that you know what the readership is and what the aims of the journals are so let's read our example here given that there has been an alarming increase in depression rates among teenagers coupled with a lack of any uniform practical test for screening students we believe that the findings presented in our paper will appeal to and this is the target audience or readership education policymakers who subscribe to the Journal of education or your journal although prior research has identified a few methods that could be used in depression screening such as X&Y the applications developed from those findings have been cost prohibitive and difficult to administer on a national level so the context that prompted your research will probably differ wildly from our example here thus our findings will allow your readers to understand the factors involved in identifying the onset of depression in teenagers or whatever your study aims to identify or discuss better and develop more cost-effective screening procedures that can be employed nationally here we have the template language again in doing so we hope that our research this is the aim and scope of your research so we hope that our research advances the toolset needed to combat the concerns preoccupying the minds of many school administrators.
The third paragraph of your cover letter will discuss similar. Works that inspired or influenced your paper here. You need to list. The author's and the title of the journal that these works are published in here. You should list one to three authors. Who wrote papers related to your research as well as all the information about these papers you can list up to five but you should note that every paper that you cite here should be highly relevant to your own study so let's look at the template language. This manuscript expands on the prior research conducted and published by names of the authors in their paper name of the paper published in name of the journal and the year in which it was published. This manuscript examines a different aspect of or takes a different approach to the issues explored in the following papers in the fourth paragraph you should talk about potential reviewers and include any additional means that are needed this includes the reviewers name their institution their email and their expertise so let's look at the template language you can see this part here is all templates so you could essentially copy and paste this into your cover letter if you need should you select our manuscript for peer review. We would like to suggest. The following potential reviewers referees because they would have the requisite background to evaluate our findings and interpretations objectively and a tip we include here is that you should include three to five reviewers since the journal will likely use at least one of your suggestions. So it's better to have a wider field of reviewers from which to choose.
And after listing these reviewers you're going to talk about why you're including them. So each named author has substantially contributed to conducting the underlying research and drafting this manuscript. Additionally to the best of our knowledge none of the above suggested persons have any conflict of interest financial or otherwise this information is important to include because it tells the journal that all of your researchers are willing participants and that there is no legal or ethical conflicts of interest. As we mentioned earlier there might be other information you want to include that the journal asks for in this part of the cover letter in the fifth paragraph. You're going to ask for any frequently requested additional information this is basically a nicety and is a good way of closing out your cover letter. If you require any additional information regarding our manuscript please do not hesitate to contact us directly via the resources below. And lastly it's very important to be polite as possible so thank you for your time and consideration and directly below this you're going to write sincerely. And the name of the lead author of the study and below this lead authors name. You're going to include any other authors that were included in this study here professors. John Spencer and Deborah Abrams and the institution at which the study was conducted. And at the very bottom of your cover letter you want to include these corresponding authors. The name of the institution the institution's address your email address and your telephone number so basic information for a much more detailed rundown on what include in this journal submissions process. Please visit our resources page at this link and if you found this video helpful feel free to like share and subscribe to our YouTube channel. If there are any other videos you would like to see on journal. Preparation or academic writing feel free to leave a comment below or send us a direct message.
Thanks and happy writing.