论文投稿之cover letter

Cover letter，即投稿信，就是在我们提交论文稿件的时候，一并发送给编辑的一封信。Cover letter 是编辑对论文的第一印象，也是初步评判你论文是否可以被期刊接收的重要依据^[1]。

大家都知道期刊编辑的日常是被海量的投稿论文所淹没，而匆忙写出只包含论文题目、期刊名称、通讯作者联系方式等基本信息的英文投稿信对投稿并没有什么价值，因此如何让期刊编辑对你的文章留下深刻的第一印象非常关键！

Cover letter通常是简单概括文章的内核内容，主要发现，创新点以及意义，以及对稿件的处理是否有特殊的要求。此外还要附上主要作者的通讯信息，有的杂志会要求推荐审稿人。

各个杂志的具体要求是不一样的，下笔之前最好在杂志的guide for authors上去找找有无相关要求。如果没有具体的，就按照通用的要求进行处理就行。

完整的Cover letter 一般包括以下内容： A. 期刊编辑的姓名（不知道编辑是谁的情况下直接用 Dear editor）; B. 投稿文章的标题 C. 投稿文章的类型（Letter, communications, article, review 还是 comments） D. 文章简介，包括：(1)研究背景；(2)论文的重要发现；(3)论文可以发表在期刊上的原因：引发读者兴趣的地方，与期刊的契合之处等等 E. 稿件出版道德规范的免责说明（这个部分很多期刊在网站上投稿时会进行确认，cover letter 里面可以不出现）以及对稿件有无特殊处理要求（一般指屏蔽某些竞争者成为审稿人） F. 作者信息：一般为通讯作者姓名，所属机构，通讯地址，联系电话，邮箱等 G. 推荐审稿人名单（注：目前很多杂志社已经将这一部分挪到了投稿网站系统上，Cover letter中可以不再列出）

Dear Dr./Ms./Mr. [编辑姓名],
I would like to request you to consider the attached manuscript entitled [论文题目] for publication in [期刊名称] as an [文章类型].
While many studies have investigated the [简短叙述该主题下的既有知识], I have not come across a paper that deals with [你的研究所属领域/主题]. We conducted [简短叙述研究方法] and came up with [概述研究结果]. I feel that [你的研究何以重要，未来的发展方向为何].
I believe that the findings of this study are relevant to the scope of your journal and will be of interest to its readership. I have provided tables summarizing the findings. [如果有才需要这句：If required, the entire data can be made available as supplementary information.] Do let me know if you wish to have a look at them.
This manuscript has not been published or presented elsewhere in part or in entirety, and is not under consideration by another journal. There are no conflicts of interest to declare. [注：如果有任何利益冲突，要写在这里].
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
[你的名字]

Dr. XX YY （批注1: Name of Editor-in-chief or Editor (First name, Last name)This is much desirable as it makes your letter more personal.）Editor-in-Chief
[Insert target Journal name]
[Journal address, e.g., 123 ABC Street, City, State, zip code, Country.]
May xx, 2021（批注2: Date of submission.）
Dear Dr. YY,（批注 3: Or say Dear Editor if you don’t know his/her name）
We are submitting the attached original manuscript entitled “[Insert manuscript title]” to be considered for publication in the [Insert target Journal name] as anoriginal research article.（批注4: Include this if you know the category.）
[Insert research summary（批注5: Do not copy any content directly from the abstract. Research summary should be <350 words.） according to the following questions – please provide brief answers (1-2 sentences) per question: 1. What is the overarching background of this research topic? 2. What does this study attempt to achieve (aim)? 3. What are the key findings (novelty)? Followed by a statement something as follows “As [Insert target Journal name] has a long-standing interest in publishing research related to the [ABCD] field, we feel your readership will be interested in this study that contributes to further understanding […](impact)”
We declare that none of the work contained in this manuscript is published in any language or currently under consideration at any other journal, and there are no conflicts of interest to declare. All authors have contributed to, read, and approved this submitted manuscript in its current form. Our manuscript has also been edited by a native English-speaking expert to ensure its English is good enough for publication（文章经过润色的话申明已润色很有必要，很多期刊不送审会直接要求润色，推荐合作公司）.
Please find recommended referees as follows:(批注6: Optional, but recommended – journal editors will appreciate your efforts in making their life easier. )ABC, Professor
[Insert full address of ABC professor].[Insert Phone no of ABC professor],[Insert E-mail address of ABC professor] (批注7: Insert referees information (Optional -- depends on Journal requirement.)
We hope you find our manuscript of interest and look forward to hearing from you soon. Thank you very much.(批注8: Example of last paragraph.)
Sincerely,
[Name of Corresponding Author, Title]
[Insert corresponding address, contact and fax number, email]

Cover Letter主要包括以下几方面^[2]：

右上角日期
左上角（日期下一行）是抬头，如果没有熟悉的编辑Editor，就写给editor-in-chief主编，然后写上杂志的名字和地址。
Dear Prof. 或者Dr.开头。第一段写投稿到你们杂志，我们觉得这篇文章很适合在你们杂志发表之类的。
第二段开始简介下文章内容，着重讲意义significance，或者创新性innovation.尽量简短明了。有时候可以写两段。如果有十分重大发现或者有意义发现，着重指出来。
一般要做些statement陈述，比如没有在其他杂志发表，所有作者都同意提交，没有经济利益冲突等等。有的杂志要求列上项目经费来源。
最后就是客气下结尾了。然后通讯作者的名字签字和地址等联系方式。
信纸要用有单位logo和抬头的信纸，然后扫描，也可以电子签名然后生成PDF。

模板

1 第一次投稿

主要任务是介绍文章主要创新以及声明没有一稿多投。^[3]

Dear Editors:

We would like to submit the enclosed manuscript entitled “Paper Title”, which we wish to be considered for publication in “Journal Name”. No conflict of interest exits in the submission of this manuscript, and manuscript is approved by all authors for publication. I would like to declare on behalf of my co-authors that the work described was original research that has not been published previously, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part. All the authors listed have approved the manuscript that is enclosed.

In this work, we evaluated …… (简要介绍一下论文的创新性). I hope this paper is suitable for “Journal Name”.

The following is a list of possible reviewers for your consideration:

Name A E-mail: ××××@××××
Name B E-mail: ××××@××××

We deeply appreciate your consideration of our manuscript, and we look forward to receiving comments from the reviewers. If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact me at the address below.

Thank you and best regards.

Yours sincerely,

××××××

Corresponding author:

Name: ×××

E-mail: ××××@××××

2 催稿信

询问稿件处理到声明步骤

Dear Prof. ×××:

Sorry for disturbing you. I am not sure if it is the right time to contact you to inquire about the status of my submitted manuscript titled “Paper Title”. (ID: 文章稿号), although the status of “With Editor” has been lasting for more than two months, since submitted to journal three months ago. I am just wondering that my manuscript has been sent to reviewers or not?

I would be greatly appreciated if you could spend some of your time check the status for us. I am very pleased to hear from you on the reviewer’s comments.

Thank you very much for your consideration.

Best regards!

Yours sincerely,

××××××

Corresponding author:

Name: ×××

E-mail: ××××@××××

3 修改稿

Dear Dr/ Prof..（写上负责你文章编辑的姓名，显得尊重，因为第一次的投稿不知道具体负责的编辑，只能用通用的Editors）:

On behalf of my co-authors, we thank you very much for giving us an opportunity to revise our manuscript, we appreciate editor and reviewers very much for their positive and constructive comments and suggestions on our manuscript entitled “Paper Title”. (ID: 文章稿号).

We have studied reviewer’s comments carefully and have made revision which marked in red in the paper. We have tried our best to revise our manuscript according to the comments. Attached please find the revised version, which we would like to submit for your kind consideration.

We would like to express our great appreciation to you and reviewers for comments on our paper. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you and best regards.

Yours sincerely,

××××××

Corresponding author:

Name: ×××

E-mail: ××××@××××

4 修改稿回答审稿人的意见（最重要的部分）

List of Responses

Dear Editors and Reviewers:

Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Paper Title” (ID: 文章稿号). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in red in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments are as flowing:

Responds to the reviewer’s comments:

Reviewer #1:

Response to comment: (……简要列出意见……)

Response: ××××××

Response to comment: (……简要列出意见……)

Response: ××××××

。。。。。。

逐条意见回答，切忌一定不能有遗漏

针对不同的问题有下列几个礼貌术语可适当用用：

We are very sorry for our negligence of ……...

We are very sorry for our incorrect writing ……...

It is really true as Reviewer suggested that……

We have made correction according to the Reviewer’s comments.

We have re-written this part according to the Reviewer’s suggestion

As Reviewer suggested that……

Considering the Reviewer’s suggestion, we have ……

最后特意感谢一下这个审稿人的意见：

Special thanks to you for your good comments.

Reviewer #2:

同上述

Reviewer #3:

××××××

Other changes:

Line 60-61, the statements of “……” were corrected as “…………”
Line 107, “……” was added
Line 129, “……” was deleted

××××××

We tried our best to improve the manuscript and made some changes in the manuscript. These changes will not influence the content and framework of the paper. And here we did not list the changes but marked in red in revised paper.

We appreciate for Editors/Reviewers’ warm work earnestly, and hope that the correction will meet with approval.

Once again, thank you very much for your comments and suggestions.

5 文章接受后可以考虑感谢一下负责你文章的编辑或主编（根据需要）

Dear Prof. ××××××:

Thanks very much for your kind work and consideration on publication of our paper. On behalf of my co-authors, we would like to express our great appreciation to editor and reviewers.

Thank you and best regards.

Yours sincerely,

××××××

Corresponding author:

Name: ×××

E-mail: ××××@××××

6 询问校稿信件（如果文章接受后时间较长）

Dear ×××:

Sorry for disturbing you. I am not sure if it is the right time to contact you to inquire about the status of our accepted manuscript titled “Paper Title” (ID: 文章稿号), since the copyright agreement for publication has been sent to you two months ago. I am just wondering that how long I can receive the proof of our manuscript from you?

I would be greatly appreciated if you could spend some of your time for a reply. I am very pleased to hear from you.

Thank you very much for your consideration.

Yours sincerely,

××××××

Corresponding author:

Name: ×××

E-mail: ××××@××××

7 文章校稿信件

Dear Mr. ×××:

Thanks very much for your kind letter about the proof of our paper titled “Paper Title” (ID: 文章稿号) for publication in “Journal Name”. We have finished the proof reading and checking carefully, and some corrections about the proof and the answers to the queries are provided below.

Corrections:

In ****** should be **** (Page , Right column, line)
In **** the “*****” should be “****” (Page ****, Right column, line****)

Answers for “author queries”:

*********************.

We greatly appreciate the efficient, professional and rapid processing of our paper by your team. If there is anything else we should do, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Thank you and best regards.

Yours sincerely,

××××××

Corresponding author:

Name: ×××

E-mail: ××××@××××

参考文章

1.https://www.x-mol.com/groups/yfluo/positions/15292 ↩︎
2.https://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-909908-682912.html ↩︎
3.https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/121473271 ↩︎