Many beginning authors of scientific papers fail to understand the importance of the cover letter. Journal editors use the information provided in cover letters to initially screen manuscripts and decide whether to send them out for review. Some journals require authors to answer a series of questions about their paper (what's important and new, why the journal's readers might be interested, how the paper fits the scope of the journal) instead of a cover letter. In this video, I talk about how to write a good cover letter to accompany a journal paper submission, as well as how to answer journal questions about why they should publish your paper.

00:00 Intro
00:53 Check journal requirements
01:15 Example cover letter
03:56 A few "don'ts"
05:17 Response to journal questions

I provide a fictitious cover letter as an example (see below) and explain in the video why each part is necessary. It is meant to illustrate what is needed in a cover letter. Obviously, you should write your cover letter in your own words and include these and any other elements requested by your target journal.

Example Cover Letter:
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Dr. Jane Doe, Ph.D.
Editor-in-Chief
Journal of Incredible Science

Dear Dr. Doe,

We wish to submit a research paper entitled, “Response of Species A and Species B to rising sea level in a subtropical wetland” to the Journal of Incredible Science.

In this paper, we report that Species A is equal to Species B in capacity to accrete sediment and build the soil surface vertically. This finding is important because it means that a climate-driven shift in plant dominance (Species A to Species B) is unlikely to alter vulnerability of this ecosystem to sea-level rise.

Our study involved a six-year field experiment plus analysis of publicly available data (2006 to 2019) from a coast-wide monitoring system. The experiment was designed to avoid potentially confounding factors and included appropriate controls. We used a widely accepted method to measure responses, and the data were analyzed statistically. Thus, we are confident that our study was rigorously conducted and that our conclusions are well-founded.

We believe the topic of our research falls within the scope of the Journal of Incredible Science and that these findings will be of interest to its readership. In particular, our paper will aid readers in understanding the complexities of predicting effects of climate change on coastal wetlands. Furthermore, the insights gained will be important in the management and restoration of such ecosystems and the services they provide. Finally, the data collected during this study will be made available on a U.S. government platform designed to facilitate public data sharing.

Our paper is under the recommended word limit (7,985 words, excluding literature cited) and contains 5 figures and 3 tables.

This manuscript has not been published previously and is not under consideration elsewhere. The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose and have all approved this submission.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Dr. T.H.E. Hotshot, Ph.D.
Asst. Professor, Department of Coastal Sciences
Gulf State University
thehotshot@gsu.edu
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You might also be interested in these videos:

What Do Journal Editors Want? [ Ссылка ]

How to Write the Discussion for a Scientific Paper: [ Ссылка ]

If you use video in your research or would like to make a video about your research, check out my other YouTube channel, The Scientist Videographer:

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