19 PRS Proofreading and Editing Service PhD Experts • All Academic Areas • Fast Turnaround • High Quality PARt I: wHAt to PUBlIsH And wHeRe to PUBlIsH It This does not mean compromising your methodology, evidence or argument, but the same paper can look very different when addressed to different audiences. Your covering letter is usually (not always) the first document the journal’s editor will read, and much can be accomplished in a couple of paragraphs. Take the opportunity to describe your paper in ways that appeal to the journal’s concerns: if you’ve come to innovative conclusions after a review of relevant literature and the journal you’re submitting to prides itself on publishing traditional scholarship – just the sort of journal, by the way, in which such conclusions might have maximum effect – emphasise in your letter how your research is based upon a careful review of the scholarly tradition. If your paper compares surgical treatments of an ailment with nonsurgical treatments and the journal you think the best fit for it focuses on surgery, highlight the surgical aspect of your work in your covering letter, whether the results you present favour surgical methods or not (for more advice on writing a covering letter to accompany your submission, see Section 6.1 of this Guide). You can also increase your chances of publishing success by using specialised terminology with precision and extreme care. Only use such specialised terminology if it is entirely appropriate to your topic and do not overuse it. If the specialised terms you use are associated with the journal’s area of specialisation, you can use them fairly freely with the assumption that your readers will understand them (which doesn’t mean, by the way, that you can avoid using terminology precisely or defining abbreviations: see especially Sections 4.2 & 4.4.1), but any terminology you use whether in the paper or any accompanying documents that may not be familiar to those readers or to the editor or reviewers of the journal should be carefully explained.