90 PRS Proofreading and Editing Service PhD Experts • All Academic Areas • Fast Turnaround • High Quality Part III: Communicating with Journal Editors: Submission, Acceptance, Revision and Rejection cHAPteR 6 First things First: earning the Interest and Respect of an Academic or scientific editor Impressing an academic or scientific editor in all the right ways is not an easy task. Even after you’ve considered all the aspects discussed above of designing, writing and presenting a top-notch scholarly paper for an appropriate and respected academic or scientific journal, you will need to invest a fair amount of time and effort into writing an eloquent covering letter that highlights both the unique achievements of your work and its relevance and topicality for the journal, preparing the initial elements of your article – title, abstract and keywords – with special (some might say obsessive) care and submitting your paper exactly as the journal indicates. Remember that you need to capture the attention of someone who is inundated with papers, abstracts and letters each and every day and whose job depends on making decisions that lead to the successful publication of quality scholarship. Think of that editor as a person desperately seeking a reason to reject rather than accept the work that crosses his or her desk, and the first impressions your writing makes as your initial line of defence: you need to convince that overworked editor that it would be a mistake not to consider your paper seriously, and ideally persuade him or her that your work will not only fit the journal’s publishing agenda but stand out as exceptional among the many papers it publishes each year. PARt III: commUnIcAtIng wItH JoURnAl edItoRs: sUBmIssIon, AccePtAnce, RevIsIon And ReJectIon