91 PRS Proofreading and Editing Service PhD Experts • All Academic Areas • Fast Turnaround • High Quality 6.1 covering letters: First Impressions Although not all academic and scientific journals require a covering letter these days, many do and others will allow you to send one either as a separate document or as the first page of your paper. If the journal’s guidelines offer you even the smallest opportunity to include a covering letter with your submission (or even if they don’t suggest that you can’t), send one, and while it’s not a good idea to irritate an editor with a covering letter that’s not wanted, even a brief (and beautifully written) paragraph or two in an email message will serve. A covering letter allows you to address the journal’s editor directly and explain exactly what your work is, any aspects of it that are unique and important and the ways in which it is relevant to the journal’s publishing agenda. As well as being informative, a covering letter is a sample of your writing, your persuasive skills and your professional perspective. It can make or break an article submission by either encouraging the editor to take a serious look at the paper itself or convincing him or her that there’s no point in reading further. It goes without saying that the language in which a covering letter is written should be correct in every way and a pleasure to read. A covering letter is not the place for grammatical or orthographic errors, awkward constructions, sloppy sentence structure or vague vocabulary. Avoid abbreviations and detailed data, and be sure to use terminology that is appropriate to the journal’s focuses, keeping in mind both its range and specialisation. You want to let your reader know that you are an expert in your field and familiar with the terms and methods used in the research areas covered by the journal, but you don’t want to lose that reader: remember that the editor making the initial decision as to whether your paper is worth serious consideration or not will know a great deal about the topics covered by the journal and have a very good idea of the kind of papers the PARt III: commUnIcAtIng wItH JoURnAl edItoRs: sUBmIssIon, AccePtAnce, RevIsIon And ReJectIon