【交流】Nature Reviews Neuroscience 前任编辑帮您修改投稿函 -- Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第三讲 ：cover letter的练习（附PPT）

Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第三讲
The cover letter: your sales pitch

Dr. Daniel McGowan
分子神经科学博士


Dr. Daniel McGowan曾任 Nature Reviews Neuroscience 副编辑，负责约稿，管理和撰写期刊内容。于2006年加入理文编辑（Edanz Group） 并从2008年起担任学术总监。Dr. McGowan有超过十年的博士后和研究生阶段实验室研究经验，主要致力于神经退化疾病、分子及细胞生物学、蛋白质生物化学、蛋白质组学和基因组学。

精彩系列讲座

第一期：Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第一讲： “How to write a world class paper”（标题练习）

第二期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第二讲：“摘要和关键词（附PPT和在线修改）”

第三期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第三讲：“cover letter的练习”

第四期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第四讲：“Nature Reviews Neuroscience 前任编辑帮您修改语言问题”

第五期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第五讲：“如何做好研究设计和预先规划工作。 ”

第六期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第六讲：“如何选择合适的目标期刊？”

第七期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第七讲：“如何撰写规范的IMRaD格式？”

第八期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第八讲：“如何完成一个出色的论文图表？”

第九期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第九讲：“让统计学告诉你的结果意味着什么？”

第十期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第十讲：“如何回复审稿意见? ”

第十一期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第十一讲：“科研伦理和论文发表道德”

第十二期： Dr. McGowan论文写作系列第十二讲：“投稿，最后检查”

编者按：在本帖中，理文编辑学术总监Dr. Daniel McGowan将向大家展示如何写出吸引读者的“cover letter”。

请大家注意，尽管理文编辑设在中国，Dr. McGowan的母语是英语，因此请各位尽量使用英语交流，这也是一个很好的锻炼机会！

The cover letter: your sales pitch

Competition for publication space and for editors’ attention is now very high, and it is no longer sufficient to send a manuscript to a journal editor along with a letter saying little more than “please find my manuscript attached”. The cover letter is your opportunity to directly address the editor of your target journal. It can be used to set your study apart from others and directly explain to the editor why your findings are important and why they should be published in their journal.

There are a number of important components of a cover letter, all of which should be included. These components are described in detail in the attached Edanz Cover Letter Template, which can be used to develop your own cover letters by following the suggestions in the comments and replacing the bracketed sentences with the types of sentences explained. The format of this letter is applicable for most if not all submissions, although additional sections may be required for some types of paper; for example, information about deposition of clinical trial data would most likely need to accompany a report of a clinical trial, and information about the deposition of sequence data into public databases would possibly need to be provided where such data has been obtained.

As always, the target journal’s instructions to authors should be consulted; these will most likely outline the information that absolutely must be included in the cover letter. Another source of this information is the journal’s submission webpages. Although not all of the components listed below and described in the cover letter template will be described as required on the target journal’s webpages, all should be included in your letter, because to do so will increase your chances of grabbing the editor’s attention.

以下是cover letter写作的几个要点

The following principals apply to cover letter development:

???Some journals have different editors for the different areas of research the journal covers and you can choose the most appropriate one based on area and occasionally also editor profiles. Address your letter personally to the appropriate editor, e.g., “Dear Dr. Smith”. If one cannot be readily identified, address your letter to the editor-in-chief.

???Begin by providing the title of your manuscript, the section/publication type you would like to see it published as, and the name of the journal you are submitting it to.

???You then need to provide a very brief background and rationale for your study, explaining why you did what you did. This can be followed by a brief description of the results.

???The following paragraph is very important. You will need to explain the significance of your findings to the research community, and specifically to the readers of your target journal. If you find it difficult to explain why the readers of that journal would be interested in your findings, then you may need to select a more appropriate journal. Editors will only send papers to review that they think will be of interest to their readers. Studying the ‘aims and scope’ of your chosen journal might help with this.

???The last paragraph of the letter should contain any statements or declarations required by the target journal. These usually include declarations of any conflicts of interest, grant support or other sources of funding, a statement that all authors have read and approved the manuscript and a statement that the same manuscript has not been submitted elsewhere. Confirmation of each author’s qualification for authorship may also be required.

???Finally, include details for correspondence and a polite farewell.

如果希望获得好的修改建议，也鼓励各位贴出自己的文章“cover letter”供大家学习参考，请使用本帖随附的Cover Letter Template练习写作自己的投稿函。

这个“现成”的投稿函不仅可以用于各位即将投出的稿件，也会帮助你关注研究的重要部分，包括基本原理和重要性，通过仔细斟酌研究的重要性进而在众多期刊中选择最合适的目标期刊。Dr. Daniel McGowan会尽量回复每位提供的投稿函。

更多精彩内容请下载完整的“Writing for Success”系列培训材料。