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How to Write a Cover Letter for Your Manuscript? Here are the Tips and Examples

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A cover letter is often the first thing an editor reads when reviewing your submission. As your first pitch to the editor, the cover letter helps them gauge the suitability of your manuscript for publication in their journal. Imagine your work shaping the future of your field, gathering citations, and sparking discussions. A powerful cover letter is thus the first step to making that vision into a reality.   

In this article, we will guide you through the process of writing an effective cover letter and explain how you can get it right every time with examples. First, let us get started with the basics!  

Getting the Basics Right  

When writing a cover letter, it is crucial to address the editor by their correct and complete name¹ . If there are multiple co-editors, you can address your letter to the right person, based on their specialization or designated responsibilities. If unsure, it is okay to go with a more general salutation, such as “Dear Editors”¹ .   

Presenting your Research  

Provide a clear and concise title for your submission and specify whether it is an article, communication, review, perspective, or a manuscript belonging to some other category. If the journal guideline recommends, consider including a list of all authors in the manuscript.   

After covering the preliminary information, briefly explain your paper’s central theme or focus to give the editor an idea of its contents. Ensure this stays a brief outline, without going into too much detail.   

Conveying the Importance of Your Work  

How you communicate the impact of your work can make or break your cover letter. To make a strong impression on the editor, articulate the significance of your research clearly, emphasizing its relevance to the field. Additionally, show how your work aligns with the journal’s scope and mission.  

Including a Formal Declaration  

Some journals require a set of declarations from you to ensure that your manuscript adheres to its ethical code and the larger ethical standards of scientific publishing. Here are the required declarations in a cover letter:  

• Originality of work:  
• Confirm that your work is original and has not been published elsewhere. This tells the editor your research is unique.  
• Conflict of interest statement:  
• Be clear about any potential conflicts of interest. This includes any personal, financial, or professional connections that might affect your research.  
• Funding source (if applicable):  
• Tell where your research funding came from, if any. This includes any support or grants from organizations.   

Including Personal Suggestions for Reviewers on a Separate Page (optional)  

If there is no part of the submission process that collects researcher suggestions for reviewers, and there are special requests from the researcher for reviewers (e.g., recommending the inclusion or suggesting the exclusion of a specific reviewer, etc.), you may also make a note about this in the cover letter.  

Combining these five points, here is a good example of a cover letter for researchers’ reference:  

(This image is intended to demonstrate the norms of formatting and tone of expression in a cover letter, it is to be used only by the researcher as a reference in writing² .)  

Conclusion  

A strong cover letter can go a long way in ensuring success for researchers looking to publish their manuscripts! Your cover letter is the opening act, setting the stage for how editors perceive your manuscript. So, look at it not as just another formality but as a crucial opportunity to make a strong impression.   

Understanding what to include, what is optional, and what is best left unsaid can be tricky. That is where our team of experts at Elsevier Language Services can step in. We will provide personalized recommendations and expert guidance to help you craft a cover letter that perfectly complements your manuscript. Reach out to us today to make a great first impression and embark on a successful academic journey!  

Reference  

• Nicholas, D. (2019). How to choose a journal and write a cover letter. Saudi Journal of Anaesthesia, 13(5), 35. https://doi.org/10.4103/sja.sja_691_18  
• Loyola University Chicago. (n.d.). JCSHESA Sample Cover Letter. https://ecommons.luc.edu/jcshesa/cover_letter_template.pdf  

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Prepare supporting information

Please make sure you have the following information available before you submit your manuscript:

Author information

Full names and email addresses of all co-authors on your manuscript.

Cover letter

A cover letter that includes the following information, as well as any additional information requested in the instructions for your specific article type (see main manuscript section above):

• An explanation of why your manuscript should be published in BMC Ophthalmology
• An explanation of any issues relating to journal policies
• A declaration of any potential competing interests
• Confirmation that all authors have approved the manuscript for submission
• Confirmation that the content of the manuscript has not been published, or submitted for publication elsewhere (see our Duplicate publication policy )
• If you are submitting a manuscript to a particular special issue, please refer to its specific name in your covering letter

Peer reviewers

You may suggest potential peer reviewers for your manuscript. If you wish to do so, please provide institutional email addresses where possible, or information which will help the Editor to verify the identity of the reviewer (for example an ORCID or Scopus ID). Intentionally falsifying information, for example, suggesting reviewers with a false name or email address, will result in rejection of your manuscript and may lead to further investigation in line with our misconduct policy.

Excluding peer reviewers

During submission you may enter details of anyone who you would prefer not to review your manuscript.

Affiliated with

BMC Ophthalmology is associated with Cochrane Eyes and Vision

Important information

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Citation Impact 2023 Journal Impact Factor: 1.7 5-year Journal Impact Factor: 2.0 Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP): 1.037 SCImago Journal Rank (SJR): 0.749 Speed 2023 Submission to first editorial decision (median days): 18 Submission to acceptance (median days): 176 Usage 2023 Downloads: 1,959,850 Altmetric mentions: 772

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Identity transparency: Single anonymized

Reviewer interacts with: Editor

Review information published: Review reports. Reviewer Identities reviewer opt in. Author/reviewer communication

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Eye and Springer Nature are pleased to share detailed online  Author Tutorials  - including interactive quizzes - which cover the following topics:

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Article Type Specifications

Article:  Reports of current clinical research or laboratory research with clinical relevance. Case Series may also be submitted for consideration. Please note that the journal no longer accepts Case Reports unless of particular novel interest, and in all cases these must first be invited by the Editor. Please see ‘Preparation of Original Articles’ for more details of preparing an article for submission. Specifications:   Structured abstract max. 250 words; main body of text (excluding abstract, tables/figures, and references) not to exceed 3,500 words; max. 5 tables or figures.

Review Article:  Reviews are comprehensive analyses of specific topics that are solicited by the Editor. Proposals for reviews may be submitted; however, authors should only send an outline of the proposed paper for initial consideration. All review articles will undergo peer review prior to acceptance. Reviews must be invited by the Editor. Specifications:   Unstructured abstract max. 250 words; main body of text (excluding abstract, tables/figures, and references) not to exceed 8,000 words; liberal use of tables or figures is encouraged; max. 100 references.

Correspondence:  These are letters to the Editor responding to a specific article published in Eye (only letters relating to articles published in print within the last 6 months will be considered). Specifications:   No abstract; main body of text (excluding tables/figures and references) not to exceed 350 words; max. 2 tables or figures; max. 5 references.

Brief Communication : These short articles are concise studies of high quality and broad interest, that raise new issues (authors must gain approval from the Editor prior to submission). Brief Communications are subject to critical review and editorial policy. Specifications:   No abstract; main body of text (excluding tables/figures and references) not to exceed 500 words; max. 2 tables or figures; max. 5 references.

Comment:   Comment articles are personal viewpoints and discussions of important topics of particular interest to ophthalmology. Comments cover basic science and clinical issues as well as those which bridge the gap between research and practise. Approval must be obtained from the Editor prior to submission. Specifications:   No abstract; main body of text (excluding abstract, tables/figures, and references) not to exceed 1,000 words; max. 2 tables or figures; max. 25 references.

Editorial:   Proposals for Editorials may be submitted; however, authors should only send an outline of the proposed papers for initial consideration. Specifications:   No abstract; main body of text (excluding abstract, tables/figures, and references) not to exceed 1,000 words; max. 2 tables or figures; max. 25 references.

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Cover Letter:  Authors should provide a cover letter that includes the affiliation and contact information for the corresponding author. Authors should briefly discuss the importance of the work and explain why it is considered appropriate for the diverse readership of the journal.  The cover letter should confirm the material is original research, has not been previously published and has not been submitted for publication elsewhere while under consideration. If the manuscript has been previously considered for publication in another journal, please include the previous reviewer comments, to help expedite the decision by the Editorial team. Please also include a Competing Interests statement - see  Editorial Policies  for more details.

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• Title of the paper - brief, informative, of 150 characters or less and should not make a statement or conclusion
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• Full names of all the authors and their affiliations, together with e-mail address of the corresponding author. If authors regard it as essential to indicate that two or more co-authors are equal in status, they may be identified by an asterisk symbol with the caption ‘These authors contributed equally to this work’ immediately under the address list.

Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, do not currently satisfy our authorship criteria . Notably an attribution of authorship carries with it accountability for the work, which cannot be effectively applied to LLMs. Use of an LLM should be properly documented in the Methods section (and if a Methods section is not available, in a suitable alternative part) of the manuscript.

Abstract:   Articles must be prepared with a structured abstract designed to summarise the essential features of the paper in a logical and concise sequence under the following mandatory headings.

• Background/Objectives: What was the main question or hypothesis tested?
• Subjects/Methods: How many subjects were recruited, how many dropped out? Was the study randomised, case-controlled etc? Interventions/methods used and duration of administration.
• Results: Indicate 95% confidence intervals and exact P value for effects.
• Conclusions: Answer (significant or not) to main question.

Introduction:  The Introduction should assume that the reader is knowledgeable in the field and should therefore be as brief as possible but can include a short historical review where desirable.

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Discussion:   The Discussion should focus on the interpretation and the significance of the findings with concise objective comments that describe their relation to other work in the area. It should not repeat information in the results. The final paragraph should highlight the main conclusion(s), and provide some indication of the direction future research should take.

Acknowledgements:  These should be brief, and should include sources of support including sponsorship (e.g. university, charity, commercial organisation) and sources of material (e.g. novel drugs) not available commercially.

Conflict of Interest:   Authors must declare whether or not there are any competing financial interests in relation to the work described. This information must be included at this stage and will be published as part of the paper, but should also be noted in the cover letter. Please see the Competing Interests definition in the  Editorial Policies  section for detailed information.

Funding : The funding section is mandatory. Authors must declare sources of study funding including sponsorship (e.g. university, charity, commercial organization) and sources of material (e.g. novel drugs) not available commercially.

References:   Only papers directly related to the article should be cited. Exhaustive lists should be avoided. References should follow the Vancouver format. In the text they should appear as numbers starting at one and at the end of the paper they should be listed (double-spaced) in numerical order corresponding to the order of citation in the text. Where a reference is to appear next to a number in the text, for example following an equation, chemical formula or biological acronym, citations should be written as (ref. X) and not as superscript. Example “detectable levels of endogenous Bcl-2 (ref. 3), as confirmed by western blot”.

All authors should be listed for papers with up to six authors; for papers with more than six authors, the first six only should be listed, followed by et al. Abbreviations for titles of medical periodicals should conform to those used in the latest edition of Index Medicus. The first and last page numbers for each reference should be provided. Abstracts and letters must be identified as such. Papers in press may be included in the list of references. Personal communications can be allocated a number and included in the list of references in the usual way or simply referred to in the text; the authors may choose which method to use. In either case authors must obtain permission from the individual concerned to quote his/her unpublished work.

Journal article : Nguyen D, Soygur B, Peng S, Malki S, Hu G & Laird DJ. Apoptosis in the fetal testis eliminates developmentally defective germ cell clones. Nat Cell Biol. 2020;22:1423-1435.

Journal article, e-pub ahead of print : Basar, MA, Beck DB & Werner A. Deubiquitylases in developmental ubiquitin signaling and congenital diseases. Cell Death Differ. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41418-020-00697-5

Complete book : Atkinson K, Champlin R, Ritz J, Fibbe W, Ljungman P, Brenner MK (eds). Clinical Bone Marrow and Blood Stem Cell Transplantation. 2004;3rd edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Chapter in book : Coccia PF. Hematopoietic cell transplantation for osteopetrosis. In: Blume KG, Forman SJ, Appelbaum FR (eds). Thomas' Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation. 2004;3rd edn. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Malden. pp 1443–1454.

Abstract : Syrjala KL, Abrams JR, Storer B, Heiman JR. Prospective risk factors for five-year sexuality late effects in men and women after haematopoietic cell transplantation. Abstracts of the 32nd Annual Meeting of the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant. 2006;37:O107.

Website : Kassambara A. rstatix: pipe-friendly framework for basic statistical tests. 2020. https://rpkgs.datanovia.com/rstatix/.

Preprint: Babichev SA, Ries J & Lvovsky AI. Quantum scissors: teleportation of single-mode optical states by means of a nonlocal single photon. 2002. Preprint at http://arXiv.org/quant-ph/0208066.

Tables:   Tables should only be used to present essential data; they should not duplicate what is written in the text. All tables must be editable, ideally presented in Excel.  Each must be uploaded as a separate workbook with a title or caption and be clearly labelled, sequentially. Please make sure each table is cited within the text and in the correct order, e.g. (Table 3).  Please save the files with extensions .xls / .xlsx / .ods / or .doc or .docx. Please ensure that you provide a 'flat' file, with single values in each cell with no macros or links to other workbooks or worksheets and no calculations or functions.

Figure Legends:   These should be brief, specific and appear on a separate manuscript page after the References section.

Figures:   Figures and images should be labelled sequentially and cited in the text. Figures should not be embedded within the text but rather uploaded as separate files. The use of three-dimensional histograms is strongly discouraged unless the addition of the third dimension is important for conveying the results. Composite figures containing more than three individual figures will count as two figures. All parts of a figure should be grouped together.  Where possible large figures and tables should be included as supplementary material.

Detailed guidelines for submitting artwork can be found by downloading our  Artwork Guidelines.  Using the guidelines, please submit production quality artwork with your initial online submission. If you have followed the guidelines, we will not require the artwork to be resubmitted following the peer-review process, if your paper is accepted for publication.

Graphs, Histograms and Statistics Plotting individual data points is preferred to just showing means, especially where N<10 If error bars are shown, they must be described in the figure legend Axes on graphs should extend to zero, except for log axes Statistical analyses (including error bars and p values) should only be shown for independently repeated experiments, and must not be shown for replicates of a single experiment The number of times an experiment was repeated (N) must be stated in the legend.

Summary Box: Authors of Articles will be asked to include additional summary information on the submission form*. This is divided into two parts; firstly, 'What was known before'; and secondly, 'What this study adds'. There should be two or three bullet points for each heading, with one or two short sentences for each bullet point. The objective of this is to provide the reader with a brief, quick and focused summary of your work in the perspective of other data. *Please note this summary information will not be requested for Reviews or Correspondence.

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Supplementary Information:   Supplementary information is material directly relevant to the conclusion of an article that cannot be included in the printed version owing to space or format constraints. The article must be complete and self-explanatory without the Supplementary Information, which is posted on the journal's website and linked to the article. Supplementary Information may consist of data files, graphics, movies or extensive tables. Please see our  Artwork Guidelines  for information on accepted file types. Authors should submit supplementary information files in the FINAL format as they are not edited, typeset or changed, and will appear online exactly as submitted. When submitting Supplementary Information, authors are required to: 

• Include a text summary (no more than 50 words) to describe the contents of each file.
• Identify the types of files (file formats) submitted.

Please note: We do not allow the resupplying of Supplementary Information files for style reasons after a paper has been exported in production, unless there is a serious error that affects the science and, if by not replacing, it would lead to a formal correction once the paper has been published. In these cases we would make an exception and replace the file, however there are very few instances where a Supplementary Information file would be corrected post publication.

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