An editor decides within a couple of minutes whether to send a paper for review. The cover letter is your only chance to speak to them directly, and most authors spend it restating the abstract.
What it is for
Not to summarise the paper — the abstract does that, and the editor has it. The letter argues fit: why this journal's readership needs this work.
Structure
- Opening. Title, article type, and the journal by name.
- The finding. Two or three sentences on what you found and why it matters. Not the whole abstract.
- The fit. Why this journal. Reference its scope, or work it has published that yours builds on.
- Declarations. Original, not under consideration elsewhere, all authors approve, conflicts and funding disclosed, ethics approval obtained.
- Optional. Suggested or excluded reviewers, if the journal invites them.
- Close. Corresponding author details.
The paragraph that does the work
The fit paragraph is where letters are won and lost. Compare:
Weak: We believe this paper would be of interest to your readers.
Better: Your journal published Rao et al. (2024) on triage delay in tertiary centres. Our study tests whether that finding holds in district hospitals, where the staffing constraints they identified are considerably more severe.
The second shows you read the journal. That alone distinguishes you from most of the submissions arriving that week.
Mistakes
- Addressing the wrong journal — visible, fatal, and surprisingly common
- Reproducing the abstract
- Claiming novelty or impact in adjectives rather than evidence
- Exceeding one page
- Omitting the required declarations, which delays the submission
Suggesting reviewers
Where invited, suggest people qualified to assess the work who have no conflict — not co-authors, not colleagues at your institution, not recent collaborators. You may also request exclusions, briefly and without explanation.
Cover letter drafting is part of our publication support service, alongside journal selection.