A recent blog post by Emerson Del Ponte asked if cover letters were a useless tradition or a missed opportunity. Well, you can probably tell from the title where we stand on this question. Indeed, we edit a lot of cover letters, with the aim of transforming them from a missed opportunity to an effective pitch to the editor about what makes this manuscript worth their time.

In the cover letter, you have the editor’s attention––you can make a strong case for publishing your paper, or you can paste in your abstract, wasting the editor’s time and failing to improve your chances to get published. To keep from missing this great opportunity, here are some suggestions for crafting a cover letter, along with a few tips:

1. Start with formal salutations, including the editor’s name, and some version of “Please consider our manuscript, “TITLE”, for publication in JOURNAL.” Extra pro tip, if you are re-submitting to a different journal, use the search function to make sure you remove all mentions of the other journal!
2. Next, quickly frame your study by providing some brief background information––what is known already and what knowledge gap does your study address? This should not repeat your full Introduction; just give a 2–3 sentence snapshot of the rationale for doing the work.
3. Summarize the important findings of your manuscript in a few sentences or a bulleted list. Include only essential details––for example, mention a measurement but don’t include the numbers.
4. Place your study in context by describing how it advances the field and addresses the knowledge gaps you described above.
5. Conclude by thanking the editor and briefly mentioning why the readers of this particular journal might be interested in this paper. For example, “This paper is likely to be of substantial interest to readers who study…”
If you have conflicts of interest with particular reviewers, or want to suggest reviewers, feel free to add a list at the end of the letter.

Tips:
DO put serious thought into what advances your results show and how they fit into what is known about the field.
DON’T copy and paste in your abstract. The editor can already read that in the main manuscript!
DO respect the editor’s time––that means DON’T go on at length. A cover letter longer than roughly a page and a half is too long.
DON’T use AI to write your cover letter unless you want a bland, repetitive, inaccurate mess (and possibly the world’s fastest desk rejection). Steps 2–4 require you to have a strong grasp of the literature and the important findings of your study––don’t leave that to AI or anyone else!
DO check your target journal’s Instructions for Authors to see if the journal has any special requirements for cover letters.
DON’T hesitate to have a professional editor go over your cover letter along with the manuscript––we can check the language and help you make it clean, professional, and constructive!

We hope this helps you grab the opportunity to address the journal editor directly and effectively. Want a little help? You can upload your cover letter on our website here.

Follow us on Bluesky.