关于学术论文投稿中的 Cover Letter

  学术期刊报道原始研究工作的论文，一般分为需要快速发表的通信、快报类（communication, letter等）和报道系统研究工作的全文类（full paper, article）两种形式。投这两种文章，cover letter和论文Introduction的写法是不同的。

    对于需要以通讯或快报形式快速发表的工作，可以是初步的研究结果(preliminary result)，强调的是工作的新颖性和重要性，因此，cover letter和论文中的Introduction怎么写，就很重要，千万不能只是客套几句，cover letter是写给主编（或编辑），如果他觉得新颖性没有足够的吸引力，审都不必审了。cover letter一般不会给审稿人，所以，说服审稿人你的工作值得快速发表，就是论文的Introduction了，不必长篇回顾，直接强调与众不同的新颖性，要写得吸引眼球。

    如果是报道系统工作的全文，cover letter和论文Introduction需要注重写你的工作解决了什么科学问题，介绍你工作的完整性。特别是Introduction，要对前人相关的工作做一个回顾（有的论文甚至写成一个小的review），当然，与众不同之处也是要说的，没有新颖性的工作就不是研究论文了。
除了那些专门发表通讯、快报的杂志，一般的杂志，通信快报类的文章只占所有文章的很少一部分（不到10%），所以，难度可想而知。如果没有足够的新颖性说服编辑和审稿人你的工作需要快速发表，最好还是把工作做全了发full paper。

英文论文投稿信Cover letter模板
Case 1
Dear Editor,

We would like to submit the enclosed manuscrīpt entitled "GDNF Acutely Modulates Neuronal Excitability and A-type Potassium Channels in Midbrain Dopaminergic Neurons", which we wish to be considered for publication in Nature Neuroscience.

GDNF has long been thought to be a potent neurotrophic factor for the survival of midbrain dopaminergic neurons, which are degenerated in Parkinson’s disease. In this paper, we report an unexpected, acute effect of GDNF on A-type potassium channels, leading to a potentiation of neuronal excitability, in the dopaminergic neurons in culture as well as in adult brain slices. Further, we show that GDNF regulates the K+ channels through a mechanism that involves activation of MAP kinase. Thus, this study has revealed, for the first time, an acute modulation of ion channels by GDNF. Our findings challenge the classic view of GDNF as a long-term survival factor for midbrain dopaminergic neurons, and suggest that the normal function of GDNF is to regulate neuronal excitability, and consequently dopamine release. These results may also have implications in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

Due to a direct competition and conflict of interest, we request that Drs. XXX of Harvard Univ., and YY of Yale Univ. not be considered as reviewers. With thanks for your consideration, I am

Sincerely yours,

case2
Dear Editor,

We would like to submit the enclosed manuscrīpt entitled "Ca2+-binding protein frequenin mediates GDNF-induced potentiation of Ca2+ channels and transmitter release", which we wish to be considered for publication in Neuron.

We believe that two aspects of this manuscrīpt will make it interesting to general readers of Neuron. First, we report that GDNF has a long-term regulatory effect on neurotransmitter release at the neuromuscular synapses. This provides the first physiological evidence for a role of this new family of neurotrophic factors in functional synaptic transmission. Second, we show that the GDNF effect is mediated by enhancing the expression of the Ca2+-binding protein frequenin. Further, GDNF and frequenin facilitate synaptic transmission by enhancing Ca2+ channel activity, leading to an enhancement of Ca2+ influx. Thus, this study has identified, for the first time, a molecular target that mediates the long-term, synaptic action of a neurotrophic factor. Our findings may also have general implications in the cell biology of neurotransmitter release.
[0630][投稿写作]某杂志给出的标准Sample Cover Letter[the example used is the IJEB]

Case 3

Sample Cover Letter[the example used is the IJEB]


Dear Editor of the [please type in journal title or acronym]:

Enclosed is a paper, entitled "Mobile Agents for Network Management." Please accept it as a candidate for publication in the [journal title]. Below are our responses to your submission requirements.


1. Title and the central theme of the article.

Paper title: "Mobile Agents for Network Management." This study reviews the concepts of mobile agents and distributed network management system. It proposes a mobile agent-based implementation framework and creates a prototype system to demonstrate the superior performance of a mobile agent-based network over the conventional client-server architecture in a large network environment.


2. Which subject/theme of the Journal the material fits

New enabling technologies (if no matching subject/theme, enter 'Subject highly related to [subject of journal] but not listed by [please type in journal title or acronym])


3. Why the material is important in its field and why the material should be published in [please type in journal title or acronym]?

The necessity of having an effective computer network is rapidly growing alongside the implementation of information technology. Finding an appropriate network management system
has become increasingly important today's distributed environment. However, the conventional centralized architecture, which routinely requests the status information of local units by the central server, is not sufficient to manage the growing requests. Recently, a new framework that uses mobile
agent technology to assist the distributed management has emerged. The mobile agent reduces network traffic, distributes management tasks, and improves operational performance. Given today's bandwidth demand over the Internet, it is important for the [journal title/acronym] readers
to understand this technology and its benefits. This study gives a real-life example of how to use mobile agents for distributed network management. It is the first in the literature that reports the analysis of network performance based on an operational prototype of mobile agent-based distributed
network. We strongly believe the contribution of this study warrants its publication in the [journal title/acronym].

4. Names, addresses, and email addresses of four expert referees.
Prof. Dr. William Gates
Chair Professor of Information Technology
321 Johnson Hall
Premier University Lancaster, NY 00012-6666, USA
phone: +1-888-888-8888 - fax: +1-888-888-8886 e-mail: wgates@lancaster.edu 
Expertise: published a related paper ("TCP/IP and OSI: Four Strategies for Interconnection") in CACM, 38(3), pp. 188-198.
Relationship: I met Dr. Gate only once at a conference in 1999. I didn't know him personally.
Assoc Prof. Dr. John Adams
Director of Network Research Center
College of Business Australian University
123, Harbor Drive Sydney,
Australia 56789
phone: +61-8-8888-8888 - fax: +61-8-8888-8886
e-mail: jadams@au.edu.au 
Expertise: published a related paper ("Creating Mobile Agents") in IEEE TOSE, 18(8), pp. 88-98.
Relationship: None. I have never met Dr. Adams.
Assoc Prof. Dr. Chia-Ho Chen
Chair of MIS Department
College of Management
Open University
888, Putong Road
Keelung, Taiwan 100
phone: +886-2-8888-8888 - fax: +886-2-8888-8886
e-mail: chchen@ou.edu.tw 
Expertise: published a related paper ("Network Management for E-Commerce") in IJ Electronic Business, 1(4), pp. 18-28.
Relationship: Former professor, dissertation chairman.
Mr. Frank Young
Partner, ABC Consulting
888, Seashore Highway
Won Kok, Kowloon
Hong Kong
phone: +852-8888-8888 - fax: +852-8888-8886
e-mail: fyoung@abcc.com 
Expertise: Mr. Young provides consulting services extensively to his clients regarding network management practices.
Relationship: I have worked with Mr. Young in several consulting projects in the past three years.
Finally, this paper is our original unpublished work and it has not been submitted to any other journal for reviews.

Sincerely,
Johnny Smith