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Are you an author, looking for a journal publisher’s approval? Are you a research/PhD fellow and want to publish your research paper in some prominent journal? If the answer of the questions are in ‘yes’, then you must know how to sell the manuscript to the publisher and get it approved. You might have put your best ever efforts in accomplishing the writing of the manuscript. But, all your hard work may go in vein if you can’t reach to your targeted readers.

Everyone wants to publish his or her write –up in some prestigious and important journal, but sometimes authors fail to catch the eye of the journal publisher. The reason lies in the approach of how you present yourself to the publisher. When, you approach a journal publisher, you need to write a cover letter.

The cover letter is the first impression that the publisher will get about you and your work. But, it has been seen, majority people fail to write a proper and smart cover letter.

Cover letter is not a place to show your linguistic skill; rather you have to describe your knowledge, abilities and thought process here. There should be a personal touch in the tone of the write up. You should neither use too generic or too complex words; try to keep it simple, straight forward and crisp.

Apart from this, each and every journal publisher prefer the cover letter to be written in their specified format, you have to keep it in mind too. Following are some of the tips for writing a proper cover letter:

Include the name, contact details, qualification, designation and places of work of the author
Include your subscription number of that particular journal
Mention the title of the study and year of completion. Generally, some journals don’t publish an article if its more than 5 years old

For Research Scholars doing PhD, applying for further studies or job it is mandatory to publish their research papers in reputed journals.

Initial Step:

The first step for publishing a research paper is to figure out your area of interest and update yourself by reading papers and attending conferences, but be selective too, and don’t get deviated from you specified field.

Pin down:

Write down speculations, problems, possible solutions, random ideas, references to look up, notes on papers you’ve read & outlines of papers to write. Identify important open problems in your research field and what you have to do.

Soul of your work:

Significance: Why was this work done? Did you solve an important problem of current interest?

Originality/Novelty: Is your approach novel or is it tried-and-true? Did you need to develop new tools, either analytical or physical?

Correct: Is your solution scientifically sound?

Generally a paper has seven sections:-

Abstract
Introduction
Materials & Method
Results
Discussion & Conclusion
Bibliography

One step at a time

-Instead of writing an entire paper at one stretch, focus on writing section by section. Remember, every task you complete gets you closer to finishing your paper. You can ask your peers or colleagues to review your paper for an initial proof reading and technical faults.

Read the reviews carefully

-Only a small proportion of articles are accepted the first time they are submitted, and usually they are only accepted subject to revision. In fact, anything aside from simply “reject,” is a positive review. Take all the criticism as a positive suggestion for something you could explain more clearly.

Don’t panic

Read the comments on your paper closely to decide whether the criticisms were valid and how you can address them, just rewrite that part of your paper more clearly so that the same misunderstanding won’t get repeated.

Rejected? Be Positive

If your paper is rejected, keep trying! Take the reviews to heart and try to rewrite the paper, addressing the reviewer’s comments.
Happy Publishing..!

Cover Letter: Sell Your Manuscript to a High Factor Journal at First Attempt

Publishing a Research Article