「要点」第3期之如何写SCI论文的投稿信（cover letter）

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感谢大家长期对木耶百新的支持，我的愿景就是提高大家的学术能力。所以，我努力将木耶百新打造成一个有品质的学术平台，感谢路上一直有你的陪伴。

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我在「要点」第2期《「要点」第1期之如何写好引言部分》（点击链接可以查看）的结尾中说了，SCI论文投稿时为了提高录用率，通常都会写一份cover letter。今天的第3期「要点」就给大家说一下cover letter该怎么写，并举了3个很成功的cover letter例子，大家以后写cover letter可以参考一下。

cover letter的作用是有助于稿件被送到合适的编辑和评审人手中。如果没有cover letter，稿件可能会给编辑造成一些困扰：

• 这篇稿件是投给哪种期刊的？

• 何种栏目？

• 是新稿还是修改稿？

• 如果是修改稿的话，是哪位编辑负责的？

• 如果这篇稿件有多位作者的话，哪一位是通讯作者？

• 通讯作者的联系地址是什么？

因此，为了减少给编辑造成的困扰，一份合格的cover letter非常重要。

cover letter的内容必须能够激励编辑继续去读你的文章全文。因此，你工作中的重要内容（例如创新性和在研究领域的意义）需要在cover letter中呈现出来。一般情况下，cover letter的长度在5段以内。太短不足以充分表达文章所做工作的重点内容，太长会让编辑感觉作者心虚。

一份cover letter通常包括的内容是：

1. 向编辑简要介绍一下论文的内容和参与此项研究工作的作者名单。这里不需要太详细，即使是工作中包含了一些复杂的实验部分。

2. 重点解释为什么该研究是创新性的，并且大家会对此感兴趣。

这里，你可以介绍论文中用到哪些创新性的技术，你的实验样本数量足够多，研究成果将对这个领域有较大影响等。如果你投的是临床国际期刊，你还要介绍这项工作会对将来的实际治疗应用有什么意义。

此处有2点需要你重点注意：

• 写作时包含要点但不用仔细解释；

• 尽量让编辑看到你的工作和所投期刊非常相关；

• 最好，你的工作也刚好验证了别的研究团队在这个期刊前期发表的成果，或者与他们结果相反。

3. 介绍你和你的研究团队：主要研究人员、实验室的研究方向和这篇文章的关系。解释为什么要选择投这个期刊。如果其他实验室与你的研究团队合作完成此项工作，你最好也要介绍一下相关合作团队。

4. 声明你的文章没有任何利益方面的冲突。因为每个期刊有不同的相关规定，所以查询一下各个期刊在利益冲突政策方面的描述。同时，一定要声明这项研究没有在其他期刊投稿和发表过。

上面是写在cover letter中的要点，下面说一下有哪些内容不能写在cover letter中：

1. 不要在没有任何证明或引用情况下提及过去的发表文献。

2. 不要提供与投稿无关的个人信息。

3. 除非和这次的研究问题有关，否则不要提到您或者其他共同作者先前的发表记录。

4. 不要复制黏贴上摘要的内容。

5. 不要使用复杂发散的句构以免造成不必要的困惑。

下面我举3个成功的cover letter样式给大家参考：

例子1：投稿《欧洲心血管病杂志》

Dear editorial board of European Journal of Cardiology,

Please find enclosed the manuscript: “The angiotensin-converting enzyme is not a risk factor for myocardial infarction in French individuals”, by Sarah H., et al., to be submitted as a Short Communication to the European Journal of Neurology for consideration of publication. All co-authors have seen and agree with the contents of the manuscript and there is no financial interest to report. We certify that the submission is original work and is not under review at any other publication.

In this manuscript, we report the results of the first study on the genetic and functional roles of the ACE on the risk of suffering a myocardial infarction in the French population. Indeed, we genotyped the rs4341 polymorphism in 531 IS cases and 549 healthy controls, and then performed functional studies by measuring serum ACE protein level and activity in healthy controls, stroke patients at baseline and stroke patients 24h after stroke symptoms onset. The results from our study did not reveal any association of the ACE variant with myocardial infarction, although it affected ACE protein level, and ischemic stroke patients showed lower ACE level than controls in the acute phase but not in the chronic phase.

We believe that our findings could be of interest to the readers of European Journal of Cardiology because they bring new and strong evidence that the ACE gene and protein are not a risk factor for myocardial infarction.

We hope that the editorial board will agree on the interest of this study.

Sincerely yours,

Sarah H. on behalf of the authors.

Corresponding author: Sarah Hamilton at Cardiovascular Research Laboratory, Marie Curie Research Institute, 75000, Paris, France, [e-mail], phone number: [phone]xxx, fax number: [phone]xxx.

例子2：投稿《临床化学》

Dear Dr Broderick,

Please find enclosed the manuscript: Association between Estrogen Receptor Alpha (ESR1) genetic variants and risk of Stroke, by Sarah H., Isaac S., Marta L., Marc C. and Julien S. to be submitted as an new article to Clinical Chemistry.

In this manuscript, we report the results of a nested case-control study in a French population on the risk of suffering an ischemic stroke associated with genetic variants in the gene coding for the protein Estrogen Receptor Alpha.

We believe that our findings could be of interest to the readers of Clinical Chemistry because they replicate partially the results observed by Rexrode et al. in a white American population and published in Clinical Chemistry in October 2007. Indeed, we demonstrate an association of the rs1271673 SNP T variant and a very common haplotype encompassing the rs1271673 variant with an increased risk of ischemic stroke.

We hope that the editorial board and the reviewers will agree on the interest of this study.

Sincerely yours,

Sarah H..

例子3：投稿《老年神经生物学》

Dear editorial board of Neurobiology of Aging,

Please find enclosed the manuscript: ACE variants and risk of Alzheimer’s Disease, by Sarah Hamilton et al., to be submitted as an Original Research Article to Neurobiology of Aging. All co-authors have seen and agree with the contents of the manuscript and there is no financial interest to report. We certify that the submission is not under review at any other publication.

In this manuscript, we report the results of a genetic and functional study in a white population of sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease patients on the risk of suffering cognitive impairments.

We believe that our findings could be of interest to the readers of Neurobiology of Aging, because they could have a great impact on the diagnostic, prognostic and treatment of patients with Alzheimer’s Disease. Indeed, the ApoE gene is the only well recognized risk factor for Alzheimer’s Disease at the moment (Goder et al. 1998), and we report here evidence that the ACE gene could also be involved in this disease. Moreover, we show that the variant studied modulates ACE levels and increase the predictive value of the ApoE gene.

This study could thus have a great pharmacogenetic interest and bring new and important light in the field of Alzheimer’s Disease management and we hope that the editorial board and the reviewers will agree on the interest of this study.

Sincerely yours,

Sarah H. and Lucas Delphino on behalf of the authors.

Corresponding author: Lucas Delphino at Alzheimer’s Disease Laboratory, Marie Curie Research Institute, 75000, Paris, France, [e-mail], phone number: [phone]xxx, fax number: [phone]xxx.

上面的3个例子，大家在写cover letter的时候可以作为一个参考。今天关于cover letter该如何写的内容就先讲到这里。

同学们，下课