Correspondence & submission

The publishing process involves lots of correspondence

An additional skill you will develop when publishing your research is writing the correspondence associated with your journal submission. There are broadly three types of correspondence:

1. Correspondence with your co-authors
2. Correspondence with the journal, namely the editor(s) and copy editors
3. Correspondence with the reviewers

Well written correspondence is key to a smooth publishing experience.

Co-authors

Everyone has their own style, but the features of a well written email are that it is timely, concise and specific.

• Timely means that you send an email only when needed and not otherwise. This increase the chances of a response as co-authors will come to expect only important emails from you.
• Concise means get to the point without being rude.
• Specific means be clear about the purpose of your email and make any required actions clear. For example, “Please read the amendments to lines 150-175 on page 3 of the manuscript and confirm these changes are acceptable.”

Editors

Not all journal submissions require cover letters, but when they do the cover letter serves as the first point of communication in the submission process. It can either help or hinder the chances of your manuscript being sent out for peer review. 

As with email correspondence, being concise is advised and you should check the journal’s author guidelines for any specific content, but a cover letter generally comprises of the following parts in addition to opening and closing salutations:

1. Yours and the Editor’s name, address and the date.
2. State the purpose of your letter (submitting a manuscript ) including your manuscript title and the journal you are submitting to.
3. A brief summary of your research findings and why you think your manuscript would be a good fit for the journal; do not copy and paste your abstract. It can be useful to reference other related papers the journal may have published to support the claim that your manuscript will be of interest to the readers.
4. Statements required by the journal. You’ll need to check the journal requirements, but these are usually things like declarations of conflict of interest.

Submission checklist

• Journal requirements: have you followed the Instructions for Authors?
• Funder requirements: have you acknowledged your funding and added a data access statement if required by your funder?
• Academic integrity: have you correctly cited all references and confirmed with your co-authors they agree the manuscript is ready to be submitted?

Peer review responses

Ten simple rules for writing a response to reviewers (Noble, 2017)  and A Practical Guide for Successful Revisions and Engagements with Reviewers (Pang & Thatcher, 2023) provide full guidance on what to consider when reading and then composing your responses to reviewers of your manuscript.

Even if your article is rejected, or a “revise and resubmit” recommendation was made by the reviewers, their feedback to you should be professional and constructive, with specific comments to help you improve your manuscript.