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Cover letter

A well-written cover letter clearly explains why the submission will be of interest to the journal's readers.

It should also be used to highlight any potential issues such as related manuscripts currently under consideration in any other Springer Nature publication, as well as indicating whether you have had any prior discussions with a Springer Nature editor about the work described in the manuscript.

It is an opportunity to declare that the manuscript is not being considered for publication in any other journal and recommend or exclude reviewers (including the reasons why).

Finally, it can be used to address any issues encountered while submitting the manuscript. 

Cover letter checklist:

• Check the journal’s Instructions for Authors for any cover letter requirements on the journals homepage.
• Address the editor who will be assessing your manuscript by their name, if known.
• Include the date of submission and the journal you are submitting to.
• First paragraph: Include the title and article type (e.g. review, research, case study)  and briefly explain the background and question you sought out to answer and why.
• Second paragraph: Concisely explain what was done, the main findings and why they are significant.
• Third paragraph: Indicate why the readers of the journal would be interested in the work by showing how your study fulfils the aims and scope of the journal and point out the importance of it. 
• To conclude, state the corresponding author and any journal-specific requirements that need to be complied with (e. g. ethical standards).
• All cover letters should contain these sentences: "We confirm that this manuscript has not been published elsewhere and is not under consideration by another journal. All authors have approved the manuscript and agree with its submission to [insert the name of the target journal]."

For more detailed information, please check How to submit a journal article: Cover letters . 

For a complete tutorial on article submissions, please check Submitting a journal manuscript and peer review .

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• Publishing a Supplement

Submission guidelines

Pre-submission checklist, scope of the journal, types of papers, page charges and page limits, scientific ethics, editorial office, manuscript submission, manuscript preparation, scientific style, typographical rules, artwork and illustrations guidelines, supplementary information (si), resubmission of a previously rejected manuscript, cover photographs, data policy, ethical responsibilities of authors, authorship principles, compliance with ethical standards, competing interests, after acceptance.

Open Choice

Open access publishing

• Mistakes to avoid during manuscript preparation

Instructions to Authors

(Revised: 31 March 2023)

Please use the Pre-submission Checklist to finalize your manuscript. If you are submitting a previously rejected manuscript, please also refer to the Resubmission of a previously rejected manuscript section below.

Note: The Journal of Plant Research allows a maximum of 300 words for the abstract, although Springer guidelines (below) recommend a range of 150 to 250 words.

The Guide to the Submission Process gives you an overview of the submission steps in the Editorial Manager system.

Pre-submission Checklist (Download pdf, 464 kB)

Guide to the Submission Process (Download pdf, 611 kB)

The Journal of Plant Research is an international journal dedicated to the dissemination of fundamental knowledge in all areas (see below disciplines) of basic plant sciences. In addition, the journal welcomes papers in interdisciplinary areas and in newly developing areas of basic plant biology. The journal especially encourages publication of work based on unique approaches and those reporting unprecedented findings. Papers that are purely descriptive with no clear hypothesis are not suitable for this journal. Manuscripts in the area of applied plant sciences, such as agricultural or medicinal research, are accepted only if the manuscripts contribute to basic plant sciences.　

(Disciplines)

taxonomy, phylogeny, evolutionary biology, morphology, anatomy, structural biology, ecology, ecophysiology, environmental biology, genetics, developmental biology, physiology, cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, biophysics, bioinformatics, theoretical biology, and systems biology.

The journal publishes contributions in the following categories: Regular Papers, Technical Notes, Current Topics in Plant Research, Milestones in Plant Research, JPR Symposium, and Letters.

• Taxonomy/Phylogenetics/Evolutionary Biology
• Ecology/Ecophysiology/Environmental Biology
• Morphology/Anatomy/Structural Biology
• Genetics/Developmental Biology
• Physiology/Biochemistry/Molecular and Cellular Biology
• Biophysics/Theoretical and Systems Biology
• Technical Notes report on new methodologies that contribute to exploring new aspects of plant sciences and should not exceed 10 printed pages.
• Current Topics in Plant Research are review articles, which may be submitted at any time, summarizing the current state of a certain topic in basic plant science.
• Milestones in Plant Research is a category for articles recording facts and information about historical achievements that contributed to the development of plant science.
• JPR Symposium is a special feature, providing an opportunity to publish regular papers and reviews on specific topics.
• Letters present opinions, commentaries and challenges to papers published in the journal. They should include no tables, no figures and no more than 10 references, and should be no more than 800 words long (including the body of the article and acknowledgements).

There are no page charges for publishing in this journal. There is no page limitation except for Technical Notes and Letters. However, the author may be requested to shorten the manuscript if it is unnecessarily long.

Any manuscript to be considered for publication as a Regular Paper or Technical Note in the Journal of Plant Research should not contain data that already have been published elsewhere. However, manuscripts for review articles such as JPR Symposium and Current Topics in Plant Research may include figures or text passages that already have been published elsewhere, provided that the original sources are cited appropriately and that authors have obtained permission from the copyright owner(s) to use the material.

Authors wishing to include published data are required when submitting their manuscripts to include evidence that such permission has been granted. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors’ original research.

Papers that already have been published in conference proceedings in full (except in the form of an abstract) may not be considered for publication. If in doubt, please submit the published material together with your manuscript.

Authors retain the right to make a pre-print, the author’s version of the manuscript before peer-review has taken place, available on a legally compliant, non-commercial pre-print server prior to acceptance for publication. Once the paper has been published, the authors should update the acknowledgement and provide a link to the definitive version on the publisher’s website: “This is a pre-print of a paper published in the Journal of Plant Research. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/[insert DOI]”.

Journal of Plant Research accepts submissions of manuscripts that have previously been made public as part of the author’s doctoral thesis.

Allegations of scientific misconduct or ethical violation with respect to manuscripts submitted to or articles published in this journal will be subject to investigation and a course of action by the Ethics Investigation Committee of the Journal of Plant Research according to the JPR Ethics Investigation Committee Bylaws.

Additional information is provided at the end of the Instructions to Authors. Please refer to the sections Ethical Responsibilities of Authors, Authorship Principles, Compliance with Ethical Standards, and Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest.

JPR Ethics Investigation Committee Bylaws (pdf)

Editorial Office, Journal of Plant Research

Email: [email protected]

Submission of a manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before; that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – at the institute where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

Permissions

Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

Online Submission

Please follow the hyperlink “Submit manuscript” and upload all of your manuscript files following the instructions given on the screen.

Source Files

Please ensure you provide all relevant editable source files at every submission and revision. Failing to submit a complete set of editable source files will result in your article not being considered for review. For your manuscript text please always submit in common word processing formats such as .docx or LaTeX.

On the submission page, you will be asked to enter potential reviewers. Please suggest at least five potential reviewers including two who are not Japanese and one from the editorial board (the list of editorial board is available at https://www.springer.com/journal/10265/editors ).

Language Editing

Manuscripts should be written in clear English. The use of a language editing service is strongly recommended in this journal for authors who are non-native English speakers, but please note that it does not imply or guarantee that the manuscript will be selected for peer review or accepted.

The following web pages may be useful for improving the English in your manuscript:

English language tutorial

Nature Research Editing Service

American Journal Experts

Cover letter

Manuscript submission should be followed by submission of a cover letter that contains a brief explanation of the essence of the work reported on in the manuscript as well as statements that the work described has not been previously published, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, and by the responsible authorities. If a pre-print of the submitted manuscript has been posted on a pre-print server, the cover letter must also provide the name of the preprint server and the associated access number or DOI. If the submitted manuscript is part of the author’s doctoral thesis, please indicate this in the cover letter.

Please note that reviewers will not see the cover letter. If you are submitting a revision, detailed explanations for individual revisions, including responses to the reviewers, should be included in the “author’s response” in the electronic submission system. The manuscript should be arranged in the order listed below, with all pages numbered consecutively.

The cover page (the first page of the manuscript) should include:

(1) Taxonomy/Phylogenetics/Evolutionary Biology

(2) Ecology/Ecophysiology/Environmental Biology

(3) Morphology/Anatomy/Structural Biology

(4) Genetics/Developmental Biology

(5) Physiology/Biochemistry/Molecular and Cellular Biology

(6) Biophysics/Theoretical and Systems Biology

• Number of tables, black-and-white figures, and color figures.

Please make sure your title page contains the following information.

The title should be concise and informative.

Author information

• The name(s) of the author(s)
• The affiliation(s) of the author(s), i.e. institution, (department), city, (state), country
• A clear indication and an active e-mail address of the corresponding author
• If available, the 16-digit ORCID of the author(s)

If address information is provided with the affiliation(s) it will also be published.

For authors that are (temporarily) unaffiliated we will only capture their city and country of residence, not their e-mail address unless specifically requested.

Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT , do not currently satisfy our authorship criteria . Notably an attribution of authorship carries with it accountability for the work, which cannot be effectively applied to LLMs. Use of an LLM should be properly documented in the Methods section (and if a Methods section is not available, in a suitable alternative part) of the manuscript.

Please provide an abstract of 150 to 250 words. The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.

For life science journals only (when applicable)

• Trial registration number and date of registration for prospectively registered trials
• Trial registration number and date of registration, followed by “retrospectively registered”, for retrospectively registered trials

Please provide 4 to 6 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.

Statements and Declarations

The following statements should be included under the heading "Statements and Declarations" for inclusion in the published paper. Please note that submissions that do not include relevant declarations will be returned as incomplete.

• Competing Interests: Authors are required to disclose financial or non-financial interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication. Please refer to “Competing Interests and Funding” below for more information on how to complete this section.

Please see the relevant sections in the submission guidelines for further information as well as various examples of wording. Please revise/customize the sample statements according to your own needs.

The text should be prepared with the headings Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, and Discussion, followed by Acknowledgments, References, Tables, and Figure legends.

Text Formatting

Manuscripts should be submitted in Word.

• Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 10-point Times Roman) for text.
• Use italics for emphasis.
• Use the automatic page numbering function to number the pages.
• Do not use field functions.
• Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar.
• Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to make tables.
• Use the equation editor or MathType for equations.
• Save your file in docx format (Word 2007 or higher) or doc format (older Word versions).

Manuscripts with mathematical content can also be submitted in LaTeX.

Please use no more than three levels of displayed headings.

Abbreviations

In the Abstract and in the main text, abbreviations should be spelled out at their first occurrence, with the abbreviations appearing in parentheses; subsequent occurrences should show only the abbreviations; do not use an abbreviation in the Abstract if it appears only once. In tables, abbreviations and their expansions should be given in footnotes. In figures, abbreviations and their expansions should be given in figure legends (abbreviations in italics and the expansions in roman). Please see the list of abbreviations that can be used without definition.

Footnotes can be used to give additional information, which may include the citation of a reference included in the reference list. They should not consist solely of a reference citation, and they should never include the bibliographic details of a reference. They should also not contain any figures or tables.

Footnotes to the text are numbered consecutively; those to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data). Footnotes to the title or the authors of the article are not given reference symbols.

Always use footnotes instead of endnotes.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section before the reference list. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.

Abbreviations that can be used without definition (Download pdf, 8 kB)

LaTeX macro package (Download zip, 190 kB)

Gene names should be in italics, whereas protein names should be in roman type.

Genus and species names should be in italics.

For scientific names of plants, authors are advised to refer to The International Plant Names Index, which is the standard database for plant names presented collaboratively by The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, The Harvard University Herbaria, and the Australian National Herbarium, at the website http://www.ipni.org/index.html.

In the text, the binomial name for a species should include the author(s) who described the species. The binomial name should not be abbreviated at first use. The genus name may be abbreviated to its first letter (uppercase, with a period) when subsequently used.

If two genera with the same initial letter are used in a section, the genus name should normally be written out on each occasion. If, however, the organisms are common and there is no danger of confusion, the genus names may be abbreviated as usual (e.g., Avena sativa and Arabidopsis thaliana on first use and A. sativa and A. thaliana on subsequent occurrences).

In some model plants, such as Arabidopsis thaliana, the genus name in roman (Arabidopsis) may be used as a common noun for the plant species. Note that a common noun should not be italicized.

Ranks of taxa, as well as words related to scientific names, can be abbreviated following Recommendation 5A and the Glossary in the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (Melbourne Code).

The International Plant Names Index

All the text, tables, and figures should be prepared in compliance with the SI standard.

Typographical Rules (Download pdf, 13 kB)

Cite references in the text by name and year in parentheses. Some examples:

• Negotiation research spans many disciplines (Thompson 1990).
• This result was later contradicted by Becker and Seligman (1996).
• This effect has been widely studied (Abbott 1991; Barakat et al. 2011; Kelso and Smith 2000; Medvec et al. 1996).

Reference List

The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text. Do not use footnotes or endnotes as a substitute for a reference list.

Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last names of the first author of each work.

Gamelin FX, Baquet G, Berthoin S, Thevenet D, Nourry C, Nottin S, Bosquet L (2009) Effect of high intensity intermittent training on heart rate variability in prepubescent children. Eur J Appl Physiol 105:731–738. doi: 10.1007/s00421-008-0955-8

Ideally, the names of all authors should be provided, but the usage of “et al” in long author lists will also be accepted:

Smith J, Jones M Jr, Houghton L et al (1999) Future of health insurance. N Engl J Med 965:325–329

Slifka MK, Whitton JL (2000) Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production. J Mol Med. doi:10.1007/s001090000086

South J, Blass B (2001) The future of modern genomics. Blackwell, London

Brown B, Aaron M (2001) The politics of nature. In: Smith J (ed) The rise of modern genomics, 3rd edn. Wiley, New York, pp 230–257

Cartwright J (2007) Big stars have weather too. IOP Publishing PhysicsWeb. http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/11/6/16/1. Accessed 26 June 2007

Trent JW (1975) Experimental acute renal failure. Dissertation, University of California

• Always use the standard abbreviation of a journal’s name according to the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations, see www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php

In taxonomic treatment, author citation in synonym blocks should be as follows:

Millettia chrysamaryssa Adema (1999) 289; Adema (2000) 405.

The sources cited should be included in the Reference section as:

Adema F (1999) Notes on Malesian Fabaceae (Leguminosae-Papilionoideae). 4. Millettia chrysamaryssa, a new species from Peninsular Malaysia. Novon 9: 289–291

Adema F (2000) Notes on Malesian Fabaceae (Leguminosae-Papilionoideae). 7. The genus Millettia. Blumea 45: 403–422

• All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
• Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
• For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table.
• Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table caption.
• Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.

Electronic Figure Submission

• Supply all figures electronically.
• Indicate what graphics program was used to create the artwork.
• For vector graphics, the preferred format is EPS; for halftones, please use TIFF format. MS Office files are also acceptable.
• Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.
• Name your figure files with "Fig" and the figure number, e.g., Fig1.eps.
• Definition: Black and white graphic with no shading.
• Do not use faint lines and/or lettering and check that all lines and lettering within the figures are legible at final size.
• All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.
• Scanned line drawings and line drawings in bitmap format should have a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi.

Halftone Art

• Definition: Photographs, drawings, or paintings with fine shading, etc.
• If any magnification is used in the photographs, indicate this by using scale bars within the figures themselves.
• Halftones should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

Combination Art

• Definition: a combination of halftone and line art, e.g., halftones containing line drawing, extensive lettering, color diagrams, etc.
• Combination artwork should have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi.
• Color art is free of charge for print and online publication.
• Color illustrations should be submitted as RGB.

Figure Lettering

• To add lettering, it is best to use Helvetica or Arial (sans serif fonts).
• Keep lettering consistently sized throughout your final-sized artwork, usually about 2–3 mm (8–12 pt).
• Variance of type size within an illustration should be minimal, e.g., do not use 8-pt type on an axis and 20-pt type for the axis label.
• Avoid effects such as shading, outline letters, etc.
• Do not include titles or captions within your illustrations.

Figure Numbering

• All figures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
• Figures should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
• Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.).
• If an appendix appears in your article and it contains one or more figures, continue the consecutive numbering of the main text. Do not number the appendix figures, "A1, A2, A3, etc." Figures in online appendices [Supplementary Information (SI)] should, however, be numbered separately.

Figure Captions

• Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts. Include the captions in the text file of the manuscript, not in the figure file.
• Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in bold type.
• No punctuation is to be included after the number, nor is any punctuation to be placed at the end of the caption.
• Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs.
• Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption.

Figure Placement and Size

• Figures should be submitted within the body of the text. Only if the file size of the manuscript causes problems in uploading it, the large figures should be submitted separately from the text.
• When preparing your figures, size figures to fit in the column width.
• For large-sized journals the figures should be 84 mm (for double-column text areas), or 174 mm (for single-column text areas) wide and not higher than 234 mm.
• For small-sized journals, the figures should be 119 mm wide and not higher than 195 mm.

If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format. Please be aware that some publishers do not grant electronic rights for free and that Springer will not be able to refund any costs that may have occurred to receive these permissions. In such cases, material from other sources should be used.

Accessibility

In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your figures, please make sure that

• All figures have descriptive captions (blind users could then use a text-to-speech software or a text-to-Braille hardware)
• Patterns are used instead of or in addition to colors for conveying information (color-blind users would then be able to distinguish the visual elements)
• Any figure lettering has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1

Generative AI Images

Please check Springer’s policy on generative AI images and make sure your work adheres to the principles described therein.

Springer accepts electronic multimedia files (animations, movies, audio, etc.) and other supplementary files to be published online along with an article or a book chapter. This feature can add dimension to the author's article, as certain information cannot be printed or is more convenient in electronic form.

Before submitting research datasets as Supplementary Information, authors should read the journal’s Research data policy. We encourage research data to be archived in data repositories wherever possible.

• Supply all supplementary material in standard file formats.
• Please include in each file the following information: article title, journal name, author names; affiliation and e-mail address of the corresponding author.
• To accommodate user downloads, please keep in mind that larger-sized files may require very long download times and that some users may experience other problems during downloading.
• High resolution (streamable quality) videos can be submitted up to a maximum of 25GB; low resolution videos should not be larger than 5GB.

Audio, Video, and Animations

• Aspect ratio: 16:9 or 4:3
• Maximum file size: 25 GB for high resolution files; 5 GB for low resolution files
• Minimum video duration: 1 sec
• Supported file formats: avi, wmv, mp4, mov, m2p, mp2, mpg, mpeg, flv, mxf, mts, m4v, 3gp

Text and Presentations

• Submit your material in PDF format; .doc or .ppt files are not suitable for long-term viability.
• A collection of figures may also be combined in a PDF file.

Spreadsheets

• Spreadsheets should be submitted as .csv or .xlsx files (MS Excel).

Specialized Formats

• Specialized format such as .pdb (chemical), .wrl (VRML), .nb (Mathematica notebook), and .tex can also be supplied.

Collecting Multiple Files

• It is possible to collect multiple files in a .zip or .gz file.
• If supplying any supplementary material, the text must make specific mention of the material as a citation, similar to that of figures and tables.
• Refer to the supplementary files as “Online Resource”, e.g., "... as shown in the animation (Online Resource 3)", “... additional data are given in Online Resource 4”.
• Name the files consecutively, e.g. “ESM_3.mpg”, “ESM_4.pdf”.
• For each supplementary material, please supply a concise caption describing the content of the file.

Processing of supplementary files

• Supplementary Information (SI) will be published as received from the author without any conversion, editing, or reformatting.

In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your supplementary files, please make sure that

• The manuscript contains a descriptive caption for each supplementary material
• Video files do not contain anything that flashes more than three times per second (so that users prone to seizures caused by such effects are not put at risk)

If you have submitted a manuscript and received a “reject but encourage resubmission” decision from the Journal of Plant Research, you may consider submitting a revised version of the manuscript. The resubmission will be treated as a new submission and given a new manuscript number in Editorial Manager, but it will generally be assigned to the same editor who evaluated your original manuscript. The resubmission will go through the same peer review process as any new submission, and if it is considered unacceptable for publication, it may still be rejected.

The following items are mandatory for resubmitting a previously rejected manuscript: a clean copy of the main text (a file without any tracked changes), a marked copy of the main text (a file with tracked changes, in which the changes are marked in color or recorded by the track change function in MS Word), and a response letter including a point by point explanation of how you have addressed the comments made by the editors and reviewers.

Please log in to Editorial Manager as an Author and click on “Submit New Manuscript”.

• Upload a clean copy of the main text as “Manuscript”
• Upload a marked copy of the main text as “Supplementary Information (only for review)”
• Upload a response letter as “Supplementary Information (only for review)”

In the cover letter, please provide the manuscript number of your previously rejected manuscript and include a copy of the response letter.

Authors are welcome to contribute a photograph for the cover page. Send digital image files for the plant species described in your paper to the Editor-in-Chief when your submission is accepted for publication. Cover photographs for the journal should be artistic ones taken in native habitats.

Authors whose photographs are selected for use on the cover page will be asked to send high-resolution image files (height 30 cm × width 21 cm, more than 350 dpi) to the publisher.

The Journal of Plant Research strongly encourages authors to ensure that data and materials integral to the paper are available to readers in a form that allows for verification and replication of the results in the paper. In particular, the DNA and RNA sequences, next-generation sequencing data, genetic polymorphisms, macromolecular structure, and microarray data are required to be deposited in publicly available repositories (where available and appropriate) or presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files whenever possible. We recommend following repositories.

This journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics ( COPE ) the journal will follow the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.

Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire scientific endeavour. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation is helped by following the rules of good scientific practice, which include*:

• The manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
• The submitted work should be original and should not have been published elsewhere in any form or language (partially or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work. (Please provide transparency on the re-use of material to avoid the concerns about text-recycling (‘self-plagiarism’).
• A single study should not be split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (i.e. ‘salami-slicing/publishing’).
• Concurrent or secondary publication is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. Examples include: translations or a manuscript that is intended for a different group of readers.
• Results should be presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation (including image based manipulation). Authors should adhere to discipline-specific rules for acquiring, selecting and processing data.
• No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own (‘plagiarism’). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased), quotation marks (to indicate words taken from another source) are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions secured for material that is copyrighted.

Important note: the journal may use software to screen for plagiarism.

• Authors should make sure they have permissions for the use of software, questionnaires/(web) surveys and scales in their studies (if appropriate).
• Research articles and non-research articles (e.g. Opinion, Review, and Commentary articles) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made. Excessive and inappropriate self-citation or coordinated efforts among several authors to collectively self-cite is strongly discouraged.
• Authors should avoid untrue statements about an entity (who can be an individual person or a company) or descriptions of their behavior or actions that could potentially be seen as personal attacks or allegations about that person.
• Research that may be misapplied to pose a threat to public health or national security should be clearly identified in the manuscript (e.g. dual use of research). Examples include creation of harmful consequences of biological agents or toxins, disruption of immunity of vaccines, unusual hazards in the use of chemicals, weaponization of research/technology (amongst others).
• Authors are strongly advised to ensure the author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors are all correct at submission. Adding and/or deleting authors during the revision stages is generally not permitted, but in some cases may be warranted. Reasons for changes in authorship should be explained in detail. Please note that changes to authorship cannot be made after acceptance of a manuscript.

*All of the above are guidelines and authors need to make sure to respect third parties rights such as copyright and/or moral rights.

Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results presented. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential or proprietary data is excluded.

If there is suspicion of misbehavior or alleged fraud the Journal and/or Publisher will carry out an investigation following COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, there are valid concerns, the author(s) concerned will be contacted under their given e-mail address and given an opportunity to address the issue. Depending on the situation, this may result in the Journal’s and/or Publisher’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:

• If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.

- an erratum/correction may be placed with the article

- an expression of concern may be placed with the article

- or in severe cases retraction of the article may occur.

The reason will be given in the published erratum/correction, expression of concern or retraction note. Please note that retraction means that the article is maintained on the platform , watermarked “retracted” and the explanation for the retraction is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.

• The author’s institution may be informed
• A notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system may be included as part of the author’s and article’s bibliographic record.

Fundamental errors

Authors have an obligation to correct mistakes once they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published article. The author(s) is/are requested to contact the journal and explain in what sense the error is impacting the article. A decision on how to correct the literature will depend on the nature of the error. This may be a correction or retraction. The retraction note should provide transparency which parts of the article are impacted by the error.

Suggesting / excluding reviewers

Authors are welcome to suggest suitable reviewers and/or request the exclusion of certain individuals when they submit their manuscripts. When suggesting reviewers, authors should make sure they are totally independent and not connected to the work in any way. It is strongly recommended to suggest a mix of reviewers from different countries and different institutions. When suggesting reviewers, the Corresponding Author must provide an institutional email address for each suggested reviewer, or, if this is not possible to include other means of verifying the identity such as a link to a personal homepage, a link to the publication record or a researcher or author ID in the submission letter. Please note that the Journal may not use the suggestions, but suggestions are appreciated and may help facilitate the peer review process.

These guidelines describe authorship principles and good authorship practices to which prospective authors should adhere to.

Authorship clarified

The Journal and Publisher assume all authors agreed with the content and that all gave explicit consent to submit and that they obtained consent from the responsible authorities at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out, before the work is submitted.

The Publisher does not prescribe the kinds of contributions that warrant authorship. It is recommended that authors adhere to the guidelines for authorship that are applicable in their specific research field. In absence of specific guidelines it is recommended to adhere to the following guidelines*:

All authors whose names appear on the submission

1) made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work;

2) drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content;

3) approved the version to be published; and

4) agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

* Based on/adapted from:

ICMJE, Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors,

Transparency in authors’ contributions and responsibilities to promote integrity in scientific publication, McNutt at all, PNAS February 27, 2018

Disclosures and declarations

All authors are requested to include information regarding sources of funding, financial or non-financial interests, study-specific approval by the appropriate ethics committee for research involving humans and/or animals, informed consent if the research involved human participants, and a statement on welfare of animals if the research involved animals (as appropriate).

The decision whether such information should be included is not only dependent on the scope of the journal, but also the scope of the article. Work submitted for publication may have implications for public health or general welfare and in those cases it is the responsibility of all authors to include the appropriate disclosures and declarations.

Data transparency

All authors are requested to make sure that all data and materials as well as software application or custom code support their published claims and comply with field standards. Please note that journals may have individual policies on (sharing) research data in concordance with disciplinary norms and expectations.

Role of the Corresponding Author

One author is assigned as Corresponding Author and acts on behalf of all co-authors and ensures that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately addressed.

The Corresponding Author is responsible for the following requirements:

• ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript before submission, including the names and order of authors;
• managing all communication between the Journal and all co-authors, before and after publication;*
• providing transparency on re-use of material and mention any unpublished material (for example manuscripts in press) included in the manuscript in a cover letter to the Editor;
• making sure disclosures, declarations and transparency on data statements from all authors are included in the manuscript as appropriate (see above).

* The requirement of managing all communication between the journal and all co-authors during submission and proofing may be delegated to a Contact or Submitting Author. In this case please make sure the Corresponding Author is clearly indicated in the manuscript.

Author contributions

In absence of specific instructions and in research fields where it is possible to describe discrete efforts, the Publisher recommends authors to include contribution statements in the work that specifies the contribution of every author in order to promote transparency. These contributions should be listed at the separate title page.

Examples of such statement(s) are shown below:

• Free text:

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [full name], [full name] and [full name]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [full name] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Example: CRediT taxonomy:

• Conceptualization: [full name], …; Methodology: [full name], …; Formal analysis and investigation: [full name], …; Writing - original draft preparation: [full name, …]; Writing - review and editing: [full name], …; Funding acquisition: [full name], …; Resources: [full name], …; Supervision: [full name],….

For review articles where discrete statements are less applicable a statement should be included who had the idea for the article, who performed the literature search and data analysis, and who drafted and/or critically revised the work.

For articles that are based primarily on the student’s dissertation or thesis , it is recommended that the student is usually listed as principal author:

A Graduate Student’s Guide to Determining Authorship Credit and Authorship Order, APA Science Student Council 2006

Affiliation

The primary affiliation for each author should be the institution where the majority of their work was done. If an author has subsequently moved, the current address may additionally be stated. Addresses will not be updated or changed after publication of the article.

Changes to authorship

Authors are strongly advised to ensure the correct author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors at submission. Changes of authorship by adding or deleting authors, and/or changes in Corresponding Author, and/or changes in the sequence of authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.

• Please note that author names will be published exactly as they appear on the accepted submission!

Please make sure that the names of all authors are present and correctly spelled, and that addresses and affiliations are current.

Adding and/or deleting authors at revision stage are generally not permitted, but in some cases it may be warranted. Reasons for these changes in authorship should be explained. Approval of the change during revision is at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. Please note that journals may have individual policies on adding and/or deleting authors during revision stage.

Author identification

Authors are recommended to use their ORCID ID when submitting an article for consideration or acquire an ORCID ID via the submission process.

Deceased or incapacitated authors

For cases in which a co-author dies or is incapacitated during the writing, submission, or peer-review process, and the co-authors feel it is appropriate to include the author, co-authors should obtain approval from a (legal) representative which could be a direct relative.

Authorship issues or disputes

In the case of an authorship dispute during peer review or after acceptance and publication, the Journal will not be in a position to investigate or adjudicate. Authors will be asked to resolve the dispute themselves. If they are unable the Journal reserves the right to withdraw a manuscript from the editorial process or in case of a published paper raise the issue with the authors’ institution(s) and abide by its guidelines.

Confidentiality

Authors should treat all communication with the Journal as confidential which includes correspondence with direct representatives from the Journal such as Editors-in-Chief and/or Handling Editors and reviewers’ reports unless explicit consent has been received to share information.

To ensure objectivity and transparency in research and to ensure that accepted principles of ethical and professional conduct have been followed, authors should include information regarding sources of funding, potential conflicts of interest (financial or non-financial), informed consent if the research involved human participants, and a statement on welfare of animals if the research involved animals.

Authors should include the following statements (if applicable) in a separate section entitled “Compliance with Ethical Standards” when submitting a paper:

• Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest
• Research involving Human Participants and/or Animals
• Informed consent

Please note that standards could vary slightly per journal dependent on their peer review policies (i.e. single or double blind peer review) as well as per journal subject discipline. Before submitting your article check the instructions following this section carefully.

The corresponding author should be prepared to collect documentation of compliance with ethical standards and send if requested during peer review or after publication.

The Editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned guidelines. The author will be held responsible for false statements or failure to fulfill the above-mentioned guidelines.

Authors are requested to disclose interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication. Interests within the last 3 years of beginning the work (conducting the research and preparing the work for submission) should be reported. Interests outside the 3-year time frame must be disclosed if they could reasonably be perceived as influencing the submitted work. Disclosure of interests provides a complete and transparent process and helps readers form their own judgments of potential bias. This is not meant to imply that a financial relationship with an organization that sponsored the research or compensation received for consultancy work is inappropriate.

Editorial Board Members and Editors are required to declare any competing interests and may be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists. In addition, they should exclude themselves from handling manuscripts in cases where there is a competing interest. This may include – but is not limited to – having previously published with one or more of the authors, and sharing the same institution as one or more of the authors. Where an Editor or Editorial Board Member is on the author list we recommend they declare this in the competing interests section on the submitted manuscript. If they are an author or have any other competing interest regarding a specific manuscript, another Editor or member of the Editorial Board will be assigned to assume responsibility for overseeing peer review. These submissions are subject to the exact same review process as any other manuscript. Editorial Board Members are welcome to submit papers to the journal. These submissions are not given any priority over other manuscripts, and Editorial Board Member status has no bearing on editorial consideration.

Interests that should be considered and disclosed but are not limited to the following:

Funding: Research grants from funding agencies (please give the research funder and the grant number) and/or research support (including salaries, equipment, supplies, reimbursement for attending symposia, and other expenses) by organizations that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript.

Employment: Recent (while engaged in the research project), present or anticipated employment by any organization that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript. This includes multiple affiliations (if applicable).

Financial interests: Stocks or shares in companies (including holdings of spouse and/or children) that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript; consultation fees or other forms of remuneration from organizations that may gain or lose financially; patents or patent applications whose value may be affected by publication of this manuscript.

It is difficult to specify a threshold at which a financial interest becomes significant, any such figure is necessarily arbitrary, so one possible practical guideline is the following: "Any undeclared financial interest that could embarrass the author were it to become publicly known after the work was published."

Non-financial interests: In addition, authors are requested to disclose interests that go beyond financial interests that could impart bias on the work submitted for publication such as professional interests, personal relationships or personal beliefs (amongst others). Examples include, but are not limited to: position on editorial board, advisory board or board of directors or other type of management relationships; writing and/or consulting for educational purposes; expert witness; mentoring relations; and so forth.

Primary research articles require a disclosure statement. Review articles present an expert synthesis of evidence and may be treated as an authoritative work on a subject. Review articles therefore require a disclosure statement. Other article types such as editorials, book reviews, comments (amongst others) may, dependent on their content, require a disclosure statement. If you are unclear whether your article type requires a disclosure statement, please contact the Editor-in-Chief.

Please note that, in addition to the above requirements, funding information (given that funding is a potential competing interest (as mentioned above)) needs to be disclosed upon submission of the manuscript in the peer review system. This information will automatically be added to the Record of CrossMark, however it is not added to the manuscript itself. Under ‘summary of requirements’ (see below) funding information should be included in the ‘ Declarations ’ section.

Summary of requirements

The above should be summarized in a statement and placed in a ‘Declarations’ section before the reference list under a heading of ‘Funding’ and/or ‘Competing interests’. Other declarations include Ethics approval, Consent, Data, Material and/or Code availability and Authors’ contribution statements.

Please see the various examples of wording below and revise/customize the sample statements according to your own needs.

When all authors have the same (or no) conflicts and/or funding it is sufficient to use one blanket statement.

Examples of statements to be used when funding has been received:

• Partial financial support was received from [...]
• The research leading to these results received funding from […] under Grant Agreement No[…].
• This study was funded by […]
• This work was supported by […] (Grant numbers […] and […]

Examples of statements to be used when there is no funding:

• The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.
• No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.
• No funding was received for conducting this study.
• No funds, grants, or other support was received.

Examples of statements to be used when there are interests to declare:

Non-financial interests: Author C is an unpaid member of committee Z.

Non-financial interests: Author A is on the board of directors of Y and receives no compensation as member of the board of directors.

Non-financial interests: none.

Non-financial interests: Author D has served on advisory boards for Company M, Company N and Company O.

Examples of statements to be used when authors have nothing to declare:

• The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
• The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
• All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.
• The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article.

Authors are responsible for correctness of the statements provided in the manuscript. See also Authorship Principles. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to reject submissions that do not meet the guidelines described in this section.

Upon acceptance, your article will be exported to Production to undergo typesetting. Shortly after this you will receive two e-mails. One contains a request to confirm your affiliation, choose the publishing model for your article, as well as to arrange rights and payment of any associated publication cost. A second e-mail containing a link to your article’s proofs will be sent once typesetting is completed.

Article publishing agreement

Depending on the ownership of the journal and its policies, you will either grant the Publisher an exclusive licence to publish the article or will be asked to transfer copyright of the article to the Publisher.

Offprints can be ordered by the corresponding author.

Color illustrations

Publication of color illustrations is free of charge.

Proof reading

The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting or conversion errors and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables and figures. Substantial changes in content, e.g., new results, corrected values, title and authorship, are not allowed without the approval of the Editor.

After online publication, further changes can only be made in the form of an Erratum, which will be hyperlinked to the article.

Online First

The article will be published online after receipt of the corrected proofs. This is the official first publication citable with the DOI. After release of the printed version, the paper can also be cited by issue and page numbers.

Open Choice allows you to publish open access in more than 1850 Springer Nature journals, making your research more visible and accessible immediately on publication.

Article processing charges (APCs) vary by journal – view the full list

• Increased researcher engagement: Open Choice enables access by anyone with an internet connection, immediately on publication.

It is easy to find funding to support open access – please see our funding and support pages for more information.

*) Within the first three years of publication. Springer Nature hybrid journal OA impact analysis, 2018.

Funding and Support pages

Copyright and license term – CC BY

Open Choice articles do not require transfer of copyright as the copyright remains with the author. In opting for open access, the author(s) agree to publish the article under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Find more about the license agreement

To find out more about publishing your work Open Access in Journal of Plant Research , including information on fees, funding and licenses, visit our Open access publishing page .

• Find a journal
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• Track your research

• Tel: +81-3-5541-4400 (Monday–Friday, 09:30–18:00)

Writing effective cover letters for journal submissions: Tips and a Word template

When you need to submit a cover letter with your manuscript, you'll probably write it just before submission. Like many other authors, you may find yourself wondering what to write and taking longer than you expected, causing last-minute delays and stress.

To help you write effective cover letters—and to write them quickly and easily—in this article we offer some tips on layout and appropriate wording. Also, you can download our template cover letter (Word file) to help you save time writing and help you remember to include standard author statements and other information commonly required by journals.

If you are submitting a revised paper to the same journal, note that the response letter to the reviewers is different from the cover letter used at initial submission. You can find tips and a template on writing effective response letters to the reviewers in our previous article .

Many journals require a cover letter and state this in their guidelines for authors (alternatively known as author guidelines, information for authors, guide for authors, guidelines for papers, submission guide, etc.). For some journals, a cover letter is optional or may not be not required, but it's probably a good idea to include one.

Why do some journals ask for cover letters?

Cover letters can be helpful to journal staff in the following ways.

1. Cover letters that include standard statements required by the journal allow the journal staff to quickly confirm that the authors have (or say they have) followed certain ethical research and publishing practices.

These statements assert that the authors followed standard practices, which may include (i) adhering to ethical guidelines for research involving humans ( Declaration of Helsinki ), involving animals ( ARRIVE guidelines ), or falling under institutional guidelines; (ii) obtaining ethics approval from institutional review boards or ethics committees; (iii) obtaining informed consent or assent from participants; (iv) complying with authorship criteria (e.g., ICMJE criteria ); (v) confirming no duplicate submissions have been made; and (vi) recommending reviewers for your paper, which may include specifying peers that you prefer not be contacted.

2. Cover letters can summarize your manuscript quickly for the journal editor, highlighting your most important findings and their implications to show why your manuscript would be of interest.

Some journals, such as Nature, state that while a cover letter is optional, it provides "an excellent opportunity to briefly discuss the importance of the submitted work and why it is appropriate for the journal." Some publishers, such as Springer , recommend that you write a cover letter to help "sell" your manuscript to the journal editor.

3. Cover letters that contain all of the information required by the journal (as stated in the guideline for authors) can indicate that you have spent time carefully formatting the manuscript to fit the journal's style. This creates a good first impression. Addressing the letter to a named editor at the journal also shows that you took the time to write your letter (and by extension, your manuscript) with care and considered the fit with the journal beyond just impact factor.

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What makes an effective cover letter?

Cover letters should be short—preferably no more than 1 page—and they often use single line spacing. The content can be broadly divided into six sections:

• Addressee's information and date of submission
• Opening salutation
• Purpose statement and administrative information
• Summary of main research findings and implications
• Statements or information required by the journal
• Closing salutation and your contact information

Let's look at some tips for each section. And don't forget to download the template , which shows these tips already in place.

1. Addressee's information and date of submission

• Check the journal's website for the name of the editor who handles submissions; this could be the Managing Editor or an editor assigned to your geographical region. If no handling editor is named, address your cover letter to the Editor-in-Chief. Some journals ask that you identify a specific editor for your specialty.
• Write the name of the addressee in the top left corner of the page.
• Write the date beneath. To minimize the number of line breaks used in your cover letter (and help keep it to one page of text), you can put the date to the right if you wish.
• Note that dates written as numerals only can be confusing: 02/03/2017 can be read "2 March 2017" in British and "3 February 2017" in American English. Using the format "3 February 2017" or "February 3, 2017" is clear.

2. Opening salutation

• Write the title and last name of the addressee (exclude the first name); for example, "Professor Brown" or "Dr. Baker" (British English: "Dr Baker").
• If you can't find a named editor on the journal website, then you can use the opening salutation "Dear Editor".
• At the end of the opening salutation, you can use a comma or a colon; that is, "Dear Dr. Baker," or "Dear Dr. Baker:" (British English uses the comma; American English uses either, but the colon is considered more formal).

3. Purpose statement and administrative information

• Clearly state the purpose of your letter (that you are submitting a manuscript) and then state your manuscript title, author names (or first author "Brown et al."), and article type (e.g., original paper).
• Be sure to use the journal's own terminology to refer to the article type; for example, some journals use the term "Regular Articles" for a full research paper, whereas others use "Original Submissions", "Full Papers", "Original Articles", among others.
• See the downloadable Word template for an example sentence that presents this information clearly and concisely.
• If your submission consists of many files, consider summarizing them in one short sentence so that the journal editor is sure all of the files have been received; for example, "There are 8 files in all: 1 main manuscript file, 1 highlights file, 3 figure files, 1 table file, 1 supplementary data file, and 1 supplementary figures file".

4. Summary of main research findings and implications

• In a new paragraph, summarize the purpose of your research (the research gap or problem it addresses), the main findings, and finally the implications of these findings. This is your main chance to highlight the value of your work to the journal editor, so keep this short and focused. (Journal editors may receive thousands of submissions annually, and many fulfill editing duties on top of their own research and teaching schedule, so you should strive to make their jobs easier by providing as concise a summary as possible.)
• Be sure to tailor your statements so that they're in line with the readership of the journal. For example, if you are submitting to a more general journal that has a diverse readership, underscore the possible impact your findings could have in multiple fields. Conversely, if you are submitting to a publication with narrow scope, you can write about your findings in highly focused terms.
• Avoid simply reproducing sentences verbatim from the abstract—which the journal editor will likely read next. Instead, if you take sentences from your abstract as a base to work from, then try to craft a much shorter summary that clearly fits the journal's focus and that highlights the implications of your work for the journal's readers. In fact, Nature guidelines state specifically to "avoid repeating information that is already present in the abstract and introduction."
• When stating that you think your work is a good fit for the journal, be sure not to use exaggerated flattery. Avoid using words like "esteemed" and "prestigious" to describe the journal: "We believe that these findings will be of interest to the readers of your esteemed/prestigious journal."
• It's helpful to the journal editor to state if your work directly relates to a paper published by another author in the same journal. Also, mention if your study closely relates to or extends your previously published work, so it is clear why your submitted manuscript is novel or important enough to publish.

Common phrases in this paragraph:

Summarizing the purpose of your research

• This study presents/summarizes/examines…
• X remains a problem for (engineers/software developers/local government). In this study, we (examined/investigated/developed and tested)…

Presenting your main results

• Our main findings/results were that…
• The most interesting/important findings were that…
• Most importantly, our findings can improve/reduce/help…

Highlighting the relevance of your findings

• These findings should enable (engineers/doctors/local government) to…
• We believe that these findings will be of interest to the readers of your journal.

5. Statements or information required by the journal

• In this new paragraph, provide any statements that the journal requires be included in your cover letter. Be sure to review the journal's guidelines to know what information you should provide.
• Some journals or publishers have very specific requirements. For example, PLOS requires that authors describe any prior interactions with the journal in the cover letter, as well as suggest appropriate Academic Editors from the journal's editorial board to handle the submission.
• Some journals require that sentences are provided verbatim in the cover letter. The guidelines will tell you to copy and paste the sentence provided in quotation marks into the cover letter. For example, Springer states that cover letters should contain two specific sentences: "We confirm that this manuscript has not been published elsewhere and is not under consideration by another journal" and "All authors have approved the manuscript and agree with its submission to [insert the name of the target journal]."
• Several statements pertaining to research and publication ethics are commonly required by journals across a broad range of fields. These are given in our downloadable Word template . When using the template, you can retain the statements in full, revise them slightly as appropriate to your circumstances, replace them with any similar wording required by the journal, or delete them if they do not fit your specific situation.

Previous contact with the journal

• We state that we have had no previous contact with the journal regarding this submission.
• We previously contacted the journal to inquire about/to check whether…

Conflict of interests and financial disclosures

• The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
• X.Y. advises Company A and has received lecture fees from Company B.
• This study was supported by a grant from Z.
• No financial support was received for this study/work.
• A.B. conceived the study, analyzed the data, and drafted the manuscript; C.D. analyzed the data…
• All authors have approved the manuscript and agree with its submission to the journal.
• All authors approved the final version of the manuscript and agree to be accountable for all aspects of this work.

Suggested reviewers

• Potential reviewers for our manuscript are:
• We believe that the following individual(s) would be well suited to reviewing our manuscript.

Request to exclude reviewers

• We request that the following individual(s) not be approached to review our manuscript (because…).

Concurrent/duplicate submissions

• We declare that this manuscript has not been published before, in whole or in part, and is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere.
• This study was presented in part at…
• This study was previously published in Japanese (citation) and…

6. Closing salutation and your contact information

• Briefly thank the journal editor for considering the manuscript and follow this with the full contact information of the corresponding author (name, academic degrees or professional qualifications; affiliation and postal address; telephone (and fax); email).
• Be sure to maintain a collegial tone to leave the journal editor with the best impression as he or she finishes reading your cover letter and moves on to evaluate your manuscript.
• Avoid statements that could be construed as presuming to give instructions to the editor. For example, "we look forward to your review of our manuscript" implicitly directs the editor to review your paper. Also, we look forward to hearing from you "at your earliest convenience/as soon as possible" implicitly directs the editor to communicate with you quickly; instead, simply use a neutral but polite phrase such as "we look forward to hearing from you" or "we look forward to hearing from you in due course".
• A suitable closing salutation is "Sincerely," or "Yours sincerely,"

Although the cover letter is not, strictly speaking, a part of your manuscript, it can affect how your submission is perceived by the journal editor. A cover letter that is tailored to the journal, introduces your work persuasively, and is free from spelling and grammatical errors can help prime the editor to view your submission positively before he or she even looks over your manuscript.

We hope our tips and Word template can help you create professional, complete cover letters in a time-effective way. Our specialist editors, translators, and writers are available to help create or revise the content to be error-free and, as part of our additional comprehensive Guidelines for Authors service , we can ensure the cover letter includes all of the statements required by the journal.

Lastly, just as a reminder for members of ThinkSCIENCE's free annual rewards program , remember to claim your reward of free editing or translation of one cover letter alongside editing or translation of a full paper before the end of the March!

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Writing a persuasive cover letter for your manuscript

Anthony Newman

Lora Heisler

About this video

Submitting your manuscript without a cover letter or an incomplete one can impact the outcome of your submission. Strong cover letters efficiently introduce your work to the editor, but also communicates why your paper is of interest to the journal audience and contributory to overall science. 

In this Researcher Academy module, experts Anthony Newman and Lora Heisler give you important insights about writing strong and persuasive cover letters. This webinar will give an exhaustive check list on writing an effective cover letter which brings attention to your paper and helps it get published.

You will come away with the knowledge of what cover letters are, how they support your manuscript and how you can write an airtight cover letter, covering your research scope, objectives and goals. 

About the presenters

Senior Publisher, Life Sciences, Elsevier

Anthony Newman is a Senior Publisher with Elsevier and is based in Amsterdam. Each year he presents numerous Author Workshops and other similar trainings worldwide. He is currently responsible for fifteen biochemistry and laboratory medicine journals, he joined Elsevier over thirty years ago and has been Publisher for more than twenty of those years. Before then he was the marketing communications manager for the biochemistry journals of Elsevier.  By training he is a polymer chemist and was active in the surface coating industry before leaving London and moving to Amsterdam in 1987 to join Elsevier.

Chair in Human Nutrition, The Rowett Institute, The Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen.

Lora Heisler, Ph.D. is Chair in Human Nutrition at the Rowett Institute, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, where she is Head of the Obesity and Food Choice research theme.  Professor Heisler has enjoyed being an active member of various journal editorial boards for more than a decade.  She was appointed as Deputy Editor of Elsevier’s journal Molecular Metabolism in 2018. Professor Heisler received her B.A. from Boston University, M.Sc. from London School of Economics and Political Sciences and Ph.D. from Tufts University.  She undertook postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California at San Francisco and Beth Israel Deaconess/Harvard Medical School.  Professor Heisler began her independent research group at Harvard Medical School and then relocated to the University of Cambridge in the UK. Her active research group moved to the Rowett Institute, University of Aberdeen in 2013 where they investigate the neurobiology of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

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Writing a Cover Letter for Journal Submission [Free Template]

• Research Process
• Peer Review

Journal cover letters are your chance to lobby on behalf of your manuscript. This AJE Journal Cover Letter Guide offers some useful tips for getting them right. It also includes a free journal cover letter template.

Updated on September 20, 2018

The cover letter accompanying your journal submission is your chance to lobby on behalf of your manuscript. The letter is far from just a formality and should be written with the same care as your manuscript's text (if not more). Ultimately, your cover letter is designed to influence the decision of the editor to send your manuscript out for peer review. The letter will argue that your manuscript is a good fit for the journal you are submitting it to and highlight your most important findings. Let us help you produce the most effective cover letter possible.

Getting ready to submit your manuscript? Download our comprehensive Free Journal Cover Letter Writing Guide with Template .

A cover letter should be written like a standard business letter :

Address the editor formally by name, if known. Include your contact information, as well. This information is probably available through the journal's online submission system, but it is proper to provide it in the cover letter, too.

Begin your cover letter with a paragraph that states the name of the manuscript and the names of the authors. You can also describe what type of manuscript your submission is (research article, review, case report, etc.). In this first paragraph and the next, describe the rationale behind your study and the major findings from your research. You can refer to prior work that you have published if it is directly related.

Next, write a short paragraph that explains why your manuscript would be a good fit for the journal. Do not simply state that your manuscript is “of interest to the field” or “novel.” Address specific aspects of the journal's Aims & Scope statement. If the journal expresses interest in research with a clinical application, be sure to highlight the importance of your work in terms of clinical implications. If the journal mentions that it focuses on nanostructured materials, explain how your work involved such materials. Even if your work is not a perfect fit for the journal, be sure to address some of the Aims & Scope statement, and explain why your manuscript would be of interest to the journal's readers.

Finally, close with a brief paragraph indicating the following:

• The manuscript is original (i.e., you wrote it, not copied it)
• No part of the manuscript has been published before, nor is any part of it under consideration for publication at another journal
• There are no conflicts of interest to disclose
• A list of potential reviewers (only if requested by the journal)
• Any researchers who should NOT review your manuscript

Together, this information provides assurance to the editor that your manuscript merits consideration for publication in their journal and that you are interested specifically in their journal. Sometimes great science will be reviewed regardless of the cover letter, but a well written cover letter is useful for the vast majority of scientists who want to make their research stand out.

Best of luck with your research! If you have any questions about your cover letter, write us anytime.

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Cover Letter for Journal Submission Templates

Download a Microsoft Word template for a standard journal cover letter (also available with instructions in Chinese , Japanese , Korean , Portuguese , and Spanish ).

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If you are comfortable using templates, we offer Word and LaTeX templates for monographs as well as for contributed books. If you prefer not to use a template, please follow the alternate instructions given under the appropriate template below.

When writing a book for Springer, please do not worry about the final layout. To ensure we always keep pace with all the requirements both online and in print, Springer

• structures the content in XML as the basis for presentation in print or in digital formats for such devices as Amazon Kindle™, Apple iPad™/iPhone™, and Google Android™
• utilizes standard layouts with style specifications suitable for multiple display formats.

What advantages do these provide for you in manuscript preparation? It means you can focus on the structured content and let Springer take care of the rest . We will professionally prepare your book with underlying XML structuring, in such a way that ensures your content becomes not only a professionally typeset printed work but is also available to readers in numerous formats for many years to come.

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Springer provides templates for Word users that help structure the manuscript, e.g., define the heading hierarchy. If you are using Microsoft Word to prepare your manuscript, you do not need to use any special tool for preparation. Please just ensure that the document is clearly structured visually, (e.g., using heading styles, lists, footnotes, etc.). We also provide a Manuscript preparation tool for Word.

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Springer provides templates for LaTeX users that help structure the manuscript, e.g., define the heading hierarchy. Predefined style formats are available for all the necessary structures that are supposed to be part of the manuscript, and these formats can be quickly accessed via hotkeys or special toolbars.

Note: are not intended for the preparation of the final page layout. The final layout will be created by Springer according to our layout specifications.

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L Key Style Points August 2023 To guarantee a smooth publication process and a seamless transformation of your manuscript into the final layout and various electronic platforms, the manuscript needs to be structured as follows:

• Front Matter: Title page, Dedication, Foreword, Preface, Acknowledgments, About the book/conference, Table of Contents, About the Author (for authored books), About the Editor/List of Contributors (for edited books), List of Abbreviations, List of Figures and/or Tables

The title page and table of contents must appear in the manuscript’s front matter. All other sections listed above are optional. The above order is not flexible. We have defined this order as our house style and optimized our publication process to follow it strictly.

• Text Body: It comprises the chapters containing the content of the book, i.e. text, figures, tables, and references. Chapters can be grouped together in parts.
• Back Matter: After the last chapter, the back matter can contain an appendix, a glossary, and/or an index, all of which are optional.

Front matter

Title page, preface, and table of contents precede the actual content of a book. The preface should be about the book: why it was written, who it is for, its organization, or the selection of contributors. An introduction in the subject of the book, however, should appear as the first chapter of the book.

Please include all author/editor names, their affiliations, the book title, and the subtitle. Ensure that the sequence of the author names is correct and the title of your book is final when you submit your manuscript. Once the manuscript has been delivered to Production, changes to title, subtitle, or authorship are no longer possible.

If you intend to include a foreword, please submit it with the manuscript.

• A foreword is usually written by an authority in the subject and serves as a recommendation for the book
• The name of the foreword’s contributor is always given at the end of the foreword; affiliations and titles are generally not included, but the date and place of writing may be.

The preface should be about the book: why its important, why it was written, who it is for. It should stimulate interest in the book.

• Front matter material is not listed in the table of contents.
• List all parts, chapters, and back matter material (e.g., an index) in their final sequence.
• If your chapters are numbered, use Arabic numerals and number the chapters consecutively throughout the book (Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc.), i.e., do not start anew with each part. The introductory chapter must be listed as Chapter 1, if your chapters are numbered. Please do not use subchapters.
• In authored books we present two heading levels under the main chapter titles. In edited books, we present the chapter titles and the chapter author names.
• If there are parts, use Roman numerals for parts (Part I, Part II, etc.). Parts consist of a short title and can contain a short introductory text (optional). Please don’t use subparts.

Chapters contain the actual content of the book, i.e., text, figures, tables, and references. Chapters can be grouped together in parts; subparts are not possible. Only one chapter (e.g. an introduction) may precede the first part and would be the first chapter.

• Decide the numbering style for the chapters and apply this style consistently to all chapters: consecutively numbered (monographs or textbooks) or unnumbered (contributed volumes).
• If an introduction to the subject of the book (historical background, definitions, or methodology) is included, it should appear as the first chapter and thus be included in the chapter numbering. It can contain references, figures, and tables, just as any other chapter.

Either British or American English can be used, but be consistent within your chapter or book. In contributed books chapter-specific consistency is accepted Check for consistent spelling of names, terms and abbreviations, including in tables and figure legends.

For contributed volumes, please include each chapter authors’ names (spelled out as they would be cited), affiliations and e-mail addresses and telephone numbers after the chapter title. Ensure that the sequence of the author names is correct and the title of your book is final when you submit your manuscript. Please supply all emails, telephone numbers and address of each author and editor. Once the manuscript has been delivered to production, changes to title or authorship are no longer possible.

Chapter abstracts are strongly encouraged because they have been proven to significantly increase a book’s visibility. Good abstracts will mean that more people read your book. These will appear online at SpringerLink and other sites and will be available with unrestricted access to facilitate online searching (e.g., Google) and allow unregistered users to read the abstract as a teaser for the complete chapter.

If no abstract is submitted, we will use the first paragraph of the chapter instead.

Some books also publish keywords. Please check with the editor of your book or with the publishing editor to see if keywords are required.

• Heading levels should be clearly identified and each level should be uniquely and consistently formatted and/or numbered.
• Use the decimal system of numbering if your headings are numbered.
• Never skip a heading level. The only exception are run-in headings which can be used at any hierarchical level.
• Technical terms and abbreviations should be defined the first time they appear in the text.
• Please always use internationally accepted signs and symbols for units (also called SI units).
• Numerals should follow the British/American method of decimal points to indicate decimals and commas to separate thousands

Manuscripts will be checked by a copy editor for formal style. Springer Nature follows certain layouts and standards with regard to the presentation of the content, and the copy editors make sure that the manuscript conforms to these styles. When you receive the page proofs during the production of your book, please do not make changes that involve only matters of style.

• Italics should be used for emphasized words or phrases in running text, but do not format entire paragraphs in italics. 
• Use italics for species and genus names, mathematical/physical variables, and prefixes in chemical compounds. 
• Bold formatting should only be used for run-in headings and small capitals for indicating optical activity (D- and L-dopa). 
• Sans serif (e.g., Arial) and nonproportional font (e.g., Courier) can be used to distinguish the literal text of computer programs from running text.
• Do not set entire pages as boxes, because this diminishes online readability.
• Do not set entire pages as boxes, because this affects online readability. 
• For additional didactic elements such as examples, questions, exercises, summaries, or key messages in textbooks and in professional books, please use a consistent style for each of these elements and submit a list of the styles used together with your manuscript. For LaTeX users please use the Springer Nature macro package to highlight these elements.
• In Word, use the Math function, MathType, or Microsoft Equation editor to create your equations. Please don’t include the equations as images.
• In LaTeX, use the Math environment to create your equations.
• Give each table a heading (caption). Add a reference to the table source at the end of the caption if necessary.
• Number tables consecutively using the chapter number (e.g. Table 1.1 for the first table in Chapter 1) and ensure that all tables are cited in the text in sequential order. Do not write “the following table”.
• Use the table function to create and format tables. Do not use the space bar or multiple tabs to separate columns and please do not use Excel to create tables as this can cause problems when converting your tables into the typesetting program and other formats.

Figures and illustrations

Number the figures using the chapter number (e.g. Fig. 1.1 for the first figure in Chap. 1) and ensure that all figures are cited in the text in sequential order. Do not write “the following figure”.

• Give each figure a concise caption, describing accurately what the figure depicts. Include the captions at the end of the text file, not in the figure file.
• Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs instead of color lines.
• If a figure is reproduced from a previous publication, include the source as the last item in the caption.
• A figure is an object that is drawn or photographed; it does not consist solely of characters and thus cannot be keyed.
• Do not submit tabular material as figures.
• Graphics and diagrams should be saved as EPS file with the fonts embedded. MS Office files (Excel or PowerPoint) can be submitted in the original format (xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx). Scanned graphics in TIFF format should have a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi.
• Photos or drawings with fine shading should be saved as TIFF with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.
• A combination of halftone and line art (e.g., photos containing line drawing or extensive lettering, color diagrams, etc.) should be saved as TIFF with a minimum resolution of 600 dpi.

Cite references in the text with author name/s and year of publication in parentheses (“Harvard system”)

• One author: (Miller 1991) or Miller (1991)
• Two authors: (Miller and Smith 1994) or Miller and Smith (1994)
• Three authors or more: (Miller et al. 1995) or Miller et al. (1995)

If it is customary in your field, you can also cite with reference numbers in square brackets either sequential by citation or according to the sequence in an alphabetized list: [3, 7, 12].

Include a reference list at the end of each chapter so that readers of single chapters of the eBook can make full use of the citations. References at the end of the book cannot be linked to citations in the chapters. Please do not include reference lists at the end of a chapter section, at the end of a book part, in a preface or an appendix.

Include all works that are cited in the chapter and that have been published (including on the internet) or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text. Do not use footnotes as a substitute for a reference list.

Entries in the list must be listed alphabetically except in the numbered system of sequential citation. The rules for alphabetization are:

• First, all works by the author alone, ordered chronologically by year of publication
• Next, all works by the author with a coauthor, ordered alphabetically by coauthor
• Finally, all works by the author with several coauthors, ordered chronologically by year of publication

Springer Nature follows certain standards with regard to the presentation of the reference list. They are based on reference styles that were established for various disciplines in the past and have been adjusted to facilitate automated processing and citation linking. This allows us, for example, to easily cross link the cited references with the original publication. References will be revised in production in accordance with these house styles. 

Choose the appropriate style for your subject from the list below. Please note that the adapted and standardized forms are based on, but differ slightly from, certain recommended styles (e.g., APA, Chicago)

Back matter

After the last chapter, the back matter of the book can contain an appendix, a glossary or an index.

Do not include a reference list containing the cited literature in the back matter, as references are then not linked to citations in the chapters. Instead, please include reference lists at the end of each chapter. A list of further reading may be included in the back matter.

An appendix cannot include a reference list.

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A well-written cover letter clearly explains why the submission will be of interest to the journal's readers.

It should also be used to highlight any potential issues such as related manuscripts currently under consideration in any other Springer Nature publication, as well as indicating whether you have had any prior discussions with a Springer Nature editor about the work described in the manuscript.

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Cover letter checklist:

• Check the journal’s Instructions for Authors for any cover letter requirements on the journals homepage.
• Address the editor who will be assessing your manuscript by their name, if known.
• Include the date of submission and the journal you are submitting to.
• First paragraph: Include the title and article type (e.g. review, research, case study)  and briefly explain the background and question you sought out to answer and why.
• Second paragraph: Concisely explain what was done, the main findings and why they are significant.
• Third paragraph: Indicate why the readers of the journal would be interested in the work by showing how your study fulfils the aims and scope of the journal and point out the importance of it. 
• To conclude, state the corresponding author and any journal-specific requirements that need to be complied with (e. g. ethical standards).
• All cover letters should contain these sentences: "We confirm that this manuscript has not been published elsewhere and is not under consideration by another journal. All authors have approved the manuscript and agree with its submission to [insert the name of the target journal]."

For more detailed information, please check How to submit a journal article: Cover letters . 

For a complete tutorial on article submissions, please check Submitting a journal manuscript and peer review .

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• Published: 17 October 2022

Dos and don’ts in a cover letter

Nature Computational Science volume  2 ,  page 617 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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How to write an effective cover letter.

When authors submit their papers to Nature Computational Science , they have the option to upload a cover letter to accompany their submission. Interestingly, while most authors choose to upload one, many of the cover letters that we receive lack the sort of information that we are often looking for. Hence, we would like to use this Editorial to provide guidance to our authors and readers on what to include — and on what not to include — in a cover letter.

The cover letter provides an excellent opportunity to briefly discuss the importance of the submitted manuscript and why it is appropriate for the journal. While our editorial team consists of professional, full-time editors with diverse scientific backgrounds and PhD degrees, and who are fully capable of assessing various types of work, we encourage our authors to provide more information that can help us to further understand the importance of the problem being addressed, the novelty of the method and results, and the practical value of the proposed approach. Of course, it goes without saying that the manuscript itself should be clear on these aspects, but the cover letter provides more space for authors to point out related work and to explain in more detail the scientific advance reported in the paper.

It is important to note that cover letters are visible to the editors but not to referees. Accordingly, authors can (and should!) use cover letters to provide confidential information, such as conflicts of interest and suggestions of referees, and to identify any related manuscripts that are in press or that were submitted elsewhere. Authors can also indicate in the cover letter whether or not they have engaged in discussions about their work with one of our editors; this can be used by the chief editor when assigning a primary editor to the manuscript, for example.

Considerations regarding data and code availability are also useful to include in a cover letter. At Nature Computational Science , we see both data and code as essential aspects of a manuscript, and as a matter of fact, we perform code peer review . On that account, if there are any limitations on sharing data and code that editors should be aware of, this can be brought to our attention in the cover letter.

Of course, cover letters are not only used during the first stage of submission. When working on a revised version of a manuscript, authors can reply to our revision requests in a cover letter; they can also better explain which reviewers’ requests they addressed and which requests were not addressed (and why) in a more confidential manner. If authors decide to appeal against our decision on a manuscript, the cover letter should be used to explain in detail the scientific arguments for reconsideration.

Some words of caution are worth highlighting. While there is no specific word limit for cover letters, authors should be mindful to not overload editors with information. The text should be concise and lay out the main points that complement the submitted manuscript: authors should steer clear of repeating information that is already present in the abstract and introduction. In addition, there are some pieces of information that should be ideally avoided in a cover letter, such as endorsements from other researchers, statements overselling the proposed approach (no paradigm shifts, please!), and blunt comparisons with other papers published by the Nature Portfolio family: the focus should be primarily on the scientific arguments when explaining the significance of the research.

While some may consider cover letters an archaic form of communication, at Nature Computational Science we deem them to be an important asset to the submission process, and we encourage all of our authors to consider writing one when submitting their manuscripts.

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Dos and don’ts in a cover letter. Nat Comput Sci 2 , 617 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-022-00348-4

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How to Write an Effective Cover Letter for Journal Submission | Example Cover Letter

When submitting your manuscript to a journal, it is important to include a well-written cover letter which could help your paper to reach the next level of the process. A good cover letter can voice your manuscript on behalf of you to the journal editor. You can take this opportunity to describe why your manuscript will be of importance and interesting to the journal’s readers, which is something that every journal editor looks for. Therefore, it is worth spending time to write a coherent and convincing cover letter for journal article submission. This article provides the best cover letter example format for your easy understanding.

Before start writing your cover letter, check the instructions for authors of your journal for any specific information to be included in the cover letter. Some journals suggest including few additional details in the cover letter.

The cover letter should claim that your article is a good fit for the journal and it should highlight your major research findings. Specify the theme or scope of the journal under which you are submitting the manuscript. The author should assure the editor that there are no conflicts of interest to publish your manuscript.

To help you with this, iLovePhD imparts you how to write an effective cover letter to a journal for research article submission, providing examples of what should be included, what should not be included, and a sample template of the cover letter.

Key points to include:

• Editor’s name (you can find this on the journal webpage ).
• Name of the journal
• Your article’s title
• Brief description of the novelty of the research and emphasis on your major research findings.
• A statement that your paper is not currently under consideration by another journal
• Contact information for you and any co-authors
• Confirm that you have no conflicts of interest
• A list of potential reviewers (If asked by the journal)
• Any researchers/reviewers who should not review your manuscript (If asked by the journal)

Points to avoid:

• Keep your cover letter to a maximum of one page (brief introduction and overview).
• Don’t copy your abstract into your cover letter; instead explain significance and novelty of your work in your own words.
• Don’t use too much jargon or acronyms; instead use simple, easy and straightforward language.
• Avoid spelling and grammar errors and ensure your letter is professional before submitting.

Example Cover Letter for Journal Submission

The best cover letter example for any publication (elsevier, wiley, IEEE, springer, pubmed, taylor and francis, and SAGE ) shown below:

Dr. / Prof. (Editor’s name)

Editor-in-Chief

Journal name

Dear Dr. /Prof. ( Editor’s name)

I/we wish to submit a research manuscript entitled “(title of research article)” for publishing in your esteemed journal. ( Briefly describe your research work in your own words. Don’t paste your abstract here. Clearly explain the novelty of your work and its significance and the reason to choose this journal for publication .)

I/we declare that all the authors ( all the authors’ name ) of this manuscript agreed to submit the manuscript to the journal ( Journal name ). We also agree to transfer copyright from the authors to the journal. The manuscript has been prepared as per the journal’s guidelines and checked for language correction.

I/we do confirm that this work is original and the manuscript is not currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Please address all the correspondence pertaining to this manuscript to me at ( email address ).

Thanking you

( Your name )

I Hope, this article helps you to know how to write an effective cover letter with an example to a journal for research article submission.

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