https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3605-4767
Professor Gay sets out a case for the art of writing letters to a journal in order to engage in debate about the journal’s content. His editorial provides a strong steer on what makes an informative and readable letter. I would like to follow this up with a rallying call to authors to make sure they too include a letter with their submission – a covering letter.
In reviewing submissions from authors, I have noticed that a growing number do not include a covering letter. To my mind, this is a missed opportunity. I am of a very different opinion to da Silva [Citation1] and Moustafa [Citation2] who respectively think the covering letter should be declared extinct and that it is unnecessary duplication of information found elsewhere.
A covering letter is a key element of a submission and one I always look for. Writing a considered covering letter allows the authors of the paper to tell me why Education for Primary Care should publish this paper, how it is relevant to the readership and the contribution it makes to scholarship in the field. A direct pitch, if you will. Making this pitch tells me the authors have looked at the journal information, aims and scope and have thought about their choice of journal rather than ‘cold submitting’. Indeed, to re-focus Lingard’s problem/gap/hook heuristic [Citation3], the covering letter should hook my interest and point to the problem or gap. Better still, it can highlight the landscape of the literature and where this work connects. The covering letter may tell me more – affirming that the work is not under consideration elsewhere and that all authors have had a hand in it. It may even go so far as to suggest potential reviewers. For me the pitch is the most important element, so I would encourage authors to write a lean and focused covering letter, and eschew formulaic approaches.
The editorial decision to publish doesn’t stand or fall on the presence (or absence) of a covering letter, nor on the quality of that letter. Instead, it is one of many aspects of a paper that may be taken into consideration. I therefore encourage authors to make the most of the opportunity and make that pitch.
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References
- da Silva JAT. Make the cover letter extinct. J Educ Soc Res. 2015;5(2):11.
- Moustafa K. Does the cover letter really matter? Sci Eng Ethics. 2015;21:839–841.
- Lingard L. Joining a conversation: the problem/gap/hook heuristic. Perspect Med Educ. 2015;4:252–253.