Cover Letter

The format of the compulsory cover letter forms part of your submission. It should always be presented in English. You should provide the following elements:

Journal Submissions Cover Letter

Professor Tikhonova
Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Head of the Editorial Team
Journal of Language & Education

August 13, 2024

 

Dear Prof. Tikhonova,

(1) 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 "Ivanov et al."), and article type (e.g., original paper). Be sure to use the journal's own terminology to refer to the article type.

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".

(2) Summary of main research findings and implications

Summarize the purpose of your research (the research gap and 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.

Be sure to tailor your statements so that they're in line with the readership of the journal.

Avoid simply reproducing sentences verbatim from 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. 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.

Summarising 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…
  • Our findings confirm that…
  • We have determined that…
  • Our results suggest…
  • We found that…
  • We illustrate…
  • Our findings reveal…
  • Our study clarifies…
  • Our research corroborates…
  • Our results establish…

Include context about why this research question had to be addressed

e.g., Given the ongoing challenge educators face in establishing appropriate criteria to diagnose the onset of depression in teenagers, we recognized the need to develop a cost-effective and universally applicable methodology that local school administrators can utilize to screen students. 

If your paper was prompted by prior research, state this

After initially researching X, Y approached us to conduct a follow-up study that examined Z. While pursuing this project, we discovered [some new understanding that made you decide the information needed to be shared with your peers via publication.

e.g., Given the alarming rise in depression rates among teenagers and the absence of a standardized, practical screening test for students, we believe that the findings in our paper will be of significant interest to education policymakers who read The Journal of Language & Education. While previous research has suggested several potential methods for depression screening, such as X and Y, the implementation of these methods has proven to be both cost-prohibitive and challenging to administer on a national scale. Our findings aim to provide your readers with a deeper understanding of the factors involved in detecting the early signs of depression in teenagers and offer more cost-effective screening procedures that can be implemented across the country. In doing so, we hope our research contributes to the development of tools necessary to address the concerns that many school administrators currently face.

Similar works to be mentioned to notify the editor

This manuscript expands on the prior research conducted and published by [Authors] in [Journal Name]” or “This paper [examines a different aspect of]/ [takes a different approach to] the issues explored in the following papers also published by [Journal Name].”

  1. Article 1
  2. Article 2
  3. Article 3

Highlighting the relevance of your findings for the journal

Given that [context that prompted your research], we believe that the findings presented in our paper will appeal to the [Reader Profile] who subscribe to [Journal Name]. Our findings will allow your readers to [identify the aspects of the journal’s Aim and Scope that align with your paper].

(3) Statements or information required by the journal

Describe any prior interactions 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…
  • John Ivanov, one of the authors, discussed the topic [….] with an editor […] at a conference…

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.

Authorship (use CREDIT system to describe the authors’ roles)

  • John Ivanov:  conceived the study, analyzed the data, and drafted the manuscript;
  • Andy Carft: analyzed the data…

Suggested Reviewers

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

e.g. Should you select our manuscript for peer review, we would like to suggest the following potential reviewers/referees because they would have the requisite background to evaluate our findings and interpretation objectively.

  • [Name, institution, email, expertise]
  • [Name, institution, email, expertise]
  • [Name, institution, email, expertise]

To the best of our knowledge, none of the above-suggested persons have any conflict of interest, financial or otherwise.

Demonstration of the authors' level of competence in the subject area

List of relevant works by you or your co-authors that have been previously published or are under consideration by other journals. 

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…

Submission approvement

All authors have approved the manuscript and agree with its submission to Journal of Language and Education.

Provide all the authors names and their signatures.

(4) Closing salutation and your contact information

 

Corresponding Author
Institution Title
Institution/Affiliation Name
[Institution Address]
[Your e-mail address]

Additional Contact [should the corresponding author not be available]
Institution Title
Institution/Affiliation Name
[Institution Address]
[Your e-mail address]