How to write a normal letter to the editor of the media. How to write a cover letter to the editor Cover letter to the editor of a magazine sample

Today, scientific work is not only about laboratory experiments and fundamental research. It is important that other scientists, science lovers, government representatives - in a word, the public - learn about the discoveries. To “promote” their work, scientists write articles in scientific journals, which also serve as a measure of the relevance of the research: scientific articles of different quality and topic end up in different journals. However, writing scientific articles is not a flight of creativity, but a structured process that has its own rules. If you do not follow them, the material will be incomplete and uninteresting, which means thatit will not be accessed by other researchers. And this, in turn, missed opportunities for promising collaborations with other scientists and presentations at conferences. In other words, scientists today must also be good communicators, that is, they must correctly convey their ideas to the public. Jeffrey Robens, development manager at Springer Nature, spoke about how to write articles so that they are accepted by major scientific journals at an open seminar at ITMO University, organized by the university’s Center for Scientific Communication.

Four questions that need to be answered in the article

These are exactly the questions that readers want to know the answers to. Articles need to be structured in accordance with them.

1. Why is research important? You answer this question in the introduction.
2. What was done during the study? The answer to the question is a description of the research methodology.
3. What did you find out? In this part you share the results of your work.
4. How the research will affect the development of the scientific field within which it was conducted. Here you describe how your results can contribute to the further development of research in the field, what practical implications they may have, what additional research they may generate, and what questions they raise for other scientists or the public.

How to clearly communicate the reasons for the research

You should also explain your motivation clearly. There are three most common reasons why scientists conduct research:

1. identification of something unknown;
2. overcoming any existing limitations in physical, chemical, or any other systems;
3. discussion (adding knowledge) on a topic.

In addition, you must outline the goals of the study: what problems you want to solve. And also write conclusions. Many people think that a conclusion is simply a summary of everything that has already been written. But that's not true. The conclusion is the answer to the question or problem you posed at the beginning of the article. If you didn't write this answer, it's like you left the reader of a suspense novel with an open ending. People who read your articles want to know the solution you come to.

Why you need to think about which journal to submit your article to

You definitely need to think in advance about which journal you want to submit your article to, and not submit it to the first one you come across or to the largest one just because it is famous. Why? Because publishers will not accept articles that are not of interest to their target audience. It is important for journal publishers that articles in journals are downloaded, discussed, and cited, otherwise the journal will not receive income. That's why:

1. If you are submitting a paper to a major journal that is read by scientists around the world, you must show how the problem you solve is relevant to the global community of scientists. Because if you are solving a problem that is specific only to your region, then it is better to publish an article in a regional journal.
2. It is also important to consider how specific the topics the magazine covers. Because there are journals, for example, that specialize in many topics, and there is no need to send highly specialized articles there. It is better to send them to those publishing houses that specialize in your topic.

By choosing the right magazine, you will save time not only for yourself, but also for the editors. After all, they will trash your article as soon as they realize that it is not suitable for the target audience, no matter how revolutionary the ideas are presented in it.

How to write an introduction

The most important thing is to answer the question why this study needed to be conducted. It is imperative to describe some background on the problem you are solving, because not all readers may be familiar with the specifics of the issue under study. Additionally, describing what has already been done in your field will show that you have some expertise on the topic and understand how relevant your research is. It is necessary to link to articles for each statement that you attribute to other scientists. By describing what is happening on your topic in the scientific community, you immediately point out what other problems exist, and you show the solution to these problems in your article. This is the reason for your research - to solve some existing problem in your field.

How to describe the methodology

Authors often say that describing the research methodology is the easiest part of the paper to write. After all, you just need to tell them what they did. But this is not enough. You must not only describe your actions, but show that you have expertise in this area. How to do it?

1. Write about what you expected from certain experiments, calculations, and what hypotheses you built.
2. Describe the challenges you encountered while conducting the research and how you resolved them. This will also help other scientists avoid making the same mistakes you did. By sharing this information with your colleagues, you will gain their respect.
3. Tell where readers can access the different databases you used and any other relevant information.

How to describe the results

Don't assume that any patterns or trends that emerge from your work that are obvious to you are also obvious to your readers. Readers are busy people and may be reading your article amidst many distractions, so you must interpret your results clearly. Describe what these or those discoveries and calculations you made mean. What further applications might they have? Maybe the results you obtained help solve a pressing applied problem?

At the same time, you should not be afraid to describe negative results, for example, when some of your hypotheses were not confirmed. You just need to show your expertise here and describe how these negative results can be used. For example, they can pose new questions to scientists, encouraging them to explore related topics that may provide the answers they need. In addition, by describing your negative experience, you will prevent your colleagues from repeating your mistakes, which will increase the level of trust in you as a scientist. After all, a scientist’s time is valuable - let him solve new problems rather than repeat other people’s mistakes. It will also increase your credibility as a scientific author. After all, editors are also experts in your field, and they may wonder why you didn’t do this or that experiment, because it seems so obvious? But if you show that you also thought that this experiment would give positive results, conducted it, but did not get the expected effect, this will significantly elevate you in the eyes of the editor.

How to write a conclusion

The most important thing is to once again emphasize the significance of your research in the context of global scientific work on the same topic. You should also describe the key discoveries and results that you arrived at, but identify no more than two main aspects. They won't remember anymore anyway. Describe how they can be used by other scientists in their research. In conclusion, general conclusions cannot be drawn. You must write specifically. There is no need to write phrases like “this will improve our understanding of the field” or “this opens up new tasks for us.” What tasks? How will your research advance knowledge of the topic?

How to write a title

The title and summary of the article (abstract) are very important because this is what people pay attention to first. Authors often say that writing a headline is the hardest thing. You need to be able to talk about your research in one sentence, and this is very easy to do if you cover three things:

1. some conditions that affect the subject of the study;
2. what changes were studied, what effects;
3. object of study.

For example, take the sentence “The effects of humidity on surface roughness of silicon dioxide.” Here we see the conditions - this is “humidity”, we see what characteristics and changes were studied - this is “surface roughness”, and also the object of study is “silicon dioxide”. The topic of the research becomes clear and understandable; it immediately contains keywords by which every reader can quickly understand what the article will be about and what its authors did. In addition, the presence of keywords in the title will help you quickly find articles in different search aggregators.

A couple of tips. Don't make the title longer than 20 words. Don't put questions in the headlines - your readers already have all the questions in their heads, they want to read the answers. Avoid using abbreviations in headings. Do not use the word “new”, because it is already clear that in the article you are describing some new results. Don’t write abstruse titles - make them as simple, specific and understandable as possible.

How to write an article abstract (abstract)

The abstract is what your colleagues will read first. And this is your only chance to get them to read the entire article. Therefore, it is important in the summary to show that the text of the article deserves the scientist’s precious time. And sometimes scientists do not read anything more than the abstract, but even on the basis of this information they may want to collaborate with the author. In the summary, you again need to be precise and concise and follow the same formula as when writing the body of the article, but fit all the most important things into four sentences.

How to write a cover letter to the editor of a magazine

Editors of scientific journals are very busy people. Most of them combine this activity with their main job as a professor at a university or a researcher at a research center. According to statistics, they spend up to five hours a week on editorial work. Therefore, you must make every effort to stand out from all the other scientists who submit articles for publication. A cover letter accompanying the text of your article can help with this. In it you:

1. write a full appeal to the editor, taking into account his titles and positions. This shows that you spent time finding out who will read your article.
2. Then you indicate the article with which title you are offering for publication.
3. Please indicate what type of publication the article is. This could be "article" or "letter". The first format implies a deeper and larger-scale study, while the second is used to describe scientific work on less complex issues.
4. Briefly describe the same thing as in your article, just do it in three to four sentences. And here it is better to generalize, describe more general conclusions, because the editors already have your article in which they can look at the specifics.
5. It is important to emphasize that this article has not been published anywhere before, and that all its authors agreed to publication in this journal. This will show that you follow scientific ethics.
6. Provide an extended signature with all your affiliations.
7. The letter should not exceed one A4 sheet, written in a normal font size of 10-12 points. Condite the letter into PDF and title it something like this: “Your last name_covering letter.”

Remember that a good article that appears in the right journal will provide you not only with citations, but will also allow you to get new collaborations with other scientists, increasing your authority and recognition.

Those who have at least once submitted an article for consideration to a foreign journal may have seen the requirement to send a cover letter to the editor. Many scientists ignore this point, but in vain, because it can significantly help in the publication of your article!
This letter, first of all, is necessary in order to attract the attention of the editor-in-chief, who decides whether to give the manuscript to reviewers or not. For this purpose, accompanied by The letter must include the following information:
1) The title of your article and the name of the journal where you are submitting it;
2) The reason(s) why you consider your research significant for world science, and why it may be of interest to potential readers of the journal;
3) The main results and conclusions that you come to in your work;
4) Confirmation that your article has not been submitted in parallel to other journals for review and has not been previously published in other journals;
5) Confirmation that the authors of the work have no conflict of interest.
The structure of the letter should look like this:
date
Address
Contacting the editor (For example, Dear Dr. Brown or Dear Editor)
Main text
Conclusion (For example, Kind regards or Thank you)
Signature (full name, scientific degree, university, email, website)
The cover letter should not exceed 1 A4 page. This letter should not contain requests, complaints, and, especially, insults. Present the information as briefly as possible; there is no need to describe your biography and work achievements here either. The principle “brevity is the sister of talent” is more than appropriate here.

Dear friends!

The actual letter:

1. Greet the recipient of your letter. If you are writing to a specific editor, indicate the name, if to a general address, then “Hello, dear editors of (name of the media)!”

2. Introduce yourself. In addition to your first and last name, it is worth indicating what connects you with the topic of your publication. If you are an expert (psychologist, business trainer, coach, marketer, IT specialist, etc.) and the topic of the publication is related to your professional activity, then indicate your profession and work experience (For example: I am a business coach, I have been spending the last 5 years trainings and seminars on topics...) . Briefly, literally in one sentence, without a detailed summary.
If you write on topics unrelated to your professional activity, then explain your interest in it. For example, “I have been following a healthy lifestyle for more than 10 years,” “I travel a lot,” “I recently went skydiving,” etc.

3. Write the title of the article and what it is about. For example: “I wrote an article “After 25 years of marriage, I did it” about my personal experience of struggling with excess weight and would like to propose it for publication.”

4. Write why your article will interest readers. There may be options here:
— you continue a topic on which there are already publications on the selected resource; in this case, it is worth indicating what is new about what you wrote. For example: “I view the fight against excess weight as a business project and draw analogies with the business approach and terminology”;
— you believe that the resource lacks some topic that will be of interest to the audience, or it is not sufficiently covered; then justify it.
This point allows you to demonstrate to the editor that you have studied the resource before submitting the article, and that you are familiar with the topics, style and format of publications. Here you can mention that you are a reader of the resource and follow the publications with interest.

5. An important point - ask for feedback. You could say: “I would appreciate your feedback. If for some reason the article is not suitable for publication, please let me know.” This doesn't guarantee an answer, but it does make it more likely.

6. Signature.

It should be remembered that editors receive dozens of letters from authors every day. Therefore, be concise. If you already have publications, you can provide links to them AFTER your signature. There you can give a brief summary of your expertise.
Screenshots of several of my letters are in the comments. If you have questions, ask them in the comments to this post.

This article outlines the problems and issues associated with the process of preparing scientific articles for publication. Why should you publish in VAK journals? How to write a VAK article so that it is published? How to negotiate with the editors of the VAK journal? You will learn about this and much more by reading the article...

“How can a candidate for an academic degree competently and intelligently write a good, suitable scientific article?”, “how can a graduate student publish his first article in a scientific peer-reviewed journal?”- these and other numerous tips from the luminaries of science are replete with the Internet...

In addition, you should pay attention to one important aspect: articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals not from the “VAK list” bring little “profit” to the applicant for an academic degree. And this despite the fact that all these publications in scientific journals not from the “VAK list” fully comply with the requirements that “ the main scientific results of the dissertation must be published in scientific journals" However, if an applicant for the academic degree of Candidate of Sciences already has three VAK publications in his hands, and there are four texts of reports published in the proceedings of all-Russian or international conferences (even by correspondence), then these publications are quite enough for him to defend his dissertation. However, each chairman or academic secretary of the dissertation council may have his own “ personal, modest" opinion about the required number of scientific publications for an applicant for an academic degree and this factor of uncertainty also needs to be taken into account...

In order to write a scientific article for a peer-reviewed journal, a graduate student and applicant need to determine a strategy for preparing the article. And we can indicate two such basic strategies: “ writing a research article" And " borrowing material for an article from the text of a dissertation».

If the applicant for an academic degree is guided research paper writing strategy, then each such scientific article is initially prepared for publication in a peer-reviewed journal as a logically completed study of a specific scientific problem or as an independent and original solution to any theoretical/scientific-practical problem in any field of knowledge. In a scientific article, the author presents fundamentally new research results that may be of significant and significant interest to the scientific community or practitioners. In such a scientific article, the author informs about his own results of experimental developments, summarizes his research experience, and also provides an analytical review of information and sources on the issues under study.

In this case, as a rule, the article is initially written for a specific scientific peer-reviewed journal, and work on the article is planned in advance by the applicant as an independent study for a period of from a week to several months, the results of which will be included in the text of the dissertation. Thus, the applicant initially assumes that the text of his future dissertation will consist of several research articles, significantly expanded and supplemented. And, in this case, in the future, when including articles in the text of the dissertation, the applicant for an academic degree will have to significantly rework these articles of his already published in scientific peer-reviewed journals, so that in the text of his dissertation stylistic differences between chapters and sections are not visible, but the the dissertation was a complete, logically consistent and holistic, comprehensive scientific work (that is, the dissertation must " have internal unity»).

However, most applicants for the academic degree of candidate of XXX sciences, for one reason or another, do not have the opportunity to write research articles and therefore they simply collect and process the found sources and literature, then compose a “fish” of the text or individual chapters of the dissertation, and then proceed to correcting and stylistic text processing. And only then do these applicants “cut out” the most “juicy” passages from the text of the dissertation and publish them in peer-reviewed scientific journals from the list of the Higher Attestation Commission, in which the main scientific results of dissertations for the scientific degrees of Doctor and Candidate of Sciences should be published.

As they say, both methods of preparing scientific articles for publication are good, however, the applicant for an academic degree can only diligently and carefully prepare the text of the article for publication so that it is guaranteed to be accepted for publication in a journal included in the List of Higher Attestation Commissions. First, the applicant needs to come up with an original title for the article. However, it is often very difficult to immediately choose an attractive and conceptually correct title for an article. Therefore, to begin with, it is enough to write down the “working” title of the article or the “concept” of the title, which are revealed in the article and reflect the direction of the research that is described in the article. Subsequently, while working on an article (if you follow the first above-mentioned strategy) or editing the finished text of the dissertation to meet the requirements of a specific journal (if you follow second strategy mentioned above), the applicant needs to make sure that the title of the article accurately reflects its content and that “clichés”, contradictions and ambiguity in the title have been avoided. In addition, you must write an annotation or summary (summary of the article) for the article, which reflects the concept (main idea) of the article and several keywords ( keywords), which briefly reflect the main idea of ​​the article, and will also help to present the material of the article more accurately and concisely. At the same time, the applicant should take into account that it is precisely by keywords that his article will subsequently be indexed in search engines.

Many editorial offices of scientific and technical journals have introduced mandatory indexing of all publications according to the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC). Therefore, at the beginning of the article it is recommended to indicate the UDC classifier.

Unfortunately or fortunately, it is tedious and detailed to explain how a scientific article should be structured - a clearly graceless task. Because in order to write or compose a scientific article from a finished text, you need to read at least several articles on similar topics and research problems. Moreover, the methods of writing articles differ significantly from each other in various scientific disciplines. And yet, the text " spherical scientific article in vacuum"consists of an introductory part to the research topic, analysis of sources and literature on the topic of research, formulation of a research hypothesis, description of the research methodology, specification of the research results obtained and their explanation, summarizing the findings and conclusions, as well as a list of sources and literature, in accordance with the requirements International standard ISO 690:1987 (« Documentation. Bibliographical references. Content, form and structure"), GOST 2.105-95 (“General requirements for text documents”), GOST 7.89-2005 (“Text originals of authorship and publishing”) and GOST R 7.0.5-2008 (“Bibliographic reference. General requirements and rules of compilation”) . After completing work on compiling a scientific article, the applicant for an academic degree needs to check its spelling and style, while avoiding vernacular and “bureaucratic language”.

So, the scientific article is ready. Next, the applicant for an academic degree will have to undergo lengthy and tedious negotiations with the editors of the Higher Attestation Commission (VAK) journal. First, you need to select VAK journals that meet the profile of your article. It is noteworthy that in the new List of Higher Attestation Commissions, journals are not linked to a specialty. However, according to Dr. O.Ya. Kravets, " all scientific periodicals included in the new edition of the List are recommended for the publication of the main scientific results of dissertations for the scientific degree of Doctor and Candidate of Sciences by profile [emphasis mine] scientific periodical" Accordingly, on the website of the Higher Attestation Commission under the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation it is noted that “ editor of journals included in the List of leading peer-reviewed scientific journals and publications in which the main scientific results of dissertations for the academic degrees of Doctor and Candidate of Sciences should be published […] provide information about the scientific areas of the journal, in which expert evaluation of manuscripts is carried out by the reviewing institute of this publication". That is, according to the FAQ from the Higher Attestation Commission (information message from the Higher Attestation Commission: “Answers to frequently asked questions”), “ all scientific periodicals included in the new edition of the List are recommended for publications in the areas of the journal for which expert evaluation of manuscripts is carried out by the reviewing institute of this publication". As a rule, the editors of HAC journals inform on their web pages and in the journal issues themselves about compliance with the nomenclature of scientific specialties. To find a suitable VAK journal for your socio-humanitarian specialty, you can look at.

Despite the declarative statements of the editors of HAC journals about free publications for graduate students, if an applicant urgently, quickly and decisively needs to publish his article, it makes sense to include the following phrase in the cover email to the editors of the HAC journal: “ Under what conditions are you ready to publish the article? Ready to pay the cost of publication or purchase a subscription to the publication" However, some executive secretaries from editorial offices really like it when people call them, but do not respond to emails out of principle. The editors of many VAK journals require the applicant author to provide a recommendation from a scientific supervisor for the publication of an article and even an external review from a doctor of sciences on the profile of the publication. To do this, the applicant should prepare “fish” recommendations and reviews in advance, and not bother busy and respectable people with reading his “ opus" Most good, suitable and paid articles are accepted for publication immediately or after minor adjustments by the editor or reviewer from the editorial board. Well, this is roughly how graduate students and degree seekers get involved in “big science”...

How to avoid mistakes when preparing a VAK article for publication

Portal PhDRu reveals secrets - how to avoid the main mistakes when preparing a VAK article for publication...

All graduate students and candidates for the degree of candidate of science are forced to publish in VAK journals. Previously, our portal has already explained how to write a VAK article and publish it. Now recommendations on how to avoid making the most common mistakes when writing and publishing VAK articles...

When writing scientific articles, graduate students and applicants very often make the following mistakes:

Based on materials from www.imcl.ru

How to write a cover letter to the VAK journal

In this manual, graduate students and applicants will be able to find a sample cover letter to the editors of the HAC journal. The catalog of VAK journals, containing email, telephone numbers, directions and profiles of publications, can be found in the menu section “List of peer-reviewed scientific periodicals”.

Some editors of some VAK journals require a cover letter from graduate students. Especially if graduate students want to receive happiness in the form of free publication.

A covering letter to the Higher Attestation Commission journal from the organization in which the work was performed is filled out on a form signed by the rector or vice-rector for scientific work and represents a direction from the university listing the attached documents. Usually, the covering letter is accompanied by an extract from the minutes of the department meeting, which is signed by the secretary and the head. department and other documents: for example, a review by a scientific supervisor/doctor of science (and for technical articles - also an act of examination of the article/conclusion of an expert commission on the possibility of publishing materials in the open press).