【SCI专栏】千万不要学这些奇葩作者——cover letter那些事
点击上面蓝字↑↑↑关注【解螺旋】
——日读一帖，解螺旋大V团队伴你科研路
作者：解螺旋.猫老师
解螺旋出品，转载须经授权
前言
猫老师这两期的SCI专栏要给大家讲几个奇葩作者的趣事，这些可都是从SCI杂志编辑们那里听来的吐糟作者的一手囧事，大家听过笑过之后，千万别向他们学习，不然真的就死翘翘了！
SCI投稿囧事第一篇
写cover letter的故事
大家都知道投稿时候需要写一封cover letter吧，这封信审稿人是看不到的，只有编辑们能看到。Cover letter最开始出现于找工作的过程，跟resume一起寄给HR的信，它的定义是 “An introductory letter which introduces yourself, states your intent, and gives you an opportunity to summarize your skills and sell what you can offer to a company”。那么放在SCI投稿这个过程中，cover letter主要用于向编辑介绍自己的工作。那么有人要问了，cover letter和abstract哪里不同？其实，在小编看来，写的一般的cover letter就是把abstract复制了一遍，之所以叫“一般”，就是你这样写对投稿既不加分，也不减分，最多就是让编辑看了两遍abstract，无伤大雅，也不影响判断。
那么，
好的和不好的cover letter
都是神马样子的呢？
今天首先给大家分享一段cover letter的话，其实是综合了几个奇葩cover letter的混合版，如有雷同，纯属你也该打：
Greetings from xxx! I am xxx from xxx, I started my lab at the year xxx. I have won xxx prize since I found xxx in my postdoc work. I also got xxx grant in the year xxx for my proposal of xxx. I was elected as the president of xxx society at the year xxx because of xxx. （亲，你真是来投稿的吗，您是来炫耀的吧，炫耀完爽了没，拒了您再去别家杂志炫耀下吧。）
I remember you very well when you visited xxx and gave an excellent talk on xxx. Since your talk, it has been my intention that when it was appropriate, i.e., when my lab had produced some work of the required quality, novelty, and interest, then I would submit this to your journal for consideration for publication. This moment has fortunately arisen and we would like to present to you an incredible finding that has resulted from an intense three-year collaboration with colleagues at University of xxx. The manuscript title is "xxx", and co-authored by xxx. （不得不说这段话一点信息量都没有，人家编辑记不记得你看你的名字和单位就知道了，你干嘛要写你是怎么记得人家的呢，who cares！还有，incredible这个词真是不能随便用，这个词虽然有“惊人的”意思，但是一般是表达一种“难以置信的”感情，用在科学论文中，你是想让别人相信还是不相信你的发现呢，真是太不合适了。而且你的工作是不是“some work of the required quality, novelty, and interest”也不是你自己说了算的，写之无用，只能用来吐槽。）
All authors listed concur with the submission and have contributed sufficiently to the project to be included as authors. To the best of our knowledge, no conflict of interest, financial or other, exists. We would be appreciate if the submitted manuscript could be reviewed and considered for publication in your journal.（出于礼貌还是要写，不过真没人看）
总之呢，cover letter是向编辑介绍你的工作的，写一堆自己的成绩成就，跟稿件一毛钱关系都没有，只会让人反感。那么加分的cover letter什么样子呢？再给大家写段话吧：
We would like to submit for publication to xxx our study entitled “xxx”.（直奔主题）
In the past years, our laboratory has demonstrated essential roles for xxx in the regulation of xxx signaling programs (references). Although the expression of xxx is prominent in xxx, its role during the xxx process is still a mistery.（简单的背景介绍以及做该课题的原因） In the present work, we report a new unexplored function for xxx in the control of xxx. Our results demonstrate that xxx. Mechanistically, we found that this phenotype is associated with xxx, a key event for xxx. The mechanisms underlying this effect involved xxx that controls xxx.（简单描述结果） In conclusion, we provide the first evidence showing that xxx thus opening new research avenues in this particular biological process. From a broader perspective, our observations could also have implications in xxx. Since our findings significantly demonstrate xxx, we strongly feel that this work is indeed suitable for the broad scientific audience of your journal.（重点在这，强调课题意义，把abstract不敢写也写不完的话都写上，反正不限制字数，稍微吹吹牛也没关系，就是要吸引编辑注意力嘛。）
We would like to suggest the following experts as reviewers for our manuscript. We would respectfully request that xxx will not be considered as possible reviewers for this work due to potential conflicts of interest.（这些也是必要的，有熟人可以当reviewer的赶紧建议下，万一采纳了呢，还有那些风评不好但是有可能被当做审稿人的，赶紧趁机排除掉，免费的机会不能浪费啊。）
今天的take home message呢，就是不要浪费通过cover letter向编辑推荐你的文章的机会，没必要的话就别写，有用的是你的工作的意义，让人印象深刻的发现等等。写好这么一封简单的信，有可能大大增加SCI文章的中稿率，还等什么，大家写起来吧！
6月资源包
Western Blot灰度扫描软件：Image J+AlphaEaseFC
2015和2014影响因子集excel比较版
我们精心为小伙伴们准备了6月资源包，有需要的小伙伴，请向解螺旋微信小编（微信号：helixlife9）索取下载链接！
回复“目录”获得解螺旋书单，仔细品读解螺旋历史文章！
解螺旋专栏项目，每周定期发布：
每周一：【CNS专栏】
每周二：【肿瘤专栏】
每周三：【组学专栏】
每周四：【SCI专栏】
每周五：【信号通路专栏】
每周六：【轻松一刻】【心情感悟】
每周日：【实验工具专栏】
持续关注解螺旋，看专栏文章，精彩从未间断···
解螺旋周末培训正接受报名的课程
（一）线下培训：生物信息学课程（南京班）（7.4-7.5）
（二）线下培训：SCI写作与投稿（北京班）（7.4-7.5）
详细课程信息请点击本文左下角阅读原文查看