投稿信主要是为了帮助编辑快速寻找合适的审稿人。一般要在投稿信中写明文章的意义、论文的主要内容及创新点等。投稿信要简洁明了，但是不能直接拷贝摘要部分。要避免使用 “Dear Sir” 之类的称谓，避免某些女性编辑的反感。
1、投稿信的意义
Cover letter 可以帮助编辑尽快地判断提交的论文是否处于期刊的范围（scope），可以更加方便地帮助编辑寻找审稿人。对于某些能上能下的论文，cover letter 可能会决定你的论文是否会被送审。
2、六要
主要是第一点和第二点。
Do give a brief, largely non-technical summary of the method. Explain how it will have an impact and why the method and its applications will be interesting to a broad biological audience.
1）简要阐述你的方法，解释为什么你的方法很重要，并且能吸引期刊的受众（文章的意义）。
Do put the work in context. Briefly explain the novelty and the specific advances over previous work but be realistic about what the method can and cannot achieve.
2) 阐述你的工作有何新颖之处，并指出你的工作和前人相比有何提高的地方（文章的主要内容和优点）。
Do suggest referees. If the editors decide to send the paper for peer review, providing a list of potential referees, their email addresses, and a very short description of their expertise, can help the editor assign referees more rapidly.
3) 推荐审稿人（编辑为了工作方便当然希望你推荐审稿人，可以不推荐）。
Do tell us about any related work from your group under consideration or in press elsewhere. Explain how it relates, and include copies of the related manuscripts with your submission.
4) 提交你的相关工作（一般期刊无此要求）。
Do mention any unusual circumstances. For example, known competition with another group’s paper, co-submission to Nature Methods planned with another group, or co-submission of a related results paper to another NPG journal, etc.
5) 交代可能的异常情况，比如和 XX 课题组是竞争关系，不要送审到他们那里。
Do mention if you have previously discussed the work with an editor.
6）是否以前和期刊的编辑已经讨论过（一般有讨论过的会直接送到那个编辑手里，一般不用写）
3、六不要
Don’t simply reiterate that you have submitted a paper to us and/or copy and paste the title and abstract of the paper. The cover letter should be viewed as an opportunity to present useful meta-information about the paper, and not tossed off simply as a submission requirement.
1)不要直接拷贝文章的标题和摘要。
Don’t go on for pages about what the paper is about and summarize all of your results. The editor will always read the paper itself so long cover letters are usually redundant. A one-page cover letter in almost all cases is sufficient.
2) 投稿信要简洁，一般一页足以。不要总结你的所有结果。
Don’t use highly technical jargon and acronyms. Explaining the advance in a general manner can go a long way in helping the editors reach a quicker decision; cover letters that are largely unreadable are of no help to the editors.
3) 不要用高度专业的词汇。记住投稿信是给编辑看以帮助他们更快找到审稿人的。
Don’t overhype or over-interpret. While a description of why the method will advance the field is definitely appreciated, obvious overstatements about the impact or reach of the work do not help and can even reflect poorly on the authors’ judgment of the needs of a field.
4) 不要过度“吹捧”你的方法。过度高估你的工作反而会反映出作者对该领域的判断不足。
Don’t assume that going on about your scientific reputation or endorsements from others in the field will sway us. This is not pertinent to our editorial decision.
5) 不要在投稿信中写自己多牛逼。人家编辑判断的是你文章的价值，而不是你个人的价值。
Don’t address your cover letter to “Dear Sir.” This is antiquated language, not to mention often incorrect, given that two-thirds of Nature Methods’ editors are women. Stick to the gender-neutral “Dear Editor” in cases where you are not addressing a specific editor.
6) 不要用 “Dear Sir”，因为很多编辑都是女的。 可以用中性词 “Dear Editor”.
说明：本文观点来自 How to write a cover letter，该文是期刊 Nature Methods 的编辑给作者的建议，想看英文原文请点击原文链接。