Medical Writing ●

✒
SECTION EDITOR

Phil Leventhal

Humour phil.leventhal@gmail.com

Cover letters and Santa Claus

n
T
o celebrate the festive season, we’d
like to share with you the elfs’ cover
letter. The target journal was the The Polar Dear Santa Claus,
Christine Møller
Medical Manuscripts
medicalmanuscripts@gmail.com
Express, which has an enviably high impact this ma nuscript to be
We are pleased to submit
factor. Santa Claus is its editor-in-chief. n in The Polar Express. Dr Bobby Brown
considered for publicatio
We run medical writing courses for uses all over the world Dr Bobby Brown Medical Writing
Since forever, Sa nta Cla time.
PhD students at Copenhagen University,1 r Christmas presents in Services
have struggled to delive ades
and Cover Letters is one of the most popular wn over the last dec bobby.brown131012@gmail.com
The problem has only gro n. We
sessions. To spark a lively discussion, we ber of small childre
with the increasing num
provide tips and tricks, useful phrases, and g is timely and highly
inspirational examples,2 and then we ask therefore feel our findin
relevant.
participants to come with their own del for optimised gift References
We have developed a mo in
suggestions. ble an elf to wrap a gift 1. Moller C. New medical writing
wrapping, which will ena fectio n.
This cover letter from elfs won the prize and with aesthetic per course in Copenhagen:
less tha n one second, l ma ke
for this year’s most entertaining suggestion. t our finding wil Increasing chances of
We genuinely believe tha
The elfs followed our guidelines: an d that it would be of publication for non-native
the world a better place
Sa nta-believers.
l Keep it short and simple (max one page). speakers. The Write Stuff.
particula r interest to all
l Present the submission.
rk, has not been 2007;16(1):8–9.
The paper is origin woal
l Set the context and describe the current
not being considered for 2. Langdon-Neuner E. About
published before, and is ic
state of the field. er in printed or electron cover letters for manuscripts
l Identify the knowledge gap. publication elsewhere eith submitted to biomedical
form. in
l Describe the problem and how it was
sidered for publication journals. The Write Stuff.
If the paper is to be con t
solved. would like to sugges 2010;19(3):184–7.
The Polar Express, we rk.
l Highlight the novelty and relevance for
h as reviewers of our wo 3. Cover letters and “Arctic
Rudolph and the Grinc
readers of the journal. ring from you. Monkeys”. Christine Møller:
l State that the manuscript is not being
We look forwa rd to hea Medical Writing.
considered for publication elsewhere. 2020;29(1):82.
l Suggest experts in the field qualified to With best wishes,
carry out the review. The Elfs

Christine Møller BA, Dip Ed Bobby Brown BSc, PhD

Acknowledgement
We’d like to thank Cathrine Munk Scheuer for
allowing us to share her letter with EMWA
readers. The prize was previously awarded to
Tin-Quoc Nguyen for Cover letters and “Arctic
Monkeys”. 3
Christine started her career as a Liberal
Studies lecturer in the UK. After moving to
Denmark, she taught English and worked for
the British Council. Until recently she was
Assistant Editor of APMIS (Journal of
Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology). She
now teaches courses in medical writing.
Bobby studied Biochemistry at the University
of Glasgow and has a PhD in Plant Molecular
Genetics. He worked for over 20 years as a
technician and postdoctoral research
scientist. Currently he is a freelance medical
writer and regularly edits manuscripts written
by non-native English speakers.

www.emwa.org Volume 30 Number 4 | Medical Writing December 2021 | 59