Cover Letters: Nature vs Elsevier, Wiley, Springer

How Nature, Elsevier, Wiley, and Springer differ on cover letter requirements, reviewer suggestions, and format, per each publisher's own author guidelines.

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Side-by-side comparison

Dimension	Nature	Elsevier	Wiley	Springer
Is a cover letter required?	Optional but recommended for core Nature-branded journals, per nature.com’s own submission guidance.	Journal-dependent — Elsevier’s guidance directs authors to each journal’s Guide for Authors rather than stating one publisher-wide rule.	Journal-dependent, but Wiley’s standard "Notice to Authors" cover-letter template is used as default guidance across many of its journals.	Journal-dependent — required for some titles (e.g. Scientific Reports, the Discover journal series), optional/recommended for others.
Can you suggest or exclude peer reviewers in the letter?	Not part of Nature’s own cover-letter guidance; reviewer input is generally handled in the submission system rather than the letter.	No, per Elsevier’s Journal Article Publishing Support Center FAQ — suggested/opposed reviewers go in dedicated submission-system fields, not the cover letter.	Yes — Wiley’s standard cover-letter guidance explicitly asks authors to name suggested and opposed/conflicted reviewers in the letter itself.	Varies by journal — e.g. Scientific Reports’ guidance asks for reviewer names and contact details in the cover letter; not true of every Springer title.
Required declarations	Confirmation the work is appropriate for the journal is encouraged; formal originality/authorship declarations are largely handled in the submission system.	Confirm the work is original, not published or under consideration elsewhere, and disclose conflicts of interest where the journal’s guide asks for it in the letter.	A statement that all authors agree with the manuscript, plus confirmation it is not published or submitted elsewhere (aside from meeting abstracts), and disclosure of any related/prior submissions.	Confirmation of originality and non-duplicate submission is standard across Springer/Springer Nature titles that request a cover letter, consistent with ICMJE-influenced norms.
Other content commonly requested	A brief statement of the work’s significance and why it fits the journal’s scope.	Background on the research or how data was collected, and details of any previous or concurrent related submissions, where the specific journal asks for this.	Whether the manuscript was professionally edited, and whether it (or a related paper) was previously submitted to another Wiley journal or is in review elsewhere.	For journals that require one: corresponding-author contact details and a brief note on why the work suits that specific journal.
Submission mechanism	Entered through the online submission system for the specific journal (uploaded file or text field) — not emailed separately.	Entered through the journal’s online submission system — as an upload or text field depending on the specific journal’s platform.	Entered through the journal’s online submission system — as an upload or text field depending on the specific journal’s platform.	Entered through the journal’s online submission system — as an upload or text field depending on the specific journal’s platform.
Length/format guidance	No explicit publisher-wide length limit found in Nature’s own guidance; general one-page convention applies.	Elsevier’s cover-letter writing guidance recommends keeping it short, ideally under one page.	No explicit publisher-wide length limit found in Wiley’s standard guidance; general one-page convention applies.	No explicit publisher-wide length limit found in Springer’s own guidance; general one-page convention applies.

Common questions

FAQ

Do Nature and Springer have the same cover letter requirements, since they’re the same company?+

Not automatically. Nature has been part of Springer Nature since the 2015 merger, and Nature’s and Springer’s own cover-letter help-center articles are served from the same underlying support content — but individual journals still set their own requirements. A flagship Nature journal, Scientific Reports, and a Discover-series journal can each ask for something different, so always check that specific journal’s instructions for authors.

Which publisher wants reviewer suggestions in the cover letter itself, not just the submission system?+

Wiley’s standard cover-letter guidance explicitly asks for suggested and opposed reviewers in the letter. Some Springer/Springer Nature journals, such as Scientific Reports, also ask for reviewer names in the letter. Elsevier’s Journal Article Publishing Support Center explicitly says the opposite — reviewer suggestions belong in the submission system’s dedicated fields, not the letter. Core Nature-branded journals don’t typically request it in the letter either.

Does Elsevier require a cover letter for every journal?+

No. Elsevier’s own guidance is explicit that whether a cover letter is required is set by the individual journal, not uniformly across Elsevier’s catalog — check the specific journal’s Guide for Authors.

Going deeper