Paper Cover Letter

Paper Cover Letter

Scope

Use this skill when the manuscript is essentially complete and the user needs the letter that accompanies a journal submission: a new submission, a resubmission, or the cover note for a revised manuscript.

Read references/cover_letter_guide.md for move-by-move templates, length registers, placeholder rules, and the declaration block before drafting a full letter. For a one-line tweak, the core rules below are enough.

Use another skill when the task is primarily:

• a point-by-point response to reviewer comments or a rebuttal: use paper-response-to-reviewers (if available); that is a separate task, not a cover letter;
• manuscript storyline, contribution framing, or section structure: use paper-argument-reconstructor (if available) to settle the contributions first;
• TeX-safe or final-language polishing of the letter text: use paper-polisher (if available) for the closing pass;
• novelty-risk auditing of the underlying idea: use idea-novelty-auditor (if available).

A cover letter reuses contributions that the manuscript already supports. It does not establish new ones.

Verification Mode

This skill has two modes. By default it drafts the letter as described above. When the input is a cover letter another tool or skill has already drafted, switch to verification mode instead of regenerating:

• do not overwrite the other tool's wording;
• check it against this skill's rules: no overclaiming, novelty kept hedged, ethics statements treated as facts to confirm rather than assumed, and placeholders for every unconfirmed specific;
• report only the deviations; fix one in place only if it breaks a hard rule.

The suite's value is faithful, bounded output, not a competing rewrite. Verify rather than replace what a stronger generator already produced.

Non-Negotiable Rules

• Do not invent contributions, results, novelty, or journal-scope claims that the manuscript or the user does not support.
• Treat every originality and ethics statement as a factual claim: no prior publication, no concurrent submission, all-author approval, conflict-of-interest status, funding, and data availability. Do not assert these on the user's behalf. Insert them only when the user confirms them; otherwise leave an explicit [...] placeholder and flag it.
• Do not overclaim. Keep novelty hedged (for example, "to the best of our knowledge") and tie any superiority to the evaluated conditions, mirroring the manuscript's own claim boundaries.
• Leave every unconfirmed specific as a [...] placeholder: editor name, journal name, manuscript ID, article type, author names, emails, and dates. Do not fabricate them.
• Preserve the manuscript's terminology and claim strength. The letter must not promise more than the paper delivers.

Rule-Conflict Escalation

If the user asks the letter to assert an ethics fact, a novelty claim, or a scope-fit statement that the source does not support, stop and ask before writing it. If your own draft drifts into overclaiming, revise it back into bounded language without asking.

Workflow

1. Confirm the target journal, manuscript title, article type, and submission stage (new, resubmission, or revision).
2. Pull the core problem and contributions from the manuscript or from paper-argument-reconstructor output. Do not re-derive or inflate them.
3. Choose a length register: concise (a few sentences) or detailed (mechanism, effect, and readership). Default to the journal's norm or the user's preference.
4. Assemble the moves in order, inserting a placeholder for every unconfirmed fact.
5. Run the pre-send check: no overclaim, ethics statements confirmed or placeheld, scope-fit naming the actual journal, no fabricated specifics.
6. If the user wants a final language pass, hand the assembled letter to paper-polisher.

Cover Letter Moves

Summary only; see references/cover_letter_guide.md for templates.

1. Salutation and submission statement: title, article type, target journal.
2. Core contribution: problem, approach, and main result, hedged.
3. Scope fit with the target journal and its readership.
4. Originality and ethics declarations: confirmed or placeheld.
5. Optional: suggested or opposed reviewers, related or concurrent submissions, prior editorial contact.
6. Corresponding-author correspondence details.
7. Closing.

Moves 3 and 4 may swap order. Keep whichever order the target journal expects.

Output Modes

For a new draft, return:

1. The letter, with an explicit [...] placeholder for every unconfirmed fact.
2. A short list of the placeholders the user must fill, marking which are ethics facts that only the authors can confirm.

For diagnosis of an existing letter, return:

1. Overclaims and unsupported novelty or scope assertions.
2. Missing or unconfirmed ethics declarations.
3. Structural gaps against the standard moves.
4. A revised version that keeps claims bounded.

For a letter that must be returned paste-ready, run a final paper-polisher pass if available.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: yujie-jason-zhang
• Source: yujie-jason-zhang/polish_skill
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.