All work and no play made Jack a dull boy. This adage proves well for PhD students as well. Like all professionals, they ideate well when they plan a holiday. However, in the entire process, they need to make sure that the work doesn’t suffer. Hence, the support of the supervisor could work miracles here.

If a supervisor encourages you to take breaks and if she knows that your work won’t suffer, then you should take a break but only for a period she has suggested.

However, a right process should be followed in a right manner to ensure that you don’t follow a wrong path.

Here are a few points you should try to remember to plan your break:

1. Take permission: Make sure to ask your supervisor that you want to avail your entitled annual leave.

2. Ensure your work doesn’t suffer: Next point to remember is that you are not availing your break at the cost of your work.

3. Commit to your work before your break: Before you go for your work, your should know the schedule of your supervisor. Also, you should make sure that you commit and finish your work before you get into another world.

4. Give your contact details to your supervisor: Let your supervisor know the details of the world you are into. This will help him to trace you during emergency scenario.

5. Complete your formalities: There are some department formalities that should be completed to avail the entitled holidays. Make sure that you don’t leave any of those formalities incomplete. As your supervisor is answerable in your absence, make sure you don’t put him in an awkward situation.

Hence, live a normal human life and follow certain precautions to enjoy breaks while pursuing PhD.

The main aim of the cover letter to the editor is to publish your paper to the journal in first attempt so you must write it nicely. Utmost care should be taken to attract the editor’s attention and provide a reason for sending your paper out for external peer review.

Tips for writing a good cover letter:

Address the editor-in-chief (EIC) by name which implies that you know the journal’s editorial committee and have bothered to check. Ensure that your letter is not too short or too long and that it does not simply repeat the abstract. Highlight the novel aspect of your work and why the journal readership would find this important. Indicate why this work fits the journal’s scope.

Make sure your cover letter contains these sentences: We confirm that this manuscript has not been published elsewhere and is not currently under consideration by another journal. All authors have approved the manuscript and agree with its submission to this journal.

Manuscript submission and editorial handling

Choosing a suitable journal is an important aspect of publishing your scientific work. Therefore, you should check the aims, interests, scope, etc. of the journal in question. Follow the author guidelines to avoid delays because of the lack of adherence to journal submission instructions.

Once your manuscript is received by the online system, it will be scrutinized carefully by the editorial assistant. Then the EIC will assess your manuscript and, unless the work is very poor, will assign it to an associate editor who is a member of the editorial committee. The associate editor will assess the manuscript and the main decision at that stage will be to send it out for external peer review or to reject it without such a review. However, if your manuscript is deemed worthy of external peer review, then you have clearly attracted the attention of the editors and pitched the work to an appropriate journal, regardless of the final outcome.