A submission cover letter is the short note to the editor that goes with a manuscript: what the paper does, why it belongs in that journal, and the declaration that it is original and not under consideration elsewhere. ORBIT drafts one from your title and abstract, and it is the only ORBIT output that is written rather than derived — so it is handed over as a draft to edit, never as a finished document.
Your paper's title, your abstract, and the name of the journal you are submitting to. Optionally the editor's name, and anything you want mentioned — a transfer from another journal, a related preprint, a competing interest.
Nothing else is consulted. ORBIT does not read your manuscript for this, does not look the journal up, and does not know anything about you that you have not typed into the box.
A cover letter has a standard shape that invites a language model to fill it in — with an affiliation, a funder, a grant number, a prior submission, a suggested reviewer, a claim about how significant the work is. None of that can be known from a title and an abstract, and a plausible guess in a letter to an editor is a fabrication with your name on it.
So the draft leaves a marked blank instead: [Your name], [Your affiliation], [Corresponding author email]. The page counts the blanks still left and does not stop saying so until you have filled them in.
The title and abstract are used for one request and are never stored. Neither is the letter. Your account records that a cover letter was drafted, for which journal, on what date, and what it cost — and nothing of what it said.
The practical consequence is yours to manage: copy the draft or download it before you close the tab, because there is nothing to come back to.
One credit. The 5 free credits a month cover it — it was purchased-credits-only until 2026-08-27, and is not any more. Additional credits are ₹500 each.
It is the short note to the editor that accompanies a manuscript. It says what the paper contributes, why it suits that journal, and confirms that the work is original and not under consideration elsewhere. Most journals require one and many desk-reject submissions that arrive without it.
No. It is written from the title and abstract you paste, the journal name you type, and nothing else. Your manuscript file is never involved. If something in your results matters to the letter, put it in the optional notes box.
No, and this is the point of the feature. Anything it was not told — your name, affiliation, funder, grant number, prior submissions, suggested reviewers, ethics approvals — comes back as a square-bracketed blank for you to fill. The page counts the blanks that are left and keeps saying so until none remain.
No. Your account records that a cover letter was drafted, for which journal, on what date and what it cost — and not one word of the text. The abstract you pasted is not stored either. Copy the draft or download it before you close the tab, because there is nothing to return to.
Yes. A cover letter costs one credit and the 5 free credits each month cover it. It was purchased-credits-only until 2026-08-27; that gate is gone, because a tool nobody can try is a tool nobody buys.
Yes, and you should. The draft opens in an editable box and you can rewrite any of it before copying it or downloading the .docx. ORBIT wrote those sentences rather than deriving them from a stated source, so read every line — you are the one signing it.
Yes. You type the journal's name, so any journal works. Note that ORBIT does not look that journal up: it does not read its aims and scope, and the letter will not claim knowledge of them.