Sample letter to prospective author

Dear X,

	We are writing this letter to invite you to write a review article for Quark-Gluon Plasma 4.

	It has been five years since the papers in QGP3 were assembled, although it took another year before they appeared in print. We feel that this is the appropriate time to consider a sequel to that series for several reasons. While QGP3 reviewed the development that followed the initial impetus of the new results from RHIC, we are now at a point where a mature assessment of what have been learned is opportune. QGP4 should not only summarize the theoretical accomplishment during the extended runs of RHIC, but also provide a stepping stone to the new adventure at LHC. We have a narrow window to accomplish this before people are too preoccupied with the first results from LHC to want to write review articles.

	In this volume we attempt to put emphasis on topics that are not covered in QGP3, although we regard overlap as less important than significant progress. We feel that you are the right person to review the subject of
	"subject"
If you have an opinion on the scope of the review to be covered and a more appropriate title, please let us know. If you would like to have someone else join you as co-author(s) in this project, you can either discuss with them directly or we can write to them.

	It is important that the article be written in a pedagogical style so that it can be helpful to a wide range of researchers from graduate students to mature physicists who have not worked previously on the subject. A reader should be able to learn from your review article without having extensive knowledge of the background literature. Yet there should be a full list of references so that one who is interested can be guided to the original articles for further details. On topics that are still controversial it is expected that all points of view will be presented, although the author may choose to emphasize the one of particular personal interest. It may be of interest to note that the 11 articles in QGP3 have by now a total number of citations of around 1350, indicating how useful the review volume has been.

	We envision the suitable length of an article to be not much shorter than 50 pages, but not more than 100. The target date for the submission of the manuscript is January 31, 2009. We understand that to undertake the task of writing a thorough review will involve a great commitment in time and effort. However, we are also confident that the review article that you can write will be of high quality, and will be able to serve the community for many years to come.

	World Scientific of Singapore will publish this volume, as it has in the past. It will also be a special volume in Int. J. Modern Physics so that journal references can be associated with the articles. There will be some financial compensation for the work of writing the review. Although we have not received confirmation from the publisher on what it will be, we advise you not to count on it as an incentive to get involved. You might be able to buy a dinner or two with it.

	We hope that you will respond with an affirmative answer. 

	With best regards,

	Rudy Hwa and Xin-nian Wang

Our email addresses are:

Rudy Hwa		hwa@uoregon.edu
Xin-nian Wang	xnwang@lbl.gov