"Dear Sirs" ...

[afussyphase]

OK, so not the biggest problem in the world, I know. I'm one of many, many editors of a large scientific journal. It's a big journal and I'm a new editor. The first paper I agree to handle has a cover letter beginning "Dear Sirs, ...". I am dead certain that not all other editors are "Sirs"
It's not a language issue (authors are US-based). AIBU to find this a little insulting? And do you think I should politely mention this in my response? Anyone out there have a polite way to point this kind of thing out?

YANBU. Not quite sure how you deal with it!

I don't know a good answer but I'd be itching to reply 'Dear Madam', or, less provocatively, 'Dear Sir/Madam'.

I have to admit, it's only recently that I've started using "Dear Sir/Madam" instead of "Dear Sirs". "Dear Sirs" was just what I was taught and grew up using/seeing, seeing it as a collective term for men and women.

I would definitely bring it up and suggest "Dear Editors."

Sorry, OP, I just realized that you also asked for suggestions about how to raise the issue in a polite way. What about something along these lines:

Thank you so much for the opportunity to serve as an editor of (insert name of journal). I notice that the letter addressed to me says ?Dear Sirs.? I know that some of your editors are women, and I also know that you would not want to appear to exclude them in any way. Perhaps you could adopt a gender-neutral or more inclusive salutation, such as ?Dear Editors? or ?Dear Sir or Madam" to make sure no one feels excluded. Thank you so much for you attention to my request.

I think the OP is already an editor of this journal, and part of the job is to receive and evaluate scientific papers which come in for consideration for publication; each article has a cover letter directed to the editors, and those letters tend to start, "Dear Sirs".

Whatever response an editor makes has to be very carefully worded, as you'd never want to offend the contributors. Imagine those esteemed scientists muttering about stupid twits at the International Annals of Computational Paradigms, next thing I write I'm going to send to the World Journal of Advanced Algorithms instead.

Maybe this is something to discuss with the editorial board or whatever the publication has, and see if you could agree on a letter to send out in response to anything beginning "Dear Sirs", saying we understand that this form of address is traditional, but many of our editors are women, and we value and respect our own staff just as we value our contributors(!!) and we'd like to suggest that in future when correspondents aren't writing to individuals, it would be appreciated if the mail were addressed to, um, well I don't know what to suggest. I believe "Dear Sirs and Mesdames" was once considered correct, but my instinct is that the time for saying that is over and gone.

Since they are USA based I guess addressing them as "Comrades" won't go down too well then.

Thanks all!
Yes, as TeiTetua thought, I'm already an editor and am handling author contributions. I guess I'll post it on the forum for the editorial board - I don't want to appear too nitpicky. Wanted to know what MN thought! I'm tempted to write back "Dear Madams" or "Dear Comrades" - wonder if they'd boot me off the editorial board for it.

Yes, I misunderstood. I thought that OP was serving on an ad hoc basis and was sent the paper by the journal in question. I agree that it should be challenged and I like Buffy's suggestion that it be addressed in Author Instructions. I did find some examples online that suggested Dear Editor or Dear Editors.

I agree that that's probably the right thing to do. But the Author Instructions can be so convoluted and awful - really, how much should we care about the precise image resolution and formatting of the references unless the paper is accepted, after all? So as an author I don't always even read them all, never mind meticulously follow them. But despite my cynicism it's probably the best place for the journal to tell authors what to do! (Maybe I'll also argue for removing incredibly fussy formatting requirements until the paper's accepted... leaving more room for authors to focus on important things like acknowledging that it's not 1853 any more and some of us are in fact women :) )

How about Messieurs and Mesdames?