We prove a necessary and sufficient condition on the list of nonzero integers $u_1,\dots,u_k$, $k \geq 2$, under which a monic polynomial $f \in \mathbb{Z}[x]$ is expressible by a linear form $u_1f_1+\dots+u_kf_k$ in monic polynomials $f_1,\dots,f_k \in \mathbb{Z}[x]$. This condition is independent of $f$. We also show that if this condition holds, then the monic polynomials $f_1,\dots,f_k$ can be chosen to be irreducible in $\mathbb{Z}[x]$.

We use some classical estimates for polynomial roots to provide several irreducibility criteria for polynomials with integer coefficients that have one sufficiently large coefficient and take a prime value.