Writing and publishing case reports: the road to success

Abstract

Case reports, by virtue of their simplicity, are ideal for the novice writer. The temptation is to write up anything that is remotely interesting in the hope that you get your name in print. One soon discovers that this is a self-defeating exercise when rejections of a mediocre manuscript come a plenty. Choosing an appropriate case is the difficult first step and getting started remains a challenge for the uninitiated. This article outlines our systematic approach for busy junior doctors to write high-quality and meaningful case reports with relative ease.

New journals for publishing medical case reports

“…With relatively high acceptance rates, clinicians stand a good chance of getting their case reports published, especially if they write case reports that tell a good story, are well-informed, and convey a clear and useful educational message [29][30][31][32][33]. Many case reports journals are produced by reputable publishers and are indexed in PubMed, providing some assurance of their quality.…”

A report on case reports

“…[1–3] A case report is a powerful tool to disseminate information on unusual clinical syndromes, disease associations, unusual side effects to therapy, or response to treatment. Case reports have been used for years as a means to teach health sciences students,[24] and are one of the best ways for authors to get started in scholarly writing,[256] and can be a valuable learning experience for both author and reader. Case reports continue to be a very popular section within the Journal.…”

How to write a case report for publication

“…1,2,3 Case reports have been used for years as a means to teach health sciences students, 2,4 are one of the best ways for authors to get started in scholarly writing, 2,5,6 and can be a valuable learning experience for both author and reader. 7 As valuable as the case report might be, many journals no longer publish this study design for a variety of reasons.…”