Submitting a Case Report Manuscript
Publishing a case report requires careful preparation of the manuscript and thoughtful selection of an appropriate journal. In preparation for submission, authors should identify the target audience. An important factor to consider is which type of clinic
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Introduction Publishing a case report requires thoughtful selection of an appropriate journal. Historically, case reports were fixtures of many prominent journals. However, this practice has declined significantly over the last several decades as the rise of evidence-based medicine led journals to focus more closely on their impact factor, a measure of the journal’s competitiveness and relevance to the field [1]. In this competitive environment, most traditional journal editors publish only the case reports they feel will resonate most strongly with their audience. In this chapter, we present guidance to help authors successfully navigate the submission process.
Defining the Target Audience The most important first step in selecting a journal for a case report submission is to identify the target audience. Some case reports may be of interest to a generalist audience while others may be more suited for subspecialists or even nonphysician health professionals such as pharmacists and nurses.
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 C.D. Packer et al., Writing Case Reports, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41899-5_11
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Chapter 11. Submitting a Case Report Manuscript
When deciding on the target audience, consider the following: • What are the take-home points of the case report? Who is most likely to incorporate these take-home points into their daily practice? • If the case report focuses on an unusual presentation, who is most likely to see the patient – a primary care physician, an emergency department physician, a surgeon, a hospitalist, a subspecialist? • If the case report focuses on treatment, who is most likely to be administering that therapy? Narrow the search for the most appropriate journals by taking time to define the anticipated audience as clearly as possible. Consider targeting subspecialty audiences even if you have a generalist practice, such as internal medicine, pediatrics, or general surgery. Subspecialty journals may be particularly interested in publishing case reports of rare presentations or unexpected side effects of a treatment that affect their specific patient populations. Furthermore, some specialty journals publish many more case reports than generalist journals. For example, a recent issue of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery published no less than 21 case reports [3]. While the majority of the authors were cardiothoracic surgeons or cardiologists, other specialties represented among the authorship included anesthesiology, radiology, radiation oncology, pulmonary medicine, intensive care medicine, neurosurgery, maternal fetal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pathology, hematology, and oncology. When considering submission to a subspecialty journal, it is helpful to request that a colleague in that subspecialty review the case to ensure it will be a good fit for the journal under consideration. If so, you may wish to invite them to be a coauthor to review the submission for clarity, focus, relevance, and accuracy. This co-author may prove particularly helpful in fielding i
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