Case reports and the Journal: an update for authors and readers

Excerpt

As with a number of scientific medical specialty journals, we have continued to receive many more case reports/case series (hereafter referred to in this article as “case reports”) over the years than we have been able to publish. We recognize that clinicians are interested in case reports that are well-written, appropriately referenced, and adequately detailed, as such reports can add to the body of clinical knowledge by reporting rare or unusual clinical events that cannot be studied or evaluated in a clinical trial setting. Also, we appreciate that some medical journals have limited the number of case reports or have stopped publishing case reports altogether due to changes in editorial policy and/or a down-drafting effect on a journal’s impact factor (mean journal citation frequency). However, considering our largely clinical readership, we continue to value, as part of our editorial content, appropriately balanced case reports from recent clinical experiences involving anesthesia, perioperative medicine, pain management, and critical care. At the same time, we have identified a number of recurrent issues that often result in many submitted case reports being rejected even before external review. In view of these recurrent issues, we prepared this editorial to provide an overview for potential authors and readers of the Journal regarding our requirements for considering a case report for publication and our editorial perspectives concerning content that may be suitable for publication. …