Writing and Publishing Scientific Articles
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▪ To report unexpected events encountered while treating a patient (for example, new beneficial or adverse effect of a drug). Some journals also publish case reports on the use of radiologic imaging, pathologic analysis, or new technology to resolve diagnostic dilemmas and on new uses for existing therapies.
General Considerations
An essential step in deciding to write a case report is to perform a thorough literature search to determine that the case is in fact unique or extremely unusual. You should keep track of where and how you searched so that you can report this information in your manuscript. The staff of the Research Medical Library can help you with your literature search if you need guidance or assistance. You should also review the author instructions as well as recent issues of journals in which you would like to publish to find out what kinds of case reports, if any, those journals publish. Some journals publish cases as letters to the editor; others use the Introduction, Case Description, and Discussion format described below. Because anyone familiar with a particular patient’s case will likely recognize who is being discussed in the case report, many journals require that the consent of the patient or his or her family be obtained before the report can be published. All journals require that permission be obtained to publish recognizable photographs of a patient. Placing a black bar over a patient’s eyes in a photograph is no longer considered adequate to disguise the patient’s identity; the patient’s or family’s consent will still be needed in such circumstances. The patient should be referred to throughout the article as “the patient” or as “he” or “she” and never as “the case.” (It is fine to say, “We report the case of a patient with . . . .”) The patient’s medical record number, name, or initials should never be mentioned (and such identifiers should be deleted from radiologic images or other figures used to illustrate the case).
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