Publishing, sharing and learning through experiencecasereports.bmj.com

What is a Case Report?

• A Case Report tells a clinical story that has unique value to the field of practice.

• Shared for the purpose of educating others or stimulating further scientific inquiry and the development of a new understanding or knowledge

Why BMJ Case Reports?I have an interesting and rare Case to share.

But where and how do I publish the Case?

Should I publish the Cases in national journals and conference papers?

Low impact…

I would like International recognition.

What about International journals?

Low acceptance rate…

Sound Familiar?

Now you have BMJ Case Reports!

How can BMJ Case Report help me?

• Covers all disciplines• Unlimited number of case submissions• Simple submission steps• Over 200 case submissions received by editorial each

month• Currently achieving an 80% acceptance rate• The only published peer-reviewed case reports database• Over 2,500 case reports published from over 80 countries

The largest single collection of medical cases in the world!

Types of Cases Covered in Case Reports• Rare disease• Unusual presentation of more common disease/injury• Unusual association of diseases/symptoms• Unexpected outcome (+ or -) including adverse drug

reactions• Novel treatment/new drug/intervention• Established drug/procedure in new situation• Off licence use of drugs• Novel diagnostic procedure• Myth exploded• Learning from errors• New disease

Disciplines Covered

AnaesthesiaCardiovascular medicineComplementary medicineDentistry and oral medicineDermatologyDiagnosticsDrugs and medicinesEar, nose and throat/otolaryngologyEmergency medicineEndocrinologyGastroenterologyGeneral practice/family medicineGeneticsGeriatric medicineHaematology (incl. blood transfusion)Immunology (incl. allergy)Infectious diseasesIntensive careNeurologyNursing

Nutrition and metabolismObstetrics and gynaecologyOncologyOphthalmologyOrthopaedicsPaediatricsPalliative carePathologyPharmacology and therapeuticsPrison medicinePsychiatryRadiologyRehabilitation medicineRenal medicineRespiratory medicineRheumatologySexual healthSports and exercise medicineSurgeryUrology

EthicsEthnic studiesHealth economicsHealth informaticsMedical educationMedical managementOccupational &environmental medicinePublic healthSmoking and tobaccoSociologyStatistics and research methods

■ Clinical ■ Non-Clinical

Submissions by Country

Country Accept Reject Total Total submissionsUnited Kingdom 982 106 1088 38.3%India 223 58 281 9.9%United States 160 30 190 6.7%Italy 90 21 111 3.9%Japan 92 17 109 3.8%Ireland 62 2 64 2.3%Germany 55 3 58 2.0%Spain 45 8 53 1.9%Australia 48 3 51 1.8%Portugal 45 4 49 1.7%

Looking for cases in casereports.bmj.com

Using Advanced Search

Sample Case Report

Cases by Chiang Mai University

How to write a good Case Report?

• Know what journal you are publishing in

• Read some of the cases published

• Know what the journal is looking for

• Follow the guide provided by the publisher

• Use simple language and grammar

• Seek help from your senior colleagues

What BMJ Case Reports Editors are looking for?

• Healthcare workers including medical students and junior doctors must find the cases a valuable learning resource, both relevant and engaging.

• Valuable clinical or ethical lessons

• Common cases presented in an unusual way

• Present diagnostic challenges where there are pitfalls to learn from

BMJ Case Reports – A typical structure

• Summary• Background• Case Presentation• Investigations• Differential diagnosis• Treatment• Outcome and follow-up• Discussion• Learning points/ take home messages

Title and Summary

• You do not need to include “a case report” in the title.

• The summary will be freely available online.

• Use up to 150 words to summarise the case presentation and outcome.

• Emphasise the learning points

Background• Why you think this case is important – why did you write

it up?– Why is the case of interest to readers?– Is this a prevalent health problem?– Is there a clear message?

Case Presentation• Presenting features, medical/social/family history.

• This is the patient’s story – be sensitive to patient confidentiality

• How did they present?

• What is the relevant history? Why is this relevant?

• Explain your findings and how they influenced your decisions

*Do not use abbreviations for diseases or investigations.

Investigations

• If relevant. All investigations that create a background picture are relevant.

• All investigations that are crucial to management decisions should be discussed in full

• Choose appropriate images and videos to illustrate your point (maintaining patient confidentiality).

Differential Diagnosis

• If relevant. Please don’t list these.

• What we want is to see how the final diagnosis was derived.

• What are the consequences to management or treatment for the differential diagnosis?

Treatment, Outcome and follow-up• Include treatment used if relevant.

• Always include follow up data where you can to show the outcome of the treatment

• The follow-up period should be defined. Please state if the patient has died even if not directly related to your case.

Discussion

• Include very brief review of similar published cases.

• Describe mechanisms of injury, guidelines and their relevance, diagnostic pathways (can use diagrams) and the points of interest of the case.

• A brief summary of relevant clinical guidelines is appropriate.– Did you make an exception?– Did you have to adapt the guidelines?

Learning Points/ take home message

• 3 to 5 bullet points.

• Compulsory/required field

• This is the most crucial part of the case– What do you want readers to remember when

seeing their own patients?

Other sections

• References• Figure/Video captions• Patient’s perspective

Research and Publishing Ethics

• You must have signed informed consent from patients (or relatives/guardians) before submitting to BMJ Case Reports.

• Please anonymise the patient’s details as much as possible

• Consent forms are available in several languages: http://group.bmj.com/products/journals/patient -consent-forms

Submitting Cases

It’s your first time…• All authors need to register once on the submission

system (ScholarOne Manuscripts).• Authors that have registered can log in using their ‘User ID’

and ‘Password’.

First time authors need to fill out a form

Now you can Log-In to submit

After you Log-in

• Go to “Author Centre”

Use the Templates

Use the Templates:‐ Full Cases‐ Images

Submit a new case here

Note your Fellowship Code!

• You need to enter this code at the end of the submission process of each case

Fellowship Code848753

Fellowship Code848753

Winner of Best New Journal 2010

• Awarded by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP)

• BMJ Case Reports recently won the ALPSP Best New Journal Award for its innovative publishing model.

Useful Information

• BMJ Case Reports Instructions for Authorshttp://casereports.bmj.com/site/about/guidelines.xhtml