Department of Medical Library and Information Sciences, School of Management and Medical Information Sciences, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Integrative Functional Gastroenterology Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
J Med Case Rep. 2023 Jan 5;17(1):2. doi: 10.1186/s13256-022-03710-2.
Owing to the growth of case reports and changes in the policy of journals in publishing this evidence, the need to standardize them is felt more than before. Therefore, in this study, the authors' guide of medical journals indexed in the Scopus database that published most of the case reports has been analyzed to identify the reporting requirements and emerging case report types.
A total of 50 journals were selected from the Scopus citation database (the world's largest knowledge base) that published most of the case reports. These and the authors' guideline section on the types and requirements of writing case reports were analyzed by inductive content analysis.
Most of the case reports were published in the fields of dermatology and surgery and general medicine. Reporting requirements in author's guide are grouped in four categories: (1) reasons for publication or content value, (2) emphasis on the patient consent form and confidentiality, (3) emphasizing the constraints on the word count and limitation, and (4) recommendation for structure and reporting elements. In terms of adherence to the reporting guidelines, 76% of journals do not adhere to any reporting guideline. In addition, 13 types of case reports were identified in these journals, among which traditional case reports, clinical image, letters, and case series were the most widely used formats.
Improving the publication processes of case reports has been left unattended by international organizations. The policies of journals need to become more integrated, and reporting guidelines should be modified or redeveloped to enhance the quality of publications, cover different reporting requirements, and consequently, benefit from the evidence value available in case reports.
由于病例报告的数量不断增加，以及期刊发表此类证据的政策发生变化，因此比以往任何时候都更加需要对其进行标准化。因此，在这项研究中，分析了被 Scopus 数据库索引的医学期刊的作者指南，这些期刊发表了大部分病例报告，以确定报告要求和新兴的病例报告类型。
从发表大部分病例报告的 Scopus 引文数据库（世界上最大的知识库）中选择了 50 种期刊。通过归纳内容分析，对这些期刊和作者指南中关于病例报告类型和撰写要求的部分进行了分析。
大多数病例报告发表在皮肤病学、外科学和普通医学领域。作者指南中的报告要求分为四类：（1）发表原因或内容价值；（2）强调患者同意书和保密性；（3）强调对字数和限制的限制；（4）推荐结构和报告要素。在报告指南的遵守情况方面，76%的期刊不遵守任何报告指南。此外，在这些期刊中还确定了 13 种病例报告类型，其中传统病例报告、临床图像、信件和病例系列是最常用的格式。
国际组织尚未关注病例报告发表流程的改进。期刊政策需要更加统一，报告指南需要进行修改或重新制定，以提高出版物的质量，涵盖不同的报告要求，并从病例报告中获取可用的证据价值。
