I AM USING THE CORRECT WORD TEMPLATE Clinical case reports must be submitted using this template. Case report templates
I HAVE COMPLETED THE AUTHOR STATEMENTS Your article will not be considered without the Author statements
We have created a pre-submission checklist to help you avoid pitfalls that might prolong the time it takes to send your article for peer review or that may result in rejection.
CONTENTImportant information on references >> Clinical information is presented in a manner that optimises learning using diagrams and timelinesThe conclusions are based on the clinical information presented in the reportFormal medical English with full sentences is used, with no medical colloquialisms or use of shorthand (e.g. “labs”)All numerical values, results, percentages, drug does, frequencies and units of measurement are accurateThere are no typos or grammar errors
FORMATTINGImportant information on formatting >> References should be up to date and formatted in vancouver styleImages should be uploaded as separate files and in TIFF, EPS, JPEG or PDF formats with a minimum resolution of 300 dpiPermission to reproduce materials from an external source must be obtained and submitted with the manuscriptOther figures and tables must be the authors’ original work (add a note in the figure legend) International System of Units (SI Units) must be used throughout
AUTHORSHIPImportant information on authorship >> There is a max of 4 authors a manuscriptAll authorswho contributed to the patients care or write up of the report must approve the submission The senior clinician responsible for the patient’s care must supervise the writing of the report and obtain patient consentThe head of department and ethics committee of the relevant institution must approve publication of this reportConflicts of interest must be declared
PLAGIARISMImportant information on plagiarism >> This report has not been submitted or accepted for publication elsewhereThis report does not duplicate material already published and does not copy paragraphs from other sources – Best practice for text recyclingAll sources have been cited and credited within the reportIf this report is a modification of a conference poster or abstract, this has been noted in the acknowledgements
I HAVE SIGNED PATIENT CONSENT You must have signed informed consent from patients (or relatives/guardians) before submitting to BMJ Case Reports. We will not accept case reports which have been previously submitted to a preprint server due patient confidentiality reasons.
For living patients this is a legal requirement under the UK’s Data Protection legislation; we will not send your article for review without explicit consent from the patient or guardian.
Consent forms are available in several languages on the BMJ Author Hub.
PATIENT CONSENTImportant information on consent A separate consent form should be provided for all patients whose medical information is included in the manuscriptNext of kin consent has been provided if the patient is deceasedFor children, those with diminished capacity or deceased patients, the name and relation of the signatory has been providedThe authors should be in contact with the patient to provide them with any updates required during revision
ANONYMISATIONImportant information on anonymisation The patient’s face should be excluded from any images and videosAge ranges (e.g. “a woman in her 20s”) should be used instead of exact ageCalendar dates (e.g. “January 2022) should be excludedDetails about the precise location of the patient should be excludedEthnic origin and occupation of the patient should be excluded (unless clinically relevant)
I HAVE AGREEMENT TO GRANT THE RIGHTS TO BMJ You must have the right to grant on behalf of all authors (and their employers – where any author is writing the case report in the course of their employment) the assignment of copyright and/or licence set out in the Intellectual Property Rights Assignment or Licence Statement. Please ensure that you are aware of other authors or clinicians involved in the case who plan to report the same case. Authorship issues should be agreed within the authors’ institution before submission of a manuscript.
I HAVE A VALID PERSONAL OR INSTITUTIONAL FELLOWSHIP You or your institution must be a Fellow of BMJ Case Reports in order to submit. This does not guarantee we will publish your case reports. Contact your librarian or head of department to see if your institution already has a Fellowship. We do not issue refunds on Fellow Membership Subscription fees unless the circumstances contained in our subscription terms and conditions exist
PLEASE DELETE THESE PAGES BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR ARTICLE
Complete the template below Please type your report directly into this template. Read the tips and reminders in each section as you type. Use formal US or UK English and scientific terminology.
TITLE OF CASE
TIPS: Please use a clinical and straight forward title that accurately reflects the diagnosis and main point of the case reportDo not include “a case report”, “review”, “literature review”, “rare case”, “first case” in the titleDo not use cryptic, humorous or play-on-word titlesThere should be no exclamation mark in the titleDo not put the patient’s age, sex or ethnicity in the title
SUMMARY
TIPS: This is a summary of the entire manuscript and is freely available online It is the equivalent of an abstract Use a maximum of 150 words summarising the case presentation and outcome Describe the essential information of the case and emphasise the learning pointsThe SUMMARY is distinct from the BACKGROUND section below – do not copy and pasteWhen submitting to ScholarOne copy this summary on to the relevant section
BACKGROUND
TIPS: Give the context of your manuscript Is this a prevalent health problem?Is there a clear message?The BACKGROUND is distinct from the SUMMARY section above. Do not copy and paste
CASE PRESENTATION
TIPS: Give a comprehensive account of the presenting features, including the medical/social/family historyThis is the patient’s story – anonymise the manuscript as far as possible. Do not write the exact age (write “in his 20s” instead). Ethnicities and exact occupations should be avoided unless essential to clinical discussion. Place names and calendar dates are to be avoided – use regions of the world and “2 months/days later”, for example, instead.Do not name your institution in the text (or in the patient perspective section). If necessary use phrases such as “presented to the/our Emergency Department”, “was referred to our tertiary specialist unit”…How did the patient present? Signs and symptoms…What is the relevant history? Why is this relevant?Explain your findings and how they influenced your decisionsDo not use abbreviations for diseases or investigationsUse internationally accepted units for measurementsUse only scientific names of drugs. Include the manufacturer in brackets when describing equipmentPresent information in ways that are easy to follow. Use diagrammatic flowcharts and timelines where appropriate. Results may be tabulated or presented graphically. Make clear that you have drawn figures and that these have not been taken from other publications or Internet sources.
INVESTIGATIONS If relevant
TIPS: All investigations that create a background (baseline) picture are relevantAll investigations that are crucial to management decisions should be discussed in full – include the limitations of investigations and problems in their interpretationChoose appropriate images and videos to illustrate your point. Remove all details that identify the patient We do not publish images that include the patient’s face. Do not upload these.Images and videos should be fully annotated. Use arrows and labels with explanations so that readers may understand easily and may learn from these. Do not show the patient’s face in the video.
DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS If relevant
TIPS:Please do not list diagnoses. We want to understand how the final diagnosis was teased out. This is often the most important section and should be discussed in fullAll working diagnoses need to be substantiated
TREATMENT If relevant
TIPS: Include pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment, e.g. surgery, physiotherapy, supportive carePlease carefully check details of dosage and frequency (including loading doses and changes in dosage)We do not publish manuscripts about the efficacy of new treatments, new combinations of treatments, existing treatments used for new indications, or the results of phase 2 trialsWe do not publish case reports that describe off-label use of a drugWe do not publish manuscripts where the patient is currently enrolled in a clinical trial whether this relates to the treatment you describe or otherwiseIf your patient was previously treated as part of a clinical trial and this is relevant to the current case description, please, give full details of the trial with citations and explain exactly how this relates to the current case description. Is the trial ongoing? Are the authors of the manuscript the trial organisers? If not, are the trial organisers aware of the submission of this manuscript? This information should be disclosed in full in the author statements at submission.
OUTCOME AND FOLLOW-UP
TIP: Always include comprehensive follow-up data; this gives readers a clear understanding of outcomeFollow-up data should include the health of the patient, return to daily activity and work, and after care arrangementsThe follow-up period should be defined. Please update follow up data after final revision of the manuscript so that outcome information is up-to-datePlease include details of surveillance and up-to-date guidelines of disease outcome/monitoringPlease state whether the patient has died, when and whether this is related to the illness described
DISCUSSION Include a very brief review of similar published cases
TIPS: This is the opportunity to describe mechanisms of pathology/injury, current guidelines, diagnostic pathways (use original diagrams to illustrate processes), and the points of interest of the caseCite up-to-date supporting literatureInclude a summary of similar published cases. Where appropriate these may be tabulatedA summary of relevant clinical guidelines is importantPlease do not copy and paste from existing publications, texts or web resources (including material you have published yourself)Ensure that any content used from reference sources are clearly citedUse software to check for overlapping text before you submitPlease do not reproduce tables or figures from other publications without obtaining permission for reproduction before submissionMake clear (add a note in the legend) whether you have drawn your own figuresWe welcome all figures that illustrate clinical-pathological correlations – these add substantially to the learning value of the article
Are your conclusions supported by the clinical information described? Do you need to temper your conclusions? Have you described a possible causal association with adequate caution?
LEARNING POINTS/TAKE HOME MESSAGES 3-5 bullet points
THIS IS A REQUIRED FIELDTIPS: This is the most crucial part of the case – what do you want readers to remember when seeing their own patients? Are your conclusions supported by the clinical information described?Are your learning points derived from the particular case described?
REFERENCES
TIPS: Include only relevant references, including guidelines, in Vancouver styleMake sure your references actually support the points you make, are up-to-date and are correctly formatted
FIGURE/VIDEO CAPTIONS
TIPS: We do not have a limit on illustrations, but choose only what illustrates your case most effectively and ensure that the patient cannot not be recognised by cropping the image as closely as possible. We do not accept facial imagesCheck that all patient identifying information has been removed from imagesWe encourage colour images and videos. Please add arrows, captions and annotation. These substantially enhance the manuscript and add learning valueVideos should be of 3-4 minutes duration, and include relevant labels and annotation. There should be no background noise or music. If narrated, the audio should be clearly heard and understood. Please do not include animated text. Animations should be used only for the purposes of explanation and should be the authors’ work and specific to the casePlease visit the Author Hub for further information regarding formatting.
PATIENT’S PERSPECTIVE
TIPS: This is an important section and gives the patient/next of kin the opportunity to comment on their experience. This enhances the case report and is strongly encouragedThis section is written by the patient (or close family) in their own words, in the first-person. This is an opportunity for us to understand the signs and symptoms the patient experienced, their thoughts and concerns, their experience of the treatment they received, recovery and adjustment to life after or with illness or disabilitySpelling and grammar should be corrected where necessary (as per the rest of the manuscript) by the authors and non-English perspectives should be translated by the authors. Please make clear who has written the perspective and indicate when this has been translated by the authors. Patients who prefer to share an audio or video perspective should have this transcribed by the authors. For the purposes of anonymity audio and video recordings are not published Please check that details that reveal the identity of the patient are avoided. These include calendar dates, locations and details of other family membersSome published articles are picked up by the wider non-medical media and patients should be made aware of this, especially, when they contribute their perspective and when they give consent for publicationSingle sentences or statements of thanks to the clinical teams will not be published
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS ASSIGNMENT OR LICENCE STATEMENT
I, [INSERT YOUR NAME IN FULL], the Author has the right to grant and does grant on behalf of all authors, an exclusive licence and/or a non-exclusive licence for contributions from authors who are: i) UK Crown employees; ii) where BMJ has agreed a CC-BY licence shall apply, and/or iii) in accordance with the relevant stated licence terms for US Federal Government Employees acting in the course of the their employment, on a worldwide basis to the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd (“BMJ”) and its licensees, to permit this Work (as defined in the below licence), if accepted, to be published in BMJ Case Reports and any other BMJ products and to exploit all rights, as set out in our licence author licence. Date:
PLEASE SAVE YOUR TEMPLATE WITH THE FOLLOWING FORMAT: Submitting author’s last name and date of submission, e.g. Smith_April_2022.doc
اترك تعليقاً
يجب أنت تكون مسجل الدخول لتضيف تعليقاً.