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The Right to Write: Who 'Owns' the Case Report?
Akanksha Agrawal1, Dylan Eiger2, Deepanshu Jain3
1Department of Internal Medicine, Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
European Journal of Case Reports in Internal Medicine
|February 14, 2019
Summary
Authors should prevent duplicate case report submissions to medical journals. First authors must confirm no prior or planned reporting by others, especially in large institutions or for long-term patient cases.
Area of Science:
- Medical Publishing Ethics
- Scientific Integrity
Background:
- Authorship disputes and unintentional duplicate submissions of case reports can arise.
- Large healthcare institutions may have multiple teams involved in patient care, increasing the risk of duplication.
Purpose of the Study:
- To address conflicts regarding case report authorship and submission.
- To provide recommendations for avoiding accidental duplicate submissions.
Main Methods:
- Discussion of ethical considerations in medical publishing.
- Endorsement of suggestions by Agrawal et al. to prevent duplicate submissions.
- Encouragement for authors to verify originality of case reports.
Main Results:
- EJCRIM has zero tolerance for willful undisclosed re-submission of already published papers.
- Accidental duplicate submissions can occur, particularly in complex patient care scenarios.
- Authors are advised to proactively ensure the novelty of their case reports.
Conclusions:
- First authors must verify that a case has not been and will not be reported by others.
- EJCRIM may consider previously published cases if fully disclosed with justification and significant new information.
- Publication decisions are based on the educational value and learning points of the case report.