How to Overcome the Barriers Behind Writing Case Reports for Beginners and Young General Physicians

Case reports are fundamental to clinical medicine that trace back to ancient Egypt preceding Hippocrates in the history of medicine. Case reports contribute to academic development and new clinical research. However, among cases presented at an annual academic conference for Japanese generalists, only a few cases were later published in peer-reviewed journals, highlighting potential barriers regarding the writing of case reports, such as mentorship absence. This paper aimed to offer guidance and strategies to novice and young general physicians in overcoming barriers and effectively composing case reports for international peer-reviewed journals.

This paper focuses on case reports for general physicians with extensive experience in writing case reports for international peer-reviewed journals. We conducted a narrative review to help beginners and young general physicians in writing case reports and discussed strategies for overcoming these barriers.

We propose the following three tips as important processes for writing case reports: recognize the types of suitable cases for case reports; select a journal for submission using a list of candidate journals for general physicians; and organize the discussion section with one theme per paragraph. In addition, we provide a list of journals that specifically focus on case reports, along with important pointers for beginners and young general physicians that will assist authors in the field of general medicine in choosing appropriate journals for submission.

We hope that understanding and applying these tips will aid beginners and young general physicians in writing case reports.