For a researcher who wants to start his academic writing, the case report serves as a starting point for them. The case reports can come out with interesting and new educational information in their respective field of author’s. The case repot should not just be a normal one it should play vital role in improvement and better understanding of the research.
Select a Case
For choosing a case for your research consider it to be more unique, relevant and it should also provide some contribution to the already existing knowledge of the field.
>> Explain briefly about the content and your area of interest in the topic. Find out the gaps and limitations from already existing literatures which need more investigations.
>> Write clearly about your research objective first and the problem you are going to address in your study.
>> Write about the factors which you considered for selecting your case like uniqueness, rarity, how it is related with your research problem and any other criteria.
>> Try to write briefly about the existing literature and the gaps you identified from them which need more research.
>> Explain about the relevance between the objective of your research and the case topic you chose.
>> Discuss about the contribution and value your case can make to the existing knowledge of the topic and about the new innovation it can make.
>> Choose a topic based on the availability of resources, access to information and data.
>> Make a design for the research to study about the case.
>> Recheck whether the objective and topic of your research matches or not.
Review Guidelines and Policies
Every journal has their separate policies and guidelines for submitting the case report. To know about the requirement of your manuscript you have to check their website for it. The policies and guidelines of a journal state the requirements which are set by the respective journals or funding bodies or institutions which should be fulfilled while writing paper. The researcher should completely analyze the ethical considerations, protocols for data management and also the methodological standards which are given by the committee of research ethics and review boards of institution. To increase credibility and integrity of your research work you have to more focus on citation styles, guidelines of publication and also specification for formatting which is set by the journal. If you follow all those process you can be a researcher who follow all ethical standards, who maintain high research quality and also you can establish your work among your scholarly community of people.
Choose a Suitable Journal for Case Report
While selecting a journal for publishing your paper you should consider some of the factors like scope of the journal, impact factor and target audience. Examine the reputation of journal, times it takes for publishing and its visibility. You should check whether the scope and goal of the research topic matches with the journal or not. To submit your work you have to know about the submission requirements and formatting of that particular journal. To make your work more visible to academic community and to witness impact of your work you should choose a journal for publication which is appropriate for your research work.
Structure your Case Report According to the Journal Format
You have to follow the guidelines provided for journal to craft your case report. Consider the following:
>> Write the Abstract – While writing the abstract follow the format and word count instructions provide in the guidelines. Include details in abstract such as background information, key results and case presentation.
>> Introduction – In this part write about objective of your research and overview of your case.
>> Case Presentation – Present your case in a theme based or chronological order. If you research on cancer patients write about patient, their clinical history, treatment, diagnostic tests and the key findings.
>> Discussion – In this section write after analyzing the case and compare it to the already existing literature, about the clinical suggestion you can provide, highlight the key findings.
>> Conclusion – Conclude it with explaining briefly about key concepts and highlighting the importance of case. Suggest some new techniques and clinical practice for the future research.
>> References – Acknowledge and give credit to the references, sources, ideas and data you used for your report. For citing the literature, use the specific style which is preferred by the journal. You have to maintain a certain standard to your research paper by following the proper citing style like MLA, Chicago, APA or any other consistently throughout the paper. The citation of literatures and sources are very much important to show credibility and reliability of your research and to maintain academic integrity. It will also help other readers to follow up on the resources which you used in your report.
Get Internal Review
To maintain quality and to ensure validity of your work you should get feedback and review from your research collaborators, mentors or colleagues before submitting your paper. They will check your manuscript with content and your methodology and give you feedback. This can help you identify your mistakes in presentation of your work and allow you to rectify it.
Ethical Considerations
The ethical consideration refers to following the principles such as rights, dignity and well-being of the researcher. The one who do research work, should not do any potential harm, rather should maintain their consent, voluntary participation and confidentiality. The review board of your institution will check your ethical standards by approving and evaluating your research proposal. The ethical standard can be noticed in transparency of reporting, addressing the conflicts of your interest, respecting others culture and sensitivities. Following all these will not only increase your standards but also will increase the trust on your work among all the public, participants and the scientific community.
Submit Case Report to the Journal
For submitting your report you have to follow the specific process followed by the journal. You have to own an account in the journal for submitting your report where you should upload your figures, manuscript and other extra details. The submission process will be incomplete without entering the details like information about author, preferred reviewers and conflict between interests. You have to follow the writing guidelines for style and format of your paper. Once you have submitted your paper it will then undergo a peer review process to check its validity and quality. Then you have to make changes to your paper accordingly based on the feedback provided by reviewers.
Peer Review your Case Report
It is a very important and difficult process. This step involves evaluating your work on the basis of validity, credibility and quality of your findings by your peers or by the expert in certain field. They will provide you with feedback after reviewing the significance, ethical consideration and your methodology. Those evaluation processes enhances the quality and standard of your paper which ensures reliability and accountability of the scientific work. This will help you to produce a better result of your research which advances the knowledge about the particular field.
Publication
Publishing involves submitting your research work to a journal which will then publish your work after thorough reviewing with ensuring the validity and quality of your work. Once your paper is accepted by them, then it will be published in their journal after that your work will be visible to people all over the world that can help researchers from various place to use it for their work also.
>> Publish your paper in a highly impactful journal
>> Learn from the journals which publish articles other than print
>> Be like an OC while reviewing your paper
>> Go through the given feedbacks completely
>> Be adaptive to make changes