Instructions to Authors

Author Guidelines

Indian Journal of Case Reports (IJCR) is an international, online, and print journal published quarterly by the Mansa STM Publishers, India. IJCR aims to promote scientific communication among medical researchers worldwide. The journal allows free access (Open Access) to its contents; therefore, authors are free to self-archive the final accepted version of the article. The journal’s full text is freely available online at https://mansapublishers.com/IJCR/. With the aim of faster and better dissemination of knowledge, all the articles will also be published as ‘Online First’ immediately upon acceptance.

Manuscript Submission:

All manuscripts must be submitted online through the journal’s online manuscript submission system. The manuscript should also be submitted simultaneously as an email attachment to editor.ijcr@mansapublishers.com. Postal submission will not be entertained.

The Editorial Process:

All manuscripts must be submitted to IJCR alone, must not be previously published, already accepted for publication, or under consideration for publication elsewhere. After acceptance in the journal, the manuscript must not be published elsewhere in any form without prior permission from the editor-in-chief or publisher. All manuscripts submitted to the IJCR receives individual identification code and would initially be reviewed by the editors for suitability for publication. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws, or a lack of a significant message are returned before proceeding for formal peer-review.

Manuscripts found suitable for publication are sent to two or more expert reviewers for peer-review. The journal follows a double-blind review process, wherein the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other’s identity. After receiving the reviewer’s report/comments, the report will be communicated to the authors for possible corrections. Authors will be directed to submit a revised manuscript within the time limit, along with a point-by-point response to reviewers’ comments. We ensure speedy publication of the submitted articles and target to finish the initial review process within 4-6 weeks. However, this time period can change depending on the quality of the manuscript submitted, the reviewer’s response, and the time taken by the authors to submit the revised manuscript.

Ethics, informed consent, and patient anonymity: 

Authors should obtain ethical clearance from the ethical committee for the study, and if requested by the journal’s editorial board, the authors should produce a copy of the ethical clearance. It is the author's responsibility to ensure patients' anonymity. In images or illustrations, the patient’s eyes should be masked. However, if the eye area is the focus of illustration, the patient's nose and mouth should be masked, and written consent must be obtained from the patients'/legal guardian. Patients' names should be removed from the figures, radiographs, and CT scans unless written consent is obtained.

Authorship Criteria:

All the authors should have substantial contributions to each of the following three components: 1. Concept and design of study or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data; 2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3. Final approval of the version to be published. Authors should provide a description of the contributions made by each of them towards the manuscript. At least one author should take the responsibility for the integrity of the work and should be designated as 'guarantor'. Authors' contributions will be published along with the article. 

Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests:

All authors must disclose any conflicts of interest they may have with the publication of the manuscript or an institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented.

Copies of any permission(s):

It is the responsibility of authors/contributors to obtain permission for reproducing any copyrighted material. A copy of the permission obtained must accompany the manuscript.

Preparation of Manuscript:

Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with "Uniform requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (October 2006). The manuscript should be typewritten in 12 font sizes using Times New Roman font, with margins of at least one inch on all sides. Pages should be numbered consecutively on the top right corner of the pages, starting with the title page. The matter should be arranged in the following order: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Case Report, Discussion and Conclusions, Acknowledgement, References, Tables, and Figures, along with captions and legends. The manuscript should be submitted in two separate files: 1. Title page, and 2. Blinded article file

Title Page: This file should provide -

1. Type of the manuscript (case report, images, letter to the editor, etc.)
2. Title of the manuscript
3. Short running title (up to 50 characters)
4. Names of all the authors/ contributors (with their highest academic degrees, designation, and affiliations)
5. Name(s) of department(s) and/ or institution(s) to which the work should be credited
6. Corresponding author details, including full address, e-mail address, and phone number or mobile number
7. The total number of pages, figures, and tables
8. Word counts (separately for the abstract and the text excluding the abstract, references, tables, and figure legends).
9. Source(s) of support in the form of grants/ funding, equipment, drugs, or all of these.
10. Conflicts of interest of each author.
11. Contribution details

Blinded Article file:

The manuscript must not contain any mention of the authors' names, initials, or the institution. The main text of the article, beginning from Abstract to References (including tables) should be in this file. Use doc files and do not zip the files.

Abstract: An unstructured abstract (not exceeding 300 words) should be provided.

Keywords: Up to 4-6 keywords related to the work must be typed at the end of the abstract.

Introduction: It should be a concise statement of the background to the work presented, including relevant earlier work, suitably referenced. It should start on a new page.

Case report: It shall be started as a continuation of the introduction on the same page. All important materials and equipment, the manufacturer’s name, and, if possible, the location should be provided. The main clinical features and investigations shall be briefly described.

Discussion: This section should deal with the interpretation of results, making readers understand the problem taken, and should be logical. The discussion should state the scope of the results, which need to be further explored.

Conclusions: Concisely summarize the principal conclusions of the work and highlight the wider implications. This section should not merely duplicate the abstract.

Types of Manuscripts:

New, interesting, or rare cases of clinical significance can be reported. However, mere reporting of a rare but already known case may not be considered. Learning outcomes of the articles should be important and novel. Case report submitted to IJCR must meet at least one of the following criteria: 1) Unusual or atypical presentations of a disease, 2) Any new or unexpected associations of a disease, 3) Uncommon side effects or adverse interactions involving medications, 4) Diagnoses or management of new or emerging diseases, 5) New or unique therapeutic/surgical approach, 6) Common cases presenting a diagnostic, ethical, or management challenge, or 7) Cases highlighting various aspects of mechanisms of injury, pharmacology, or histopathology.

These reports should include an up-to-date review of similar cases already published. Case reports should include relevant positive and negative findings from history, examination, and investigations, and can include clinical photographs, which should be accompanied by written consent to publish from the patient orthe  patient’s relative.

Case Reports: 

The prescribed word limit is up to 1500 words, excluding up to 15 references and abstract (150 words). Case reports should be written under the following headings: Abstract (unstructured), Keywords, Introduction, Case report, Discussion, References, Tables, and Legends in that order. Pictures/images should be submitted separately in JPG or jpeg format.

Case Series:

Case series include reports involving more than 2 cases. It can be retrospective or prospective and consists of patients with similar exposure given similar treatment or examines their records for exposure and outcome. The word limit is 1500 words for the main text and 200 words for the abstract, with up to 15 references.

Letter to the editor:

Under this heading, short correspondence would be included. Letters must not duplicate other material published, submitted, or planned to be submitted for publication. Short and decisive observations, preferably related to articles previously published in the journal, can also be sent under this heading. The matter should be unstructured but should follow the general sequence of introduction, methods, results, and discussion, and all other guidelines in ‘Preparing the Manuscript’.  The word limit is up to 1000 words and up to 10 references.

Images in clinical practice/ radiology/ pathology:

In this section, brief articles comprising a maximum of 4 striking and/or clinically important images can be submitted. The article should contain a brief description of the educational message. Accepted image formats are JPG, TIFF, and gif. All black and white images should be saved at a minimum of 300 dpi. Colour images should be saved and supplied as a high-quality file at a minimum of 600 dpi. Colour images should not exceed 2MB at a minimum resolution of 600 dpi. If you choose a higher resolution, your image dimension should be reduced accordingly to keep the file under 2MB.

Spot the Diagnosis:

A classical clinical, radiological, pathological, or other signs can be submitted as the spot diagnosis.

Clinicopathology conferences:

Completely worked-up cases with complete autopsy findings can be reported here. There should be some important facts to learn. It should contain an unstructured abstract, important clinical findings, post-mortem investigations, histopathology features, and final diagnosis with a brief discussion of lessons to learn.

Book reviews:

Authors of books seeking review may submit two copies of the book to the editor. The editor invites experts in the field to submit a review, which may be submitted voluntarily to the editor along with a copy of the book.

Others:

Editorial, Guest Editorial, Commentary, and Opinion articles are solicited by the editorial board.

References:

References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text (not in alphabetic order). Identify references in the text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in the square bracket before the punctuation marks. References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. Use the complete name of the journal for non-indexed journals. Avoid using abstracts as references. 

Standard Journal Articles:

1. For up to six authors:

Agrawal A, Singh VK, Varma A, Sharma R. Intravenous arginine vasopressin infusion in refractory vasodilatory shock: A clinical study. Indian J Pediatr. 2012;79(4):488-493.

1. For more than six authors: List the first six authors followed by et al. 

Nobili V, Marcellini M, Giovannelli L, Girolami E, Muratori F, Giannone G, et al. Association of serum interleukin-8 levels with the degree of fibrosis in infants with chronic liver disease. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2004;39(5):540-4.

Personal author (book):

Leung AK.  Common Problems in Ambulatory Pediatrics: Symptoms and Signs, 1^st ed. New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2011.

Chapter in a book:

Leung AK.  Oral rehydration therapy and early refeeding in the management of childhood gastroenteritis.  In: Overton LT, Ewente MR, eds.  Child Nutrition Physiology.  New York: Nova Biomedical Books; 2008. p. 127-152.

Conference proceedings:

Harnden P, Joffe JK, Jones WG, editors. Germ cell tumors V. Proceedings of the 5th Germ Cell Tumour Conference; 2001 Sep 13-15; Leeds, UK. New York: Springer; 2002.

Conference paper:

Christensen S, Oppacher F. An analysis of Koza's computational effort statistic for genetic programming. In: Foster JA, Lutton E, Miller J, Ryan C, Tettamanzi AG, editors. Genetic programming. EuroGP 2002: Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Genetic Programming; 2002 Apr 3-5; Kinsdale, Ireland. Berlin: Springer; 2002. p. 182-91.

Unpublished Material:

Children and adolescents with chronic constipation: How many seek healthcare and what determines it? Rajindrajith S, Devanarayana NM, Benninga MA. J Tropical Pediatr. 2011 Dec 6. [Epub ahead of print]

Electronic Material CD-ROM:

Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) Training Aids [on CD-ROM]. National Neonatology Forum, New Delhi, 2006.Hemodynamics III: the ups and downs of hemodynamics [computer program]. Version 2.2. Orlando (FL): Computerized Educational Systems;1993.

Journal article on the Internet:

Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs [Internet]. 2002 Jun [cited 2002 Aug 12];102(6):[about 1 p.]. Available from:http://www.nursingworld.org/AJN/2002/june/Wawatch.htmArticle

Homepage/Website:

Cancer-Pain.org [Internet]. New York: Association of Cancer Online Resources, Inc.; c2000-01 [updated 2002 May 16; cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.cancer-pain.org/.

Acknowledgments:

Acknowledgments, as well as information regarding funding sources, should be provided.

Tables:

Each table should be given at appropriate places within the text rather than at the end, numbered in sequence with the body of the text. Tables should be headed with a short, descriptive caption. They should be formatted with horizontal lines only; vertical ruled lines are not required. Footnotes to tables should be indicated with a), b), c), etc., and typed on the same page as the table.

Figures:

Should be on separate pages but not inserted within the text. All figures must be referred to in the text and numbered with Arabic numerals in the sequence in which they are cited. All the photographs should be submitted as separate JPEG images. Each figure must be accompanied by a legend explaining the contents of the figure. Graphs and bar diagrams should preferably be prepared using Microsoft Excel and submitted as an Excel graph pasted in Word.  Keys to symbols, abbreviations, arrows, numbers, or letters used in the illustrations should not be written on the illustration itself but should be clearly explained in the legend. Avoid inserting a box with the key to symbols in the figure or below the figure. All Tables and Figures captions, and legends should be typed on a separate page.

Article Proofs:

Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author via email. They must carefully check and return the revised manuscript within 72 hours. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that the galley proof is returned without delay with corrections. In case of any delay, authors are responsible for the contents that appeared in their published manuscripts.

Copyright:

IJCH is open access journals, and authors will keep the copyright. Authors can use the final published manuscript to disseminate the knowledge at various platforms; however, the journal should be given due credit at such platforms.

Disclaimer:

While the advice and information in this journal are believed to be true and accurate at the date of going to press, neither the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors and omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.

Contact Us:

Dr. Amit Agrawal

Department of Pediatrics,

8th floor, Block -2, Hamidia Hospital,

Gandhi Medical College

Bhopal, MP, India - 462030

E-mail – editor.ijcr@mansapublishers.com