BioMed Central, the leading open access publisher, today announced the launch of Journal of Medical Case Reports, the only journal in the world that is devoted purely to case reports. An online, open access peer-reviewed journal, Journal of Medical Case Reports is expected to publish its first articles in early 2007. The journal is now accepting submissions at http://jmedicalcasereports.com/.
"Case reports that expand the field of medicine are of interest and value to clinicians. Publishing case reports helps fulfil the need to gather more comprehensive data about individual cases. This potentially valuable resource is currently neglected by many medical journals, so Journal of Medical Case Reports will provide an important outlet for these studies." says Professor Deborah Saltman, BioMed Central’s Editorial Director for Medicine.
Journal of Medical Case Reports will consider any original case report that expands the field of general medical knowledge. Case reports will be short (no more than 2000 words). All case reports published in Journal of Medical Case Reports will be aggregated into a highly structured case reports database. The case reports database, currently in development, will also draw content from other sources, making it possible to see patterns of drug reactions, demographic data and disease reports, for example, across multiple case reports.
Editorial control of the journal will rest with Editor-in-Chief Professor Michael Kidd, and an international editorial board. "The editorial board will consider unpublished case reports than expand the field of general medical knowledge. Examples could include reports of unusual side effects or adverse interactions involving medications, unexpected or unusual presentations of a particular disease, or the clinical details of new and emerging diseases." says Professor Kidd, Head of the Department of General Practice at The University of Sydney and past President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
Traditionally case reports have been very important in clinical research, but in recent years statistical analysis has become more popular. According to Jeffrey Aronson, Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford and an expert in adverse drug reactions, "Anecdotal case reports have several uses, for example to generate and test hypotheses about the use of medicines, and to elucidate methods of diagnosis or management. Many adverse reactions to drug are first reported as anecdotes. In a few cases, anecdotes can even provide definitive evidence by themselves. A journal devoted to such reports is greatly welcome."