Article type definitions

     

Case report
A medical case report – also sometimes called a clinical case study – is an original short report that describes a single patient case. Case reports include detailed information on the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of an individual patient. They remain one of the cornerstones of medical progress and provide many new ideas in medicine.

Depending on the journal, a case report doesn’t necessarily need to describe an especially novel or unusual case as there is benefit from collecting details of many standard cases.

Authors are advised to read the specific journal Aims and Scope information before submission to check if there are journal specific requirements for a case report article.

Case series
More than 1 case report. A case series (also known as a clinical series) is a medical research descriptive study that tracks patients with a known exposure given similar treatment or examines their medical records for exposure and outcome.

Case series can be retrospective or prospective and usually involves a smaller number of patients than more powerful case-control studies or randomized controlled trials. Case series may be consecutive or non-consecutive, depending on whether all cases presenting to the reporting authors over a period were included, or only a selection.

Authors are advised to read the specific journal Aims and Scope information before submission to check if there are journal specific requirements for a case series article.

Clinical Trial Report
 
A clinical trial report is based on any human research study that prospectively assigns individuals or groups of participants to one or more health-related interventions to assess a health-related outcome. The types of interventions assessed can include (but are not restricted to) drugs, cells and biological products, surgical products, devices and behavioral treatments.

Before you submit a clinical trial report, you will need to include the clinical trial number and registration date in the manuscript, usually in the abstract and methods sections.

Commentary
Short, decisive observations and findings that generally relate to a contemporary issue, such as recent research findings, but can also include the discussion of difficulties and possible solutions in a field of research.

Corrigendum
Correction to an error made by the author in a published paper.


Data Note

A Data Note is a short peer-reviewed article type that concisely describes research data stored in a repository. They increase the discoverability and transparency of your research, helping to comply with funder mandates on data sharing and make data FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable).

Data Notes do not include any analysis or conclusions but will either:

  • be linked to a research article incorporating analysis of the published dataset, as well as the results and conclusions; or
  • highlight standalone data sets stored in a repository

Data notes must describe research data generated and owned by the authors and should include:

  • Dataset rationale, protocol, and validation details URL link to the data repository
  • Information about any limitations of the dataset
  • Information on where and how to access the dataset, as part of a data availability statement
  • Reference to the dataset using a formal citation
  • Where applicable, cite and summarize any previous publications that use the data presented


Editorial
An opinion piece written by the senior editorial staff or publisher. Editorials may be supposed to reflect the opinion of the journal. Guest Editorials may only be submitted when an Editor-in-Chief has approached the author to write one directly. Regular submissions cannot be made as Editorial pieces.

Erratum

Correction to an error made by the publisher in a published paper.

Expert opinion

Expert opinion articles are aimed at research groups and committees to contribute to the interpretation of recent findings in any research area, value of the methods used within the field, as well as weaknesses and strengths of scientific hypotheses or theories, in order to develop ‘best-practice’ guidelines. Expert opinion articles are based on scientific evidence and promote discussion on current principles, standards and recommendations.

Hypothesis
A Hypothesis article proposes a new argument, interpretation, or model intended to introduce a new hypothesis or theory as a result of new findings published in a field. They may contain more speculation than a review but should be based on published data.

Letter to the editor
Letters to the editor will be considered for publication if they are pertinent to articles recently published in Dove Medical Press (DMP) journals. They should provide a useful and objective critique of the DMP paper, usually warranting a response from the original authors. All letters will be screened for appropriateness and significance, and the editor may assign external peer review at their discretion. All letters should be received as soon as possible after publication of the original paper. Letters are limited to 500 words and must contain relevant and appropriate references, one of which should be the DMP paper. There should be no more than three authors and no more than two letters should be submitted per journal per year.

Meeting Report
A Meeting Report focuses on developments presented at the meeting, particularly any new research discoveries. The abstract of the Meeting Report should be short and unstructured giving the name, location (city and state or country) and dates, as well as an indication of the meeting. The body of the article can have subsections with short headings. If speakers are mentioned please provide their full name, institution, city and country. There should be a maximum word count of 2500 words. A reference list should not be included. If a collection of the abstracts is published from the meeting a URL should be included of where these can be found.


Method
A Method article is a medium length peer-reviewed, research-focused article type that aims to answer a specific question. It also describes an advancement or development of current methodological approaches and research procedures (akin to a research article), following the standard layout for research articles.

This includes new study methods, substantive modifications to existing methods, or innovative applications of existing methods to new models or scientific questions. These should include adequate and appropriate validation to be considered, and any datasets associated with the paper must publish all experimental controls and make full datasets available.  

They share innovations and new ways of approaching research questions, increasing the transparency, accessibility and reproducibility of research, and can be uploaded to protocols.io to increase findability.

Information on formatting Method Articles


Methodology
The systematic, theoretical analysis of current existing methods applied to a field of study, or the theoretical analysis of the body of methods and principles associated with a branch of knowledge. A Methodology article does not set out to provide solutions but offers the theoretical underpinning for understanding which method, set of methods or “best practices” can be applied to a specific case.

Original research
Original research articles are detailed studies reporting new work and are classified as primary literature.

They should present originality in findings and insights and offer theoretical, empirical, experimental and/or methodological advances to their respective fields of research. Null and negative findings and reanalyses of previous studies leading to new results, as well as confirmatory results, are also encouraged.

Typically, especially in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects, these articles will include Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion sections.

Perspectives
A Perspective is a review that is written with the author’s point of view in mind. They focus on fundamental concepts or prevalent ideas in a specific field or discipline, and discuss current advances or future directions, and may include original data as well as personal insights and opinions.

Photo Essays
A Photo Essay should focus on the visual aspects of the topic presented. It should be a series of photographs that visually tell the story the author wishes to convey. The photos should be self-explanatory of very high quality. Photographs can be of clinical subjects, laboratory results (eg, slides, scans, magnetic resonance images, ultrasonograms) and therapeutic procedures. A Photo Essay should not exceed 300 words and should have no more than 10 references. The number of photographs is limited to 10, with a limit of 60 words for each legend. Please note that not all journals published by Dove Medical Press accept Photo Essays, please ask before submitting.

Poster Extracts
Poster extracts are an alternative publication solution to poster presentations at conferences. The intention of poster extracts is to reformat the poster into a publication-based summary for ease of dissemination. Poster extracts can cover multiple posters within one article, up to a maximum of 15 poster extracts within one article. We encourage the grouping of poster extracts by broad topic (e.g., a therapy type or indication) under one descriptive, overarching title (in addition to the individual poster titles). When including multiple poster extracts within one article, please number your poster extracts. The authors of the poster extract should be the same as on the original poster.

Rapid communication
Same as a Short report.

Research Letter
Research Letters are concise, focused reports of original research or observations. They should not be under consideration, submitted or published elsewhere in any form, in part or as whole. They should not exceed 2,000 words of text and 7 references, and up to 2 tables or figures/photographs/images (photograph format should follow research article guidelines – see Figures and Tables). Research Letters should not contain an Abstract or Keywords but authors should follow the manuscript preparation and submission guidelines. Research letters are subject to external peer review and will be screened for appropriateness and significance. The Editor-in-Chief of the journal will make the final decision on publication. Research Letters not meeting these specifications are generally not considered for publication.

Retraction
In science, a retraction of a published scientific article indicates that the original article should not have been published and that its data and conclusions should not be used as part of the foundation for future research. The most common reasons for the retraction of articles are scientific misconduct including plagiarism, serious errors, and duplicate/concurrent publishing (self-plagiarism).

Review
Review articles include literature reviews, systematics reviews and meta-analyses, and they provide critical and constructive analysis of existing published literature in a field. Review articles are usually structured to provide a summary of existing literature, analysis, and comparison. Often, they identify specific gaps or problems and provide recommendations for future research.

Please note that not all journals will consider meta-analyses and authors are advised to read the specific journal Aims and Scope and apply for a meta-analysis pre-submission check where indicated.

Unlike original research articles, review articles are considered as secondary literature. This means that they generally don’t present new data from the author’s experimental work, but instead provide analysis or interpretation of a body of primary research on a specific topic. Secondary literature is an important part of the academic ecosystem because it can help explain new or different positions and ideas about primary research, identify gaps in research around a topic, or spot important trends that one individual research article may not.

Short report
Brief reports of up to 2000 words containing data from original research, focused on initial findings that will be of interest to scientists in other fields.

Study protocol
A study protocol describes in detail the plan for conducting a specific clinical study and explains the purpose and function of the study as well as how to carry it out. Please note that not all journals accept a Study protocol and authors are advised to read the specific journal Aims and Scope information before submission to confirm that Study protocols are considered by the selected journal.

Updated 4 October 2023