The first 8 years: International Medical Case Reports Journal – summary of publications from 2008 to July 2016

RJ Prineas,¹ SG Fraser,² CE Stevens<sup>3

1</sup>Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA; ²Sunderland Eye Infirmary, Sunderland, UK; ³Department of Epidemiology, New York Blood Center, New York, NY, USA

The case report has a secure place in medical reporting and medical history stretching back to hand-written manuscripts, early medical texts, and earliest medical scientific publications. As scientific methods took hold, fewer case histories were accepted for publication, being replaced by case series and then analyses from epidemiologic studies, clinical trials (controlled and otherwise), and reports of laboratory clinical practice. Clinicopathology conferences around reporting and presentation of separate cases continue to be convened for regular meetings in hospitals and medical schools for teaching purposes. Case reports appear regularly in sections of medical journals or, more recently, as separate journals devoted entirely to them. Further, open-access case report journals have increased in number markedly in the past decade in parallel with International Medical Case Reports Journal (IMCRJ) submissions.¹
Since the beginning of the publication, the number of journal articles published in IMCRJ has increased steadily from 3 in the inauguration year (2008) to 69 in the latest full year of publication (Table 1), indicating the growing interest in disseminating such reports.
The Journal, established by Dove Press, started publishing in 2008. During the first 8 years (until July 2016), published reports came from 50 separate countries (including articles from Africa, Asia, Europe UK, and USA). Sixty one percent of submitted reports (235/387) have been published, and 152 reports were rejected.
The number of “reviewers” for each report ranged from 2 to 6, with an average of 3. The 3 leading countries submitting articles were the United States, Japan, and Turkey. Most papers have come from a single author or group, but 29 author groups submitted 2 or more reports and one group has submitted 6.