How to Write a Case Report for Journal of Orthopaedic Case Reports– What do Editor and Reviewer want?

Abstract

More than two years have passed since Journal of Orthopaedic Case Reports (JOCR) has started publication. Over this period of time a huge number of Reviewers and Editorial Board Members have contributed to review the articles and send comments on improvement of various aspect of case reports. I have personally reviewed all articles that are published in the journal. During this course a lot of tips and tricks about writing a good case report were noted and I wished to share them with our authors and readers. Also with increase in number of submissions to JOCR, we come across many good case reports, which are poorly written. This leads to delay in publishing the reports and good formatting and content will significantly reduce the time to publication. These two intentions prompted me to write this Editorial giving a brief perspective on what the Editors and Reviewers want from the authors when they write a case report for JOCR. I shall cover the topic as per headings of the case report. Title: the title of the case report should be descriptive and should contain broad details of the case. It should be appealing to the reader and should arose interest in the case report. A blanket title like ‘Aneurysmal bone cyst of calcaneum: a rare case report’ should be written in a more descriptive terms like ‘Curettage and bone grafting for aneurysmal bone cyst of calcaneum in a young woman: Surgical decision making and outcome” Abstract: a structured abstract is needed as per JOCR guidelines. The introduction part of abstract should clearly mention why the case is reported. The case report part should contain the salient features of the case and conclusions part should contain all the important learning points from the case. Keywords are essential and if possible do format them according to medical subject heading (Mesh) terminology from pubmed