Abstract
In this Letter to the Editor, Agrawal et al. debate the conflicts that can arise regarding the authorship of case reports. Like all other medical journals, EJCRIM has zero tolerance for the willful undisclosed re-submission of papers that have already been published elsewhere. However, this may occasionally happen by accident, especially in large healthcare institutions in which multiple teams of physicians may care for a patient throughout their illness. EJCRIM endorses and recommends to all potential authors the very sensible suggestions made by Agrawal et al. to avoid such an error occurring. EJCRIM would also encourage authors to consider the following: The first author should ensure that no one else involved in the case has reported it or plans to report it. This is especially important for physicians working in large healthcare centres, and/or for case reports of patients who have been under investigation or treatment for prolonged periods.On rare occasions EJCRIM will consider a case that has already been published, provided that this is fully and explicitly disclosed, and there is a clear reason why re-publication is justified. An example might be where new information has come to light that significantly changes the conclusions of the original report. As in all reports published by EJCRIM the decision to publish will depend on the educational value, or learning points, of the case.