Elsevier's new online surgical journal publishes case reports

Sep 23 2010

New journal, included in PubMed Central, publishes case reports only and through an author pays model

Elsevier, the world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services together with Surgical Associates Ltd the Owner of the International Journal of Surgery, announced today the launch of the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports (IJSCR) a new author-pays online general surgical journal dedicated to publishing case reports only. The IJSCR was created to publish case reports previously submitted to the International Journal of Surgery, a peer reviewed Journal dedicated to publishing significant contributions to knowledge in clinical surgery, experimental surgery, surgical education and history.

Case reports include stories, anecdotes and patient-based learnings that complement evidence-based medicine and are essential to the advancement of healthcare. This new online peer reviewed journal will only publish case reports which are clinically interesting, authentic, educational and understandable to an international audience of surgeons and clinicians in related specialties.

"While infrequently cited for research purposes, case reports are popular and represent some of the oldest levels of evidence," said Professor R. David Rosin, Editor-in-Chief and Dr. Riaz Agha, Managing and Executive Editor. "In recent times the first face transplant and uterine transplant were presented as single cases. It is with the richness of such cases and demand from authors that we feel the time has come to launch International Journal of Surgery Case Reports. We make an open call to the wider surgical community to join us in this exciting venture and demonstrate the rich diversity of clinical surgery by submitting their best cases to IJSCR."

Elsevier aim to develop the science of case reports and raise their academic value. Ultimately, these case reports will form a rich database, a corpus of clinical information which could be mined for interesting trends/patterns, disease modeling and for the purposes of surveillance, especially of rare diseases.

Glen Campbell, Executive Vice President, Global Medical Research Journals at Elsevier noted, "The International Journal of Surgery Case Reports is an exciting opportunity for Elsevier to serve the needs of our authors, who know that case reports communicate important clinical findings within the surgical field, but recognize the challenge case reports face in being accepted by traditional research journals. The launch of this journal is an example of Elsevier's long standing record of adapting to meet authors' and readers' changing information and knowledge needs, preserving the quality and integrity of the peer review process, and providing value throughout the publishing cycle."

The editorial board is led by Editor in Chief, Professor R. David Rosin and Managing and Executive Editor, Dr. Riaz Agha. Professor Rosin is currently Professor of Surgery, University of the West Indies at the Cavehill campus and Queen Elizabeth Teaching Hospital, Bridgetown, Barbados. He is a past Senior Vice President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Past President of the British Association of Surgical Oncologists and the Association of Cancer Surgeons. He founded the Society for Minimally Invasive General Surgeons, now the Association of Laparoscopic Surgeons and is an examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons, the University of London and the University of the West Indies.

Dr. Riaz Agha BSc (Hons) MBBS is currently Founder, Managing and Executive Editor of the International Journal of Surgery and a Junior Doctor at Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in Cambridge. He is a Council Member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), a National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence Scholar and also sits on the Web Committee for the World Association of Medical Editors.

All case reports will be peer reviewed and if accepted for publication in the Journal, authors will be notified of this decision and at the same time requested to pay an Author Processing Fee of Euro 280 / US $392.50 (exclusive of VAT/Sales Tax). Following payment of this fee, case reports will join other titles which are universally available at no further charge through ScienceDirect http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/22102612. To submit a case report, go to the online submission site: http://ees.elsevier.com/ijscasereports.com.

Elsevier will also send to PubMed Central (PMC) the final authoritative version of each case report and will authorize its public posting on PMC, and PMC mirror sites, immediately. These sites will also link directly to the case report which will be made universally accessible on Elsevier's websites.

Source: Elsevier