Code of Ethics for Case-reports

2023-10-07

A case report is a scientific and clinically valuable article in the field of health sciences, which includes the clinical features of a unique disorder or syndrome, innovative methods of evaluation or treatment, pure findings resulting from any type of interventions either as change in lifestyle, personal or social interactions, or therapeutic/ non-therapeutic interventions in a certain individual. If more than one person are included, the study is known as a case-series report. Apart from the scientific principles of conducting and reporting these types of studies, ethical approval for publication of the results is particularly important since at the time of observing or conducting the intervention, the researcher did not think of publishing the data; therefore, unlike all other types of scientific studies in the fields of healthcare, they could not design the study before conducting it and get the ethics approval for the methodology and significance of the study. In these cases, the approach of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (MUI), as the owner of the Journal of Research in Rehabilitation Sciences (JRRS), to facilitate the process of reviewing these articles in the journal, is as follows:

Step One:

If you decided that you have the possibility to report a special and valuable case in the scientific framework of JRRS, you must first ask the person who is the target of your report to sign the informed consent. The approved informed consent form for MUI is accessible here (Website of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences/Deputy of Research and Technology/Structure/Management of Research Evaluation and Development/Forms (Procedures and Instructions), Clinical Case Report Form and Clinical Case Report Consent Form). The form must be signed by:

People under 7 years old and people over 18 years old with cognitive disorders documented by a valid and competent authorities: the legal guardian.
People 7 to 15 year olds: the legal guardian only if the target person also approved the procedure verbally
People 15 to 18 years old: both the person and the legal guardian
Persons over 18 years of age with healthy cognitive status: the individual

Step Two:

If at the time of recording the data, the person was being treated and hospitalized in a hospital, it is necessary to reflect the situation to the ethics committee of that medical center and obtain written and official permission to record the data.

Step Three:

Adjust the text of the manuscript according to JRRS format and the authors' guideline. Then download the clinical case report form from the aforementioned address and complete its different sections based on the article. Please note that this text is a report and unlike the proposal, all the verbs must be in past tense because you have already completed the data collection and analysis.

Step Four:

Sign up in the research assistant system of MUI at (https://researches.mui.ac.ir) and submit the form along with the signed informed consent, formal permission from hospital (in case) and all the images you intend to publish in your article. If you are a faculty member of a university or a research institution other than MUI, you can receive financial support for your research up to a certain limit. If you are not a faculty member, this financial support is not available, but in both cases, it is the only way to submit the documents to the ethics committee and receive ethics approval. For more information, contact the support numbers of the research assistant system of MUI. In this system, you can closely monitor the administrative process of your report until obtaining ethics approval and interact with the experts and reviewers.

Step Five

After receiving the code of ethics, prepare your manuscript along with all the required documents according to the JRRS authors' guideline and submit it in the journal system. We strongly recommend you to evaluate the content of your manuscript with the CARE guideline, which is specially designed for case reports. You can find this guideline at (https://www.care-statement.org/publications).

Good luck