Case report
Medical case reports (sometimes referred to as clinical case study) is an original short report describing a single patient case. The case report contains detailed information on the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of an individual patients. They are still one of the cornerstones of medical progress and offer many new ideas in medicine.
Depending on the journal, case reports do not necessarily need to describe particularly new or unusual cases, as there is benefit from collecting details of many standard cases.
Authors are advised to read specific journal Aims and Scope information before submission to verify whether a particular journal requirements for case report article.
Case series
More than one case report. Case series (also known as clinical series) is a descriptive study of medical research that tracks known exposures or examines the outcome of exposures and medical records.
Case series can be retrospective or prospective and usually involves a smaller number of patients than more powerful case-control studies or randomized controlled trials. Case series may be consecutive or non-consecutive, depending on whether all cases presenting to the reporting authors over a period were included, or only a selection.
Authors are advised to read the specific journal Aims and Scope information before submission to check if there are journal specific requirements for a case series article.
Clinical Trial Report
The clinical trial report is based on any human research study evaluating the health impact of using individual or groupings for one or more health interventions. Types of interventions assessed include drugs, cells and biological products, surgical products, devices and behavioral therapies (but not limited to drugs).
Before the clinical trials report is submitted, the clinical trial number and registration date must be included in the manuscript, usually in the abstract and method sections.
Commentary
Short, decisive observations and findings generally relating to contemporary issues, such as recent research findings, can also include discussions about difficulties and possible solutions in the field of research.
Corrigendum
Correction to an error made by the author in a published paper.
Data Note
Data Note is a short peer-reviewed article that describes the research data stored in the repository. They increase the discovery and transparency of your research and help to meet funds' mandates in the field of data sharing, making data FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable).
The data notes do not contain analysis or conclusions, but are either:
- Be linked to research articles that include the analysis of published data sets, as well as results and conclusions or
- highlight a set of independent data stored in a repository
Data notes must describe research data generated and owned by the author, and should include:
- Dataset rationale, protocol, and validation details URL link to the data repository
- Information about any data limitations of the data set
- Information about the data set's location and access, in the data availability statement
- Reference to the data set using a formal citation
- Where applicable, cite and summarize all previous publications that use the data presented.
Editorial
An opinion piece written by senior editorial staff or publishers. The editors should reflect the opinion of the journal. Guest editors may submit articles only when the editor-in-chief addresses the author directly. Regular submissions cannot be made as editorial pieces.
Erratum
Correction to errors by the publisher of published articles.
Expert opinion
Expert opinion papers are aimed at research groups and committees aimed at interpreting the most recent findings of research in any field, interpreting the value of the methods used in this field, and identifying the weaknesses and strengths of scientific hypotheses and theories to formulate guidelines for “best practices”. Expert opinions are based on scientific evidence and encourage discussion of current principles, standards and recommendations.
Hypothesis
Hypothesis articles propose new arguments, interpretations, or models for introducing new hypothesis or theories as a result of new findings published in the field. They may contain more speculation than a review, but they should be based on published data.
Letter to the editor
Letters to the editor are considered for publication if they relate to articles published recently in the journals of the Red Flower Publications (RFP). They should provide useful and objective criticism of RFP papers, which usually needs the original authors' response. All letters are examined for relevance and significance, and the editor may assign external peer review at its own discretion. All letters should be received as soon as possible after the publication of the original paper. The letter must be limited to 500 words and include relevant and appropriate references, one of which should be the RFP paper. There should be no more than three authors and no more than two letters per journal per year.
Meeting Report
A Meeting Report focuses on the developments presented at the meeting, in particular all new discoveries of research. The abstract of the Meeting Report should be brief and unstructured, including the name, location (city, state, country) and date, as well as the date of the meeting. The body of an article may have a short heading subsection. If the speaker is mentioned, please specify their full name, institution, city and country. The maximum number of words should be 2,500. Reference lists should not be included. If a collection of abstracts from the meeting is published, it is necessary to include a URL where they can be found.
Method
Methods are a type of medium length peer-reviewed, research-oriented article aimed at addressing specific problems. It also describes the progress and development of current methodological approaches and research procedures (similar to research articles), according to the standard layout of research articles.
These include new research methods, substantive changes to existing methods or innovative applications of existing methods to new models or scientific questions. These should include adequate and appropriate validation to be taken into account, and any data set associated with the paper must publish all experimental controls and make full data sets available.
They share innovations and new approaches to research issues that increase research transparency, accessibility and reproducibility and can be uploaded to protocols.io to increase searchability.
Information on Format Articles Method
Methodology
Systematic theoretical analysis of existing methods applied in the field of study, or theoretical analysis of the methods and principles associated with knowledge. Methodology does not aim to provide a solution, but provides a theoretical basis for understanding how methods, sets of methods, or “best practices” can be applied in specific cases.
Original research
Original research articles are detailed studies of new research and are classified as primary literature.
They should present original findings and ideas and provide theoretical, empirical, experimental and/or methodological advances in their respective fields of research. No positive and negative findings and re-analysis of previous studies that yield new and confirmatory results are also encouraged.
Typically, especially in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), these articles include abstracts, introductions, methods, results, discussions, and conclusions.
Perspectives
A perspective is a review written in the light of the author's point of view. They focus on basic concepts or common concepts in a specific field or discipline, discuss current advances or future directions and may include original data and personal thoughts and opinions.
Poster Extracts
Poster extracts are an alternative to poster presentations in conferences. The purpose of the posters' extracts is to reformulate the posters into a summary based on publication in order to facilitate dissemination. A poster extraction can include multiple posters within an article, up to 15 posters extracts within an article. We encourage the grouping of poster extracts by broad themes (e.g. type of treatment or indication) under a descriptive and comprehensive title (in addition to individual poster titles). When introducing multiple poster extracts into a single article, please include a number of poster extracts. The authors of the poster extracts should be the same as the original poster.
Rapid communication
Same as a Short report.
Registered Report
Registered Reports are empirical articles submitted by journals in which methods and proposed analyses are pre-registered and reviewed before research is conducted. High-quality protocols are then provisionally accepted for publication before data collection begins.
This format is designed to minimize publication and research biases in hypothesis-driven research while also providing flexibility for exploratory analyses (unregistered) and the reporting of unexpected results.
Inhibits the following questionable research practices:
- P-hacking - (e.g. Simmons et al., 2011) is a practice of obtaining a useful p-value for researchers (e.g. adding new data to the analysis until the results support researchers' claims).
- Cherry selection - Reporting only favourable results for researchers and ignoring or hiding negative results.
- HARKing (Hypothesizing After the Results are Known: Kerr 1988) is a method of constructing hypothesis after the results of an experiment are known, ensuring good or challenging stories.
Research Letter
Research letters are concise and focusing reports on original research or observations. They should not be consideration, submitted or published elsewhere in any form, whether in part or in whole. It should not exceed 2,000 words of text and 7 references, and up to two tables or figures/photos/images (photo formats should follow with research article guidelines - see Figures and Tables. The research letter should not contain an abstract or keyword, but the author should follow the guidelines for the preparation and submission of the manuscript. Research letters are subject to external peer review and are evaluated for their adequacy and significance. The editor-in-chief of the journal will make the final decision on publication. Research letters that do not comply with these specifications are generally not considered for publication.
Retraction
In science, the withdrawal of published scientific articles indicates that the original article should not have been published and that its data and conclusions should not be used as the basis for future research. The most common reasons for retraction the article are scientific malpractice, including plagiarism, serious errors and double/ parallel publication (self-plagiarism).
Review
Review articles include literature reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analysis, and provide critical and constructive analyses of existing published literature in the field. Review articles are usually structured to summarize existing literature, analyse and compare. They often identify specific gaps or problems and suggest recommendations for future research.
Note that not all journals will consider meta-analysis, and authors should read the specific Aims and scope of the journal and apply for a meta-analysis pre-submission check as indicated.
Unlike original research articles, review articles are considered secondary literature. This usually means that they do not present new data from the author's experimental work, but instead analyse or interpret primary research on a particular topic. Secondary literature is an important part of the academic ecosystem because it can help explain new or different positions and ideas about primary research, identify research gaps related to a subject, or highlight important trends that individual research articles cannot identify.
Short report
A brief report, up to 2000 words, including data from the original research, focused on the initial findings of interest to scientists in other fields.
Study protocol
The study protocol describes in detail the plan for specific clinical study and explains the purpose, functions, and methods of implementation of the study. Please note that not all journals accept study protocols, and that the authors should read the specific journal's Aims and scope information before submitting to confirm that the selected journals consider the study protocols.
