1. IADSR International Conference 2012 Aiwan-e-Iqbal Lahore, Pakistan 27–29 April 2012

2. Writing Review Articles and Case Reports Barbara Gastel, MD, MPH AuthorAID at INASP (www.authoraid.info)www.authoraid.info and Texas A&M University

3. Writing Review Articles

4. Review Articles Review article—an article summarizing the literature on a topic Popularity of review articles with –Graduate students –Practitioners –People changing research areas –Others High citation rates of some review articles and review journals

5. Tips: Preparing to Write a Review Article See whether the journal publishes review articles. Consult the journal’s instructions to authors. Look at review articles in the journal. Check beforehand whether the editor might be interested. Carefully define the scope of the review article.

6. Tips: Preparing to Write a Review Article (cont) Search the literature thoroughly and methodically. Keep a record of your search strategy. If possible, obtain help from a librarian who is an expert in literature searching. Perhaps have criteria for including articles. Consider recording information on standardized forms. Consider using bibliographic software.

7. Two Structures for Review Articles Subtopic-by-Subtopic (with a subheading for each) Modified IMRAD—for example, for a “systematic review article” –Introduction –Methods used to search and analyze the literature –Results (findings of the search) –Discussion

8. Examples of Review Articles with the Two Structures

9. Tips: Writing a Review Article Organize the article carefully. Stay focused. Integrate what you found; do not merely catalogue it. Because the audience may be broad, write especially clearly. Double-check the text and references for accuracy.

10. Writing Case Reports

11. The Case Report Basic definition: description and discussion of a clinical case “The archetypal medical [or dental] article” Popular with readers Perhaps the easiest type of journal article for clinicians to write

12. Functions Presenting newly found –Conditions –Manifestations –Disease mechanisms –Effects of drugs –Etc Teaching –Students –Health professionals

13. Potential Publication Sites Research-oriented journals –General dental journals –Specialty and subspecialty journals –(Note: sometimes may have cases as letters) Teaching-oriented publications –Journals –Textbooks etc Journals specializing in case reports

14. Examples: Dental Case-Report Journals Case Reports in Dentistry (http://www.hindawi.com/crim/dentistry/)http://www.hindawi.com/crim/dentistry/ International Journal of Dental Case Reports (http://www.ijdcr.com/)http://www.ijdcr.com/ Other?

15. Case Reports: Some Structures Usual structure: introduction, case description, discussion/conclusions, references Modified IMRAD structure: (Mainly) introduction, methods, results, discussion Clinico-pathological conference (CPC) “Case presentation” (case description followed by topic discussion)

16. Examples of Case Reports

17. General Pointers Consult the journal’s instructions to authors. Use other case reports in the same journal as models. Review the literature. Cite the literature selectively. (Case reports generally have short reference lists.) Consider including one or more figures or tables. Provide an informative title. Write in a style that clinicians will find readable.

18. Section-by-Section Advice Introduction: –Provide background to help readers appreciate the case. –Note why the case is being reported. Case description: –Focus on aspects relating to why the case is being reported. –Therefore include mainly pertinent positives and negatives. focused. Note mainly pertinent positives/negatives. Relate the discussion section directly to the reason the case is being reported.

19. Section-by-Section Advice (cont) Discussion/conclusions: –Again, focus on items relating to why the case is being reported. –Note evidence supporting the conclusions being drawn. –Discuss ambiguities and alternative interpretations, if any. –Relate content to previously published material. –Discuss implications for clinical care and, if applicable, for research.

20. Case Reports: Some Issues Obtaining data and documentation on potentially publishable cases Confidentiality of information and photos Sensitivity of wording Style Points –“Case” versus “patient” –Drug names (generic or trade, capitalization) –Avoiding excessive capitalization of disease names

21. Thank you!