Journal of Investigative Medicine High Impact Case Reports
Journal Highlights
- Indexed in: PubMed Central (PMC), Scopus, Google Scholar, and the DOAJ
- Publication is subject to payment of an article processing charge (APC)
- Submit here
Journal of Investigative Medicine High Impact Case Reports (HIC) is a peer-reviewed open access journal which focuses on high quality case reports representing a critical element of investigative medical science and an important avenue for career development. Please see the Aims and Scope tab for further information.
An official journal of the American Federation for Medical Research (AFMR).
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Submission information
Submit your manuscript today at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jimhicr.
Please see the Submission Guidelines tab for more information on how to submit your article to the journal.
Open access article processing charge (APC) information
Publication in the journal is subject to payment of an article processing charge (APC). The APC serves to support the journal and ensures that articles are freely accessible online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons license.
The AFMR member APC for this journal is currently $450 USD.
The non-member APC for this journal is $1200 USD.
The article processing charge (APC) is payable when a manuscript is accepted after peer review, before it is published. The APC is subject to taxes where applicable. Please see further details here.
Contact
Please direct any queries to info.jimhicr@gmail.com.
The AFMR is committed to enhancing the training and career development of our members and to furthering its mission to facilitate the conduct of research to improve medical care. Case reports represent an important avenue for trainees (interns, residents, and fellows) and early-stage faculty to demonstrate productive, scholarly activity.
| Richard Auchus, MD, PhD | University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA |
| Stephanie Baer, MD | Augusta University, Augusta, GA, USA |
| Peter Noel Van Buren, MD | University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA |
| Keith Colburn, MD | Loma Linda University & Loma Linda VA Medical Center, Loma Linda, CA, USA |
| J. Michael DiMaio, MD | Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA |
| Robert J. Freishtat, MD, MPH | Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA |
| Taylor Harrison, MD | Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA |
| Richard A. Lange, MD | Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, El Paso, TX, USA |
| Suthat Liangpunsakul, MD | Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA |
| Christopher M. McPhaul, MD | Baylor, Scott, and White, Waco, TX, USA |
| MingMing Ning, MD, MMsc | Mass General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA |
| Chaitanya Pant, MD | Green Bay, WI, USA |
| L. Parker Gregg, MD | The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA |
| Don Rockey, MD | Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA |
| Peter H. Wiernik, MD | Cancer Research Foundation, Chappaqua, NY, USA |
| Theingi T. Win, MD | Kern Medical Center, Bakersfield, CA, USA |
| Maneerat Chayanupatkul, MD | Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA |
| Everardo Cobos, MD, FACP | David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California |
| Dawn Davis, MD, PhD | University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA |
| Vijay Gayam, MD | Interfaith Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York |
| Hans K. Ghayee, DO | University of Florida Health, Gainesville, FL, USA |
| Aidar Gosmanov, MD | University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA |
| Adriana Ioachimescu, MD, PhD, FACE | Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA |
| Priyanga Jayakumar, MD | Family Health Care Network, Fresno, CA USA |
| Asim Kichloo | New York, NY, USA |
| Armand Krikorian, MD | Advocate Health Care, Oak Lawn, IL, USA |
| Andres "Willy" Lescano | Cayetano Heredia Pervuvian University, Lima, Peru |
| Christopher M. McPhaul | Baylor, Scott, and White, Waco, TX, USA |
| Rajarajeshwari Ramachandran, MD | Fresno Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Fresno, CA, USA |
| Neda Rasouli, MD | University of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA |
| Allison Reiss, MD | NYU Winthrop Hospital, Mineola, NY, USA |
| Florence Rothenberg, MD | University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio |
| Leticia Ryan, MD, MPH | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA |
| Michael Schivo, MD | MASUC Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, California, USA |
| Iuliana Shapira, MD | SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY, USA |
| Attaya Suvannasankha, MD | Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA |
| Abraham Thomas, MD | NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, USA |
| Kristina Utzschneider, MD | University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA |
| Cherry Wongtrakool, MD | Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA |
| Amir Zeki, MD | University of California, Davis, CA, USA |
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
This Journal recommends that authors follow the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical
Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)
Please read the guidelines below then visit the journal’s submission site
https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jimhicr to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not
conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope Journal of Investigative Medicine High
Impact Case Reportswill be reviewed.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work,
that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and
that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that
you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not
owned by you.
Please Read the Manuscript Submission Guidelines below before submitting your manuscript here:
SUBMIT MANUSCRIPT
- Open Access
- Article processing charge (APC)
- What do we publish?
- Editorial policies
4.1 Peer Review Policy
4.2 Authorship
4.3 Acknowledgements
4.3.1 Writing assistance
4.4 Funding
4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
4.6 Research ethics and patient consent
4.7 Clinical Trials
4.8 Reporting guidelines - Publishing policies
5.1 Publication ethics
5.1.1 Plagiarism
5.1.2 Prior publication
5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
5.3 Permissions - Preparing your manuscript
6.1 Word processing formats
6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
6.3 Supplementary material
6.4 Journal layout
6.5 Reference style
6.6 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
7.1 ORCID
7.2 How to submit your manuscript
7.3 Title, keywords and abstracts
7.4 Information required for completing your submission - On acceptance and publication
8.1 Sage Production
8.2 Continuous publication - Further information
Journal of Investigative Medicine High Impact Case Reports (JIMHICR) is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. Each article accepted by peer review is made freely available online immediately upon publication, is published under a Creative Commons license and will be hosted online in perpetuity. Publication costs of the journal are covered by the collection of article processing charges which are paid by the funder, institution or author of each manuscript upon acceptance. There is no charge for submitting a paper to the journal.
For general information on open access at Sage please visit the Open Access page or view our Open Access FAQs.
2. Article processing charge (APC)
Publication in the journal is subject to payment of an article processing charge (APC). The APC serves to support the journal and ensures that articles are freely accessible online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons license.
The AFMR member APC for this journal is currently $450 USD.
The non-member APC for this journal is $1200 USD.
The article processing charge (APC) is payable only if your article is accepted after peer review, before it is published. The APC is subject to taxes where applicable. Tax-exempt status can be indicated by providing appropriate registration numbers when payment is requested. Please see further details here.
In general, Case Reports should not exceed 2500 words (excluding references). The word count (which includes all text including the abstract, manuscript, notes, tables, figures, etc) should appear on the title page. Exceptions will be considered on a case-by- case basis. Generally, proposed reviews should be less than 4000 words (excluding references). The submission of potential review articles should be discussed with the editorial office prior to submission.
Manuscripts should include an abstract of approximately 250 words, and, beneath the abstract, 4-5 keywords. All manuscripts should follow the style guidelines set forth in the American Medical Association Manual of Style (11th edition) (http://www.amamanualofstyle.com). Refer to drugs and therapeutic agents by their accepted generic or chemical names, and do not abbreviate them. Use code numbers only when a generic name is not yet available. In that case, supply the chemical name and a figure giving the chemical structure of the drug is required. Copyright or trade names of drugs should be capitalized and placed in parentheses after the name of the drug. Names and locations (city and state in USA; city and country outside USA) of manufacturers of drugs, supplies, or equipment cited in a manuscript are required to comply with trademark law and should be provided in parentheses. Units of measure should be expressed in the metric system, and temperatures should be expressed in degrees Celsius. Conventional units should be written as SI units as appropriate.
Letters to the editor can be submitted on any topic relevant to the journal and are usually in response to an article published in the journal. They can suggest new subjects to be incorporated by the journal or commend and review papers published in the journal. We recommend that individuals considering submitting a letter to the editor should contact the editor in chief first to discuss their manuscript. A letter to the Editor unrelated to a specific article should not exceed 1000 words or have more than 5 references. There should be no abstract (please enter "N/A" in the abstract section when submitting a letter to the submission site). The standard article processing fee will apply, except if the letter addresses an issue on a published paper typically addressed through an expression of concern or retraction; in such cases no fee will apply.
Patient anonymity and informed consent
It is the author's responsibility to ensure that a patient's anonymity be carefully protected and to verify that any experimental investigation with human subjects reported in the manuscript was performed with informed consent and following all the guidelines for experimental investigation with human subjects required by the institution(s) with which all the authors are affiliated. Authors should mask patients' eyes and remove patients' names from figures unless they obtain written consent from the patients and submit written consent with the manuscript.
Abbreviations
For a list of standard abbreviations, consult the Council of Biology Editors Style Guide (available from the Council of Science Editors, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814) or other standard sources. Write out the full term for each abbreviation at its first use unless it is a standard unit of measure.
Figures
Art should be created/scanned and saved and submitted as either a TIFF (tagged image file format), an EPS (encapsulated PostScript) file, or a PPT (PowerPoint) file. Line art must have a resolution of at least 1200 dpi (dots per inch), and electronic photographs; radiographs, CT scans, MRIs, all medical imaging, and all scanned images must have a resolution of at least 300 dpi. If fonts are used in the artwork, they must be converted to paths or outlines or they must be embedded in the files. Color images must be created/scanned and saved and submitted as CMYK files. Please note that artwork generated from office suite programs such as CorelDRAW and MS Word and artwork downloaded from the Internet (JPEG or GIF files) cannot be used. Cite figures consecutively on the site, and number them in the order in which they are discussed in the text of the manuscript.
Figure legends
Legends must be submitted for all figures. They should be brief and specific, and they should appear on a separate manuscript page place to follow the references. Use scale markers in the image for electron micrographs and indicate the type of stain used.
Color figures
The journal welcomes and encourages color figures and will publish them without charge to the author.
Tables
Create tables using the table creating and editing feature of your word processing software (e.g., Word, WordPerfect). Do not use Excel or comparable spreadsheet programs. Group all tables at the end of the manuscript, or supply them together in a separate file. Cite tables consecutively in the text, and number them in that order. Key each on a separate sheet, and include the table title, appropriate column heads, and explanatory legends (including definitions of any abbreviations used). Do not embed tables within the body of the manuscript. They should be self-explanatory and should supplement, rather than duplicate, the material in the text.
References
The authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. Key the references (double-spaced) at the
end of the manuscript. Cite the references in text in the order of appearance. Cite unpublished data—
such as papers submitted but not yet accepted for publication and personal communications, including email
communications—in parentheses in the text. If there are more than three authors, name only the
first three authors and then use et al. Refer to the List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus for
abbreviations of journal names, or access the list at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html.
The journal’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by two expert reviewers. JIMHICR utilizes a single anonymize peer review process in which the reviewer’s name and information is withheld from the author. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief who then makes the final decision.
The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor / Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.
Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors. The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:
(i) Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
(ii) Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
(iii) Approved the version to be published,
(iv) Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.
Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely techincal help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
4.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.
It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services. Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.
JIMHICR requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
It is the policy of JIMHICR to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.
Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’.
For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations.
4.6 Research ethics and patient consent
Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.
Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.
For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.
Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text, using examples from this template. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative. For examples of acceptable statements, please refer to JIMHICR’s IRB and Informed Consent document.
Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants.
JIMHICR conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.
The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart as a cited figure, and a completed CONSORT checklist as a supplementary file.
Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
JIMHICR and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or
dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
JIMHICR uses iThenticate software to help screen manuscripts submitted to the journal. If you have previously published portions of your case or article as part of a meeting abstract, please note this in your manuscript following Acknowledgements section as an Author’s Note, noting the meeting name, location and date.
For Example:
Authors’ Note
This case was presented as an abstract at the Western Medical Research Conference, Carmel, CA, on January 24, 2019.
If material has been previously published, it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. JIMHICR publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The standard JIMHICR license is Creative Commons by Attribution (CC BY-NC), which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced. For more information, you are advised to visit Sage's OA licenses page. For more information, you are advised to visit Sage's OA licenses page.
Alternative license arrangements are available, for example, to meet particular funder mandates, made at the author’s request.
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
Preferred formats for the text and tables of your manuscript are Word DOC, RTF, XLS. LaTeX files are also accepted. The text should be double-spaced throughout and with a minimum of 3cm for left and right hand margins and 5cm at head and foot. Text should be standard 10 or 12 point. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in color will appear in color online.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. These will be subjected to peer-review alongside the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files, which can be found within our Manuscript Submission Guidelines page.
JIMHICR conforms to the Sage house style. Click here to review guidelines on Sage House Style.
6.5 Reference style
JIMHICR adheres to the Sage Vancouver reference style. Please review the guidelines on Sage Vancouver to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Vancouver output file here.
6.6 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
7.2 How to submit your manuscript
JIMHICR is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jimhicr to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
7.3 Title, keywords and abstracts
Please supply a title, short title, an abstract and keywords to accompany your article. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
7.4 Information required for completing your submission
Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors.
8. On acceptance and publication
If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be asked to complete the contributor’s publishing agreement. Once your manuscript files have been check for Sage Production, the corresponding author will be asked to pay the article processing charge (APC) via a payment link. Once the APC has been processed, your article will be prepared for publication and can appear online within an average of 30 days. Please note that no production work will occur on your paper until the APC has been received.
When your paper enters the Sage Production system, your paper will be issued with a 6 digit ID number. Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by email attachment to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open access journal is the speed to publication. Your article will be published online in a fully citable form with a DOI number as soon as it has completed the production process. At this time it will be completely free to view and download for all. Check the ‘Latest Articles’ tab on the journal website for the latest published content.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the Manuscript Submission process should be sent to Amanda Beaini at info.jimhicr@gmail.com.