How Do We Compose Case Reports?
In recent years, a few of our team’s case reports have been published in the world-renowned journal, American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics (AJO-DO). One even received the prestigious 2019 CDABO Case Report of the Year Award. These achievements are the fruits of our labor since 2006, when we started publishing case reports in our own humble JDO. I would like to share our secrets of writing pertinent case reports.
The journey to compose a standard case report takes only 5 weeks. In the first week, you need to immerse yourself in the case to firmly grasp as many details as possible. The initial step is to analyze the ceph tracings to understand the change of profile and tooth positions between pre-treatment and posttreatment, followed by studying every treatment step as well as the Discrepancy Index (DI) and Cast- Radiograph Evaluation (CRE) measurements.
In the second week, systematically study and evaluate similar case reports to “copy and paste” useful phrases and expressions which can be utilized but not plagiarized. Pablo Picasso once said, “Good artists copy; great artists steal.”You should learn from past masters by studying similar published case reports (as well as different cases) which will consequently allow you to complete your reports faster. During the third week, modify the contents of your manuscript accordingly, a process of creating a variation on the theme of the same topic. Ascertain the most appropriate sentences to compose your manuscript, focusing particularly on the required format standards of the journal to which you intend to submit your work.
In the fourth week, start to refine your manuscript. One of the most important and beneficial steps is orally presenting your case in front of other professionals. Speaking publicly is the best way to re-organize and re-evaluate your ideas and message, as well as receiving valuable feedback from audience members and mentors. After finishing the refinements, secure the services of a professional English editor to revise and proofread your manuscript. In the last week, scrutinize your content again before handing in the manuscript.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit,” Aristotle once noted. You only need to spend 2 hours a day for 5 weeks, which is equal to 70 hours, to finish a case report. Make it a part of your routine, and subsequently, you can effortlessly achieve your goals.
An artist never reaches perfection in his own eyes, thus the necessity for the artist to always continue mastering his craft. The same could be said about case reports. However, the art of case report writing is not necessarily achieving a perfect result, but rather offering our experience, advice, support, and clinical facts to the orthodontic community, thereby enabling our profession to evolve and continue along its path to glory.
I sincerely hope all of us can help each other by writing as many case reports as we can. CC
