Abstract
Publication of case reports in medical journals requires some ethical consideration, especially with regard to the risk of breaching privacy. In order to develop guidelines for case report submission to the journal of Japanese Society for Familial Tumors, rules and regulations for case report submission to some wellknown international medical journals were studied. Most international journals advice authors not to include identifying information in their manuscripts, and require patients’ written informed consent for publication of case reports, in view of the fact that complete anonymity cannot be guaranteed. Several journals require submission of patients’ written consent to the editors before publication. Some journals provide a consent form that includes some information about the circulation and worldwide website accessibility of the journals. However, some issues remain unclear, including the definition of identifying information, who should be contacted among many family members referenced in a manuscript, and whether or not masking part of the medical information to protect patients’ privacy can be scientifically justified. Further discussion is needed to standardize requirements and provide authors with proper guidance on these issues.
