Journals that accept case reports 2025
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2026.2436Keywords:
publishing, case reports, scholarly communicationAbstract
Background: For medical students and residents writing and publishing a case report is a common entry point into scholarly publishing. However, finding a journal that accepts case reports can be challenging. This project updates the 2023 list of journals that accept case reports. Shared on the Open Science Framework (OSF), the original list is a highly used, openly available list of English-language, MEDLINE-indexed journals that publish case reports, providing librarians and authors with a vetted, current open resource for discovering journals.
Case Presentation: A list of 2,199 journals was extracted from PubMed using the same method from 2023. The methodology was updated to exclude journals that rarely publish case reports (n=721) resulting in 1,478 journals to review for inclusion on the updated list. The team excluded 290 titles due to ceased publication (n=1), submission restrictions (n=1), non-English publication (n=13), lack of MEDLINE indexing (n=4), and not publishing case reports (n=271). The final list includes 1,188 journals. This is an additional 160 journals over the 2023 list. Nearly half of eligible journals (49%) offered free-to-author publishing options, either through traditional publishing models, open access that did not charge article processing fees, or through hybrid publishing models.
Conclusion: The Journals that Accept Case Reports list is an open resource available on the Open Science Framework and serves as a tool to support librarians and authors in identifying appropriate journals for publishing a case report.
References
1. Mass-Hernández LM, Acevedo-Aguilar LM, Lozada-Martínez ID, Osorio-Agudelo LS, Maya-Betancourth JGEM, Paz-Echeverry OA, Paz-Echeverry MJ, Castillo-Pastuzan HS, Rojas-Pimentel JC, Rahman S. Undergraduate research in medicine: A summary of the evidence on problems, solutions and outcomes. Ann Med Surg. 2022;74. doi:10.1016/j.amsu.2022.103280
2. Hahamyan HA, Vasireddi N, Burns B, Bousquet SA, Gould HP. Increasing Trends in Matriculant Publications in the Residency Match: A Scoping Review. Cureus. 2024. doi:10.7759/cureus.72569
3. Ormseth BH, Sarac BA, Westvik TS, Janis JE. The Value of Case Reports in Plastic Surgery: An Analysis of 68,444 Articles across Six Major Plastic Surgery Journals. Plast Reconstr Surg - Glob Open. 2023 Jun;11(6):e5069. doi:10.1097/GOX.0000000000005069
4. Vatkar A, Kale S, Shyam A, Srivastava S. Understanding the Levels of Evidence in Medical Research. J Orthop Case Rep. 2025 May;15(5):6–9. doi:10.13107/jocr.2025.v15.i05.5534
5. Florek AG, Dellavalle RP. Case reports in medical education: a platform for training medical students, residents, and fellows in scientific writing and critical thinking. J Med Case Reports. 2016 Apr 6;10:86. doi:10.1186/s13256-016-0851-5
6. Packer CD, Katz RB, Iacopetti CL, Krimmel JD, Singh MK. A Case Suspended in Time: The Educational Value of Case Reports. Acad Med J Assoc Am Med Coll. 2017;92(2):152–6. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000001199
7. Malatack JJ. The Case for the Case Report. Pediatrics. 2018;141(Supplement_5):S379–84. doi:10.1542/peds.2018-0328
8. Akers KG. New journals for publishing medical case reports. J Med Libr Assoc JMLA. 2016;104(2):146–9. doi:10.3163/1536-5050.104.2.010
9. Gotschall T, Spencer A, Hoogland MA, Cortez E, Irish E. Journals accepting case reports. J Med Libr Assoc JMLA. 2023;111(4):819–22. doi:10.5195/jmla.2023.1747
10. Gaggero G. A Review of Open Access, No-Fee Journals Indexed in PubMed and Scopus for Publishing Image Reports in Medical Research. Acta Medica Litu. 2024;31(2):245–53. doi:10.15388/Amed.2024.31.2.21
11. Boruff, JT, Kraft M, Carroll A. Revisiting JMLA case reports: a publication category for driving innovation in health sciences librarianship. J Med Libr Assoc. 2025;113(1):1–3. doi:10.5195/jmla.2025.2099
12. Abdel-Razig S, Stadler D, Oyoun Alsoud L, Archuleta S, Ibrahim H. Open Access Publishing Metrics, Cost, and Impact in Health Professions Education Journals. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Oct 16;7(10):e2439932. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.39932
13. National Library of Medicine. Broad Subject Terms for Indexed Journals [Internet]. U.S. National Library of Medicine; [cited 2026 Apr 23]. Broad Subject Terms for Indexed Journals. Available from: https://journal-reports.nlm.nih.gov/broad-subjects/
14. Yang Z, Chen W, Li R, Wang X, Yao M. The value of publishing case reports for the professional development of Chinese residents: a qualitative study. BMC Med Educ. 2025 Jul 1;25(1):933. doi:10.1186/s12909-025-07459-2
15. Jha P, Thakur A, Klumb J, Bhandari S. Perceptions of Fourth-Year Medical Students on Writing and Presenting Case Reports. Cureus. 10(3):e2341. doi:10.7759/cureus.2341 PubMed PMID: 29805923; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5963942.
16. Albrecht J, Meves A, Bigby M. Case reports and case series from Lancet had significant impact on medical literature. J Clin Epidemiol. 2005 Dec 1;58(12):1227–32. doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2005.04.003
17. Med School Insiders [Internet]. 2025 [cited 2026 May 16]. In 2026, How Many Publications for Residency? (By Specialty). Available from: https://medschoolinsiders.com/medical-student/how-many-publications-for-residency-by-specialty/
18. Advisor R. Residency Advisor [Internet]. [cited 2026 May 16]. Are Case Reports a Waste of Time for Residency Applicatio... Available from: https://residencyadvisor.com/resources/research-residency-applications/are-case-reports-a-waste-of-time-for-residency-applications-a-nuanced-look
19. American Medical Association [Internet]. 2026 [cited 2026 May 16]. What ERAS application changes could mean for future Match cycles. Available from: https://www.ama-assn.org/medical-students/preparing-residency/what-eras-application-changes-could-mean-future-match-cycles
20. Lam K, Langer-Gould A. Open Access Fees: A Barrier to Scholarly Activity Among Neurology Trainees. Perm J. 2021 Dec;25(4):1–4. doi:10.7812/TPP/21.041
21. Booth CM, Ross JS, Detsky AS. The Changing Medical Publishing Industry: Economics, Expansion, and Equity. J Gen Intern Med. 2023;38(14):3242–6. doi:10.1007/s11606-023-08307-z
22. Pohlman A, Odeh AM, Purnell SM, Alrahmani L, Blackmon SH, Coughlin JM, Abdelsattar ZM. Comparing companion open access journals to their traditional journal counterparts. Account Res. 2025 Oct 18;1–12. doi:10.1080/08989621.2025.2575211
23. Laine C, Babski D, Bachelet VC, Bärnighausen TW, Baethge C, Bibbins-Domingo K, Frizelle F, Gollogy L, Kleinert S, Loder E, Monteiro J, Rubin EJ, Sahni P, Wee CC, Yoo JH, Zakhama L. Predatory Journals: What Can We Do to Protect Their Prey? JAMA. 2025;333(9):761–2. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.27514
24. National Library of Medicine. MEDLINE Journal Selection Statistics [Training Material and Manuals] [Internet]. U.S. National Library of Medicine; [cited 2026 Feb 1]. Available from: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medline/medline_statistics.html
25. National Library of Medicine. Journal Selection for MEDLINE [Training Material and Manuals] [Internet]. U.S. National Library of Medicine; [cited 2026 Feb 1]. Available from: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medline/medline_journal_selection.html
26. Riley DS, Barber MS, Kienle GS, Aronson JK, von Schoen-Angerer T, Tugwell P, Kiene H, Helfand M, Altman DG, Sox H, Werthmann PG, Moher D, Rison RA, Shamseer L, Koch CA, Sun GH, Hanaway P, Sudak NL, Kaszkin-Bettag M, Carpenter JE, Gagnier JJ. CARE guidelines for case reports: explanation and elaboration document. J Clin Epidemiol. 2017 Sep 1;89:218–35. doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2017.04.026
27. Taheri A, Adibi P, Abbasi A, Sabbagh Jaffari M, Rahimi A. Analysis of the Reporting Requirements of Clinical Case Reports Dedicated Journals: Towards Updating the CARE Guideline. Adv Biomed Res. 2023 Feb;12(1). doi:10.4103/abr.abr_391_21
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Terri Gotschall, Elizabeth Irish, Emily Hannum, Kryslynn Collazo, Alyssa Snyder, Jacquelyn Simington
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
