Submissions

Author Guidelines

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Summary
1. Objectives and Scope
2. Editorial Policy
3. Editorial Freedom
4. Copyright and Authors' Rights
5. Publishing Costs
6. ORCID
7. Authorship criteria
8. Changes in Authorship
9. Acknowledgements
10. Writing support
11. Corresponding author
12. Cover Letter
13. Conflict of Interest and Sources of Funding
14. Confidentiality Policy
15. Originality
16. Patient consent
17. Plagiarism Policy
18. Fast-Track Publishing
19. Peer Review Process
20. Typographic proofs
21. Errata
22. Retractions
23. Sponsorship
24. Submission guidelines

1. Objectives and Scopes

SPMI Case Reports is the Portuguese Society of Internal Medicine's open-access online journal for clinical cases and medical images. SPMI Case Reports aims to publish cases with important and innovative clinical messages. In other words, common cases that present a diagnostic, ethical or treatment challenge, or cases about a pathology that has not yet been described or is rare at national or international level, an atypical presentation of a disease, the appearance of a new etiology, a rare complication of a given pathology, a side effect of a drug that has not yet been described, a new method of diagnostic intervention or an innovative therapy. SPMI Case Reports wants to publish cases worthy of discussion, particularly around aspects of differential diagnosis, decision-making, management, clinical guidelines and pathology.

2. Editorial Policy

SPMI Case Reports adheres to the highest standards regarding its editorial policies on publication ethics, scientific misconduct, consent and peer review criteria. The journal follows guidelines produced by bodies including the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

3. Editorial Freedom

SPMI Case Reports adopts the ICMJE definition of editorial freedom described by the World Association of Medical Editors, which states that the editor-in-chief assumes complete authority over the editorial content of the journal. The Portuguese Society of Internal Medicine, as owner of SPMI Case Reports, does not interfere in the process of evaluating, selecting, programming or editing any manuscript, and the Editor-in-Chief has complete editorial independence.

4. Copyright and Authors' Rights

All articles published in SPMI Case Reports are open access and fulfil the requirements of funding agencies or academic institutions. With regard to use by third parties, SPMI Case Reports is governed by the terms of the Creative Commons licence ‘Attribution - No commercial re-use - CC BY-NC 4.0.

It is the author's responsibility to obtain permission to reproduce figures, tables, etc. from other publications.

Once an article has been accepted, authors will be asked to complete a "Declaration of Author Responsibility and Authorisation to Publish" and a "Declaration of Potential Conflicts of Interest". An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript.

Authors are authorised to make their articles available in the repositories of their home institutions, provided they always mention where they were published and in accordance with the Creative Commons licence.

5. Publication costs

There is no article processing fee (no submission or publication fees).

6. ORCID

SPMI Case Reports require ORCID IDs for the corresponding author; it is also suggested that co-authors indicate their ORCID IDs. We strongly believe that the increased use and integration of ORCID IDs will be beneficial to the entire scientific community. For more information and to register, visit ORCID.org (https://orcid.org/content/collect-connect)

7. Authorship Criteria and Authorship Form

SPMI Case Reports follows the guidelines on authorship established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors in the Statement on Authorship and Contribution (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the- role-of-authors-and-contributors.html).

Declaration of individual contributions signed by each author

The clinical case should have a maximum of five authors, at least one of whom must have been involved in the patient's care. The first author must ensure that they have "Right to Write" and make sure that no-one else involved in patient care has plans to publish the case. All authors must have made an individual contribution to the writing of the article and not just be involved in patient care. All those designated as authors must fulfil the four criteria for authorship of the ICMJE uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to medical journals. Individuals involved only in patient care (including diagnosis and treatment) should be listed in the acknowledgements.

Each manuscript must have a "Corresponding Author". The corresponding author must obtain written permission from all those mentioned in the acknowledgements.

Authors are those who:

1.           They have made a substantial, direct intellectual contribution to the design and writing of the article,

2.           They take part in analysing and interpreting the data;

3.            They take part in writing the manuscript, reviewing versions and critically reviewing the content; approving the final version;

4.           They agree that they are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of all

8. Changes in Authorship

It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that the list of authors is correct, both in the online submission form and in the submitted text. Any changes to the list of authors, including the removal or addition of any author, between initial submission and acceptance will require the written agreement of all authors if the manuscript is being evaluated for publication. New authors must also confirm that they fully comply with the SPMI Case Reports authorship criteria.

Changes in authorship (addition or removal) will not be permitted once the manuscript has been accepted for publication.

9. Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not fulfil the authorship criteria should be listed in an Acknowledgements section.

10. Writing support

Individuals who have provided writing assistance, for example from a specialised communications company, do not qualify as authors and should therefore be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors should disclose any assistance in writing - including the name of the individual, company and entry level - and identify the organisation that funded this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose the use of language polishing services.

11. Corresponding author

The corresponding author will act on behalf of all co-authors as the preferred correspondent with the editorial team during the submission and review process. Any author can be the corresponding author, but only one author can be the corresponding author.

Role of the corresponding author:

• Ensures fulfilment of the submission requirements and submits the manuscript to the journal
• Ensures that all authors have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript prior to submission
• Ensures that authorship forms are completed - this includes conflict of interest forms for all authors
• Distributes decision letters, reviewer comments and other messages from SPMI Case Reports, and distributes evidence among co-authors for review
• Send corrections and ensure that all authors approve each version of the article

12. Cover Letter

Write a letter explaining why the Editor would like to publish your manuscript. All cover letters must contain these sentences:

• We confirm that this manuscript has not been published elsewhere and is not under consideration by another journal.
• All the authors have approved the manuscript and agree to its submission to SPMI Case Reports.

13. Conflict of Interest and Funding Sources

All participants in the peer review and publication process - not only authors, but also reviewers, editors and members of the SPMI Case Reports editorial board - must consider their conflicts of interest when fulfilling their roles in the article review and publication process and must disclose all relationships that could be seen as potential conflicts of interest.

The rigour and accuracy of the content, as well as the opinions expressed, are the sole responsibility of the authors. Authors are obliged to disclose all financial and personal relationships that may bias the work. To prevent ambiguity, authors must explicitly state whether or not there are any conflicts of interest. All authors must complete and submit the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest, available at https://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/. Following the ICMJE guidelines, the definitions and terms of such disclosures include:

• Any potential conflicts of interest "involving the work under consideration for publication" (during the time surrounding the work, from initial conception and planning to presentation),

Any "relevant financial activities outside the submitted work" (during the 3 years prior to submission),

and any "other relationships or activities that readers may perceive as having influenced, or giving the appearance of potentially influencing" what is written in the submitted work (based on all relationships that were present during the 3 years prior to submission).

This information will be kept confidential during the review of the manuscript by the reviewers and will not influence the editorial decision, but will be published if the article is accepted. If there are no conflicts, the authors should mention this.

Examples of statements:

• The authors declare no conflicts of interest
• XXX's work was funded by XXX. He received remuneration as a member of XXX's scientific advisory board. He has also provided consultancy services to XXX. YYY and YYYY declare that they have no conflict of interest.

14. Confidentiality Policy

Submitted manuscripts are considered CONFIDENTIAL and EMBARGOED from the moment of submission. In compliance with the Embargo Policy, no information other than that contained in the Abstract may be made public prior to publication of the manuscript.

The Confidentiality and Embargo Policies require that, before the embargo is lifted, all authors are not authorised to:

Publish the information or provide it to third parties who may publish or disseminate it by other means.

15. Originality

Manuscripts must contain original material that is not yet available elsewhere. However, authors are authorised to submit and present abstracts (i.e. oral or poster presentations) at open scientific meetings.

The title page and cover letter must include a statement verifying the originality of the work and disclose any previous abstracts, presentations, reports or publications that contain material that may appear to overlap with the current submission.

SPMI Case Reports will not accept for review any manuscript that is currently under review at another journal.

SPMI Case Reports follows the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors on Overlapping Publications (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial- issues/overlapping-publications.html).

16. Publication Ethics and Patient Consent

SPMI Case Reports encourages authors to consult the Committee on Publication Ethics International Standards for Authors (https://publicationethics.org/resources/resources-and- further-reading/international-standards-editors-and-authors).

The publication of any personal information about an identifiable living patient requires the explicit consent of the patient or guardian.

SPMI Case Reports asks authors to anonymise patient details as much as possible, e.g. specific ages, ethnicity, occupations. For living patients, this is a legal requirement and the article will not proceed to review without the explicit consent of the patient or guardian.

If the patient has died, the authors must obtain permission from a relative (preferably the next of kin). If the authors do not have the signed consent of a deceased patient, guardian or family, the head of the medical/hospital team or legal team must take responsibility that exhaustive attempts have been made to contact the family and that the article has been sufficiently anonymised so as not to cause harm to the patient's family. For "Images in..." articles where there is no personal information and very limited clinical data, we can dispense with consent.

17. Plagiarism Policy

Whether intentional or not, plagiarism is a serious offence. We define plagiarism as reproduction of another work with at least 25 per cent similarity and without citation. If evidence of plagiarism is found before/after acceptance or after publication of the article, the author will be given an opportunity to rebut. If the arguments are not considered satisfactory, the manuscript will be retracted and the author sanctioned from publishing work for a period to be determined by the Editor.

18. Fast-Track Publishing

A fast-track system is available for urgent and important manuscripts that meet SPMI Case Reports' requirements for rapid review and publication.

Authors can request expedited publication through the manuscript submission process, clearly stating why their manuscript should be considered for accelerated review and publication. The Editorial Board will decide whether the manuscript is suitable for expedited publication and will communicate its decision within 48 hours. If the Editor-in-Chief finds the manuscript unsuitable for expedited publication, the manuscript may be proposed for the normal review process, or the authors may withdraw their submission. The editorial decision on manuscripts accepted for rapid review will be made within five working days.

If the manuscript is accepted for publication, SPMI Case Reports will aim to publish it ahead of print within 16 days.

19. Peer Review Process

Manuscripts are subject to double-blind peer review by at least two anonymous reviewers. Final acceptance or rejection rests with the Editor-in-Chief, who reserves the right to refuse any material for publication. Manuscripts that do not comply with the instructions for authors may be returned for modification before being reviewed.

SPMI Case Reports requests that all reviewers follow a set of basic principles and standards in accordance with the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers during the peer review process. Reviewers are obliged to respect the confidentiality of the peer review process and not reveal details of a manuscript or its revision during or after the peer review process. If reviewers wish to involve a colleague in the review process, they must first obtain permission from the Editor.

Manuscripts must be written in a clear, concise, direct style. The manuscript must not have been published, in whole or in part, or submitted for publication elsewhere.

All submitted manuscripts are initially evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief and may be rejected at this stage without being sent to reviewers. Final acceptance or rejection rests with the Editor-in-Chief, who reserves the right to refuse any material for publication.

SPMI Case Reports follow a rigorous double-blind peer review.

SPMI Case Reports will send manuscripts to external reviewers selected from a pre-existing database, or invite new reviewers to do so.

Final acceptance is the responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief. Manuscripts can be evaluated:

A)  Accepted without changes

B) Accepted, but dependent on minor revisions

C) Re-evaluated after major changes

D) Rejected

Upon receipt of the manuscript, if it complies with the instructions to authors and fulfils the editorial policy, the Editor-in-Chief sends the manuscript to at least two reviewers.

Within 25 days, the reviewer must reply to the Editor-in-Chief indicating their comments on the manuscript subject to review and suggesting acceptance, revision or rejection of the work. Within 10 days, the Editorial Board will make a decision, which could be: to accept the manuscript without modifications; to send the reviewers' comments to the authors in accordance with what has been established; rejection.

When changes are proposed, the authors have 15 days (a period that can be extended at the request of the authors) to submit a new, revised version of the manuscript, incorporating the comments of the reviewers and the editorial board. They must answer all questions and also send a revised version of the manuscript, with the inserted amendments highlighted in a different colour.

The Editor-in-Chief has 10 days to make a decision on the new version: reject or accept the new version, or send it for reconsideration by one or more reviewers.

In the event of acceptance at any of the previous stages, the Corresponding Author will be informed.

Although the editors and reviewers make every effort to ensure the technical and scientific quality of the manuscripts, the final responsibility for the content (namely the rigour and accuracy of the observations, as well as the opinions expressed) lies solely with the authors.

20. Typographic proofs

Typographical proofs will be sent to the authors, indicating the deadline for revision according to the publication needs of SPMI Case Reports. The revision must be approved by the author responsible for the correspondence. Authors have 48 hours to revise the text and report any typographical errors. At this stage, the Authors may not make any substantive changes to the article, apart from correcting minor typographical and/or spelling errors.

Failure to respect the proposed deadline exempts SPMI Case Reports from accepting the review by the authors, and the review may be carried out exclusively by SPMI Case Reports services.

21. Errata

SPMI Case Reports publishes changes, amendments or retractions to a previously published article if, after publication, errors or omissions are identified that influence the interpretation of data or information. Changes made after publication will take the form of an erratum.

22. Retractions

Reviewers and Editors assume that authors report work based on honest observations. However, if there are substantial doubts about the honesty or integrity of the work, submitted or published, the editor will inform the authors of their concern, seek clarification from the author's sponsoring institution and/or employing institution. Consequently, if they consider the published article to be fraudulent, SPMI Case Reports will retract it. If this method of investigation does not yield a satisfactory conclusion, the editor may choose to conduct his or her own investigation, and may choose to publish a note of concern about the conduct or integrity of the work. The Editor-in-Chief may decide to report the situation to the authors' institution, in accordance with the procedures recommended by COPE - Committee on Publication Ethics ( https://publicationethics.org/).

23. Sponsorship

The sponsors of SPMI Case Reports are companies in the pharmaceutical or other industries that generate revenue through advertising. Advertising must not jeopardise the scientific independence of the journal or influence editorial decisions and must comply with general and specific legislation in the area of health and medicine. Other expenses are borne by the Portuguese Society of Internal Medicine.

24. Submission guidelines

Language

The title, abstract and keywords must be presented in English and Portuguese. Manuscripts submitted to SPMI Case Reports must be clearly written in Portuguese (from Portugal) and/or English at a reasonable level.

Paper Submission

Submission of a manuscript implies that the work described has not been previously published (except in the form of an abstract), and that it is not being considered for publication in another journal, that the manuscript has been approved by all the authors and, tacitly or explicitly, by the competent authorities where the work was carried out and that, if it is accepted for publication, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically.

To verify originality, the article can be checked by the originality detection service. Submissions that do not comply with these instructions may be returned for reformulation and resubmission. All cases must be submitted online at: https://casereports.spmi.pt.

When submitting, you will be asked:

• Patient consent for publication
• Declaration of potential conflicts of interest
• Declaration of authorial responsibility and contribution

Contact

If you have any questions during submission, please contact: ana.silva@spmi.pt

Using a word processing programme

The text must be in single-column format.

To avoid unnecessary errors, we recommend using the "spell check" and "grammar check" functions of your word processor.

Manuscripts should be submitted in text files in Word format (.DOC or .DOCX), with text in a row and always in the same font. Texts should be formatted in "Arial" font, size 11 with 1.5 line spacing. Titles and subtitles should be in bold and in size 12.

General Orientation

Texts should be prepared in accordance with the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors: Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (ICMJE Recommendations) available at https://www.icmje.org.

SPMI Case Reports recommends following the publication guidelines of the EQUATOR network (https://www.equator-network.org):

Case reports (CARE)

Types of articles

SPMI Case Reports accept the following types:

A) Clinical Cases;

B) Images in Medicine

Article Organisation

On the first page/title page (separate page):

I. Title

Case title - use a straightforward title in Portuguese and clinical English that accurately reflects the subject of the case report. Please DO NOT use humorous words or phrases or a play on words. This makes the case more difficult to find in keyword literature searches and makes it harder to understand what the case is about. Humour does not translate well internationally and the message to patients can be disrespectful.

II. Authors and affiliations

In the authorship line, list the names of all the authors (first and last names) and their affiliations (service, institution, city, country) and highest academic degree.

Authors' names must be accompanied by their ORCID registration numbers.

III. Corresponding Author

Indicate clearly who will deal with correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, including post-publication. Indicate the postal address and e-mail address of the Author responsible for correspondence relating to the manuscript.

IV. Financing

All sources of funding, in the public or private domain, including grants, which have contributed to the realisation of the work. Indicate whether or not there are any conflicts of interest (particularly commercial in the product, equipment or process).

V. Informed Consent and Conflicts of Interest

The authors will also include on this title page, under the heading "Ethical considerations" the statement "Informed consent and Conflicts of interest.

VI. Awards and Previews

The awards and presentations of the study, prior to the submission of the manuscript, should be mentioned

VII. Summary and Keywords

A concise and factual abstract is required, capable of representing the content of the article in isolation, written in Portuguese and English. No information that does not appear in the manuscript may be mentioned in the abstract. The abstract must not refer to the text and must not contain quotations or references to figures.

A maximum of 5 keywords in English should be included at the end of the summary using the terminology in the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/search.

Text

Clinical case reports should include the following sections: Introduction, Case Description and Discussion. CARE guidelines should be followed (https://www.care-statement.org/).

Given their nature, clinical case reports should have a parsimonious number of authors - exceptionally more than 5. If there are more than 5 co-authors, the submission letter should clearly and in detail indicate the role of each in the manuscript, in order to justify their inclusion in the line of authorship in the light of the ICMJE criteria (https://www.icmje.org/). The permission of the patient (next of kin, legal guardian) may be required.

They should include a statement detailing that written informed consent for publication has been obtained and from whom (e.g. "Written informed consent has been obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and any accompanying images."). If the patient has died, consent for publication must be obtained from their next of kin. If the patient described in the case report is a minor or vulnerable, consent for publication must be obtained from the parents/legal guardian. The completed consent form must be made available to the Editor on request and will be treated confidentially.

Making it harder to identify the patient by omitting scientifically irrelevant data is acceptable, but altering that data is not.

Words:  maximum  2000  words  (excluding  abstract,  figures  and  tables)

Abstract: maximum 150 words

Figures/Tables: maximum 4

Learning points: (or the designation Key points): 3-5 points - case reports are instructive and involve a clinical problem or an issue of clear educational benefit. At the end of the case report, a summary with the key learning points should  be  included

References: maximum 20

Authors: maximum 5

Images in Medicine

New and clinically relevant images of unusual or striking examples of clinical entities, laboratory / radiological studies or therapeutic procedures with brief explanatory text.

Words:     maximum    200     words     (excluding abstract, figures and tables)

Abstract: none

Figures: maximum 2

References: maximum 6

Authors: maximum 3

Manuscript preparation

References

I. In-text citation

Make sure that all references cited in the text are also present in the list of references (and vice versa). References should be listed using Arabic numerals in the order in which they are cited in the text. References to personal communications and unpublished data should be made directly in the text and should not be numbered. Personal communications must be duly authorised by the sender of the communication, with the authors assuming responsibility for the authorisation. Citing a reference as "in press" implies that the item has been accepted for publication. Journal names should be abbreviated according to Medline style.

References to articles published in journals should include the name of the first author followed by the names of the other authors (up to a maximum of 6, after which et al. should be used), the title of the article, the name of the journal and the year of publication, volume and pages, and DOI.

Make sure that the data provided in the references is correct. When copying references, be careful because they may already contain errors. The list of references should be added as part of the text, never as a footnote. Codes specific to the reference management programme are not permitted.

II. Format

A detailed description of the formats for different types of reference can be found in the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals" (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html). List all authors if there are six or fewer. Et al should be added if there are more than six authors. Title of article, name of journal, year, volume and pages.

III. Reference style

Text: Indicate references in the text by number(s) in exponent. Authors may be referred to, but the reference number must always be given.

List: Sort the references in the list in the order in which they appear in the text Examples:

Article reference:

1. With less than 6 authors

Kanbour S, Balaji A, Chae K, Mathioudakis N. Insulinoma mimic: methadone-induced hypoglycaemia. BMJ Case Rep. 2022;15:e245890. doi: 10.1136/bcr-2021-245890.

2. With more than 6 authors

Bibbins-Domingo K, Shields B, Ayanian JZ, Bonow RO, Bressler NM, Christakis D, et Public access to scientific research findings and principles of biomedical research-a new policy for the JAMA Network. JAMA Health Forum. 2022;3:e225227. doi: 10.1001/jamahealthforum.2022.5227.

3. In press

Gonsalves WI, Rajkumar SV. Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance. Ann Intern Med. 2022 (in press). doi: 10.7326/AITC202212200.

Book reference:

Patrias K, author; Wendling D. Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers. 2nd ed. Bethesda: National Library of Medicine; 2007

Book chapter reference:

Hafiz W. Vasculitis and Rheumatology. In: Almoallim H, Cheikh M, editors. Skills in Rheumatology. Singapore: Springer; 2021. p.81-93.

Web references:

At the very least, the full URL should be given and the date on which the document was consulted. Any other information, if known (author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given.

Metagenomics: sequences from the environment [Internet]. Bethesda: National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biomedical Information; 2006 [cited 2020 Apr 20]. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=metagenomics.TOC

Preprint

Oberhauser SS, l'Allemand D, Lütschg J, Broser PJ. Peripheral nerve conduction speed shows a disease control-dependent and -independent drop in type 1 diabetes mellitus in children. medRxiv 2022.12.08.22283120. doi: 10.1101/2022.12.08.22283120

Footnotes

Footnotes should be avoided. When essential, they should be numbered consecutively and appear on the appropriate page.

Acknowledgements (optional)

They should come after the text and before the references, with the aim of thanking all those who contributed to the study but who do not carry authorship weight. In this section it is possible to thank all sources of support, whether financial, technological or consultancy, as well as individual contributions.

Abbreviations

Don't use abbreviations or acronyms in the title and abstract and limit their use in the text. Non-established abbreviations should be defined at first use, in full, immediately followed by the abbreviation in brackets. Unless the abbreviation is a standard unit of measurement. If a term is used between 1 and 4 times in the text, it should be defined in full throughout the text and not abbreviated.

Units of measurement

The International System of Units must be used. Measurements of length, height, weight and volume must be expressed in units of the metric system (metre, kilogram or litre) or their decimal multiples. Temperatures should be given in degrees Celsius (ºC) and blood pressure in millimetres of mercury (mmHg), and haemoglobin in g/dL. All haematological or biochemical measurements will be referred to in the metric system according to the International System of Units (SI).

Names of Medicines and Medical Devices

Identify all medicines and products precisely by their international non-proprietary name (INN). It is not recommended to use trade names of drugs (trademarks), but when it is imperative, the name of the product should come after the INN name, in brackets, in lower case, followed by the symbol that characterises a trademark, in superscript (®). The same principle applies to medical devices.

Gene Names, Symbols and Accession Numbers

Genes and related structures should be assigned the official names and symbols provided by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) or the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee. Prior to submission of a manuscript reporting large genomic datasets (e.g. protein or DNA sequences), the datasets should be deposited in a publicly available database, such as NCBI's GenBank, and a full accession number (and version number, if appropriate) should be provided in the Methods section.

Tables and Figures

Only send images of the affected areas to preserve the patient's anonymity. The cut should be as tight as possible to eliminate unwanted details.

Tables/Figures should be numbered in the order in which they are cited in the text and labelled with Arabic numerals.

Each Figure and Table included in the paper must be referred to in the text: "An abnormal immune response may be the cause of the symptoms of the disease (Fig. 2)"; "This is associated with two other lesions (Table 1)".

Figure: When referred to in the text, it is abbreviated to Fig, while Table is not abbreviated. In the captions, both words are written out in full.

Each table and figure must be accompanied by a succinct and clear caption. Captions should be self-explanatory (without the need to refer to the text).

Each table should be used to show results, presenting lists of individual data or summarising them, but should not duplicate the results described in the text. They should be accompanied by a short but clear and elucidating title. The units of measurement used should be indicated (in brackets below the name that heads each category of values) and the numbers expressed should be reduced to the decimal places with clinical significance.

For explanatory notes in Tables, letters (a, b, c, d, etc) should be used, not symbols. The colourful illustrations are reproduced free of charge.

General principles:

• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the
• Please provide the illustration captions
• Size the illustrations close to the desired dimensions of the published
• Send each illustration as a separate

The inclusion of figures and/or tables that have already been published requires the authorisation of the copyright holder (author or publisher).

Submissions must be made separately from the text, in accordance with the platform's instructions. Figure files must be supplied in high resolution, 800 dpi minimum for graphics and 300 dpi minimum for photographs.

The publication of colour illustrations is free of charge, and SPMI Case Reports reserves the right to publish a black and white version in the printed version of the journal.

Graphic material must be delivered in one of the following formats:

• JPEG (.jpg)
• Portable Document Format (.Pdf)
• Powepoint (.ppt)
• TIFF (.Tif)
• Excel (.xls)

Permission for publication/reproduction: In the case of publication of tables in books or magazines, the authors are responsible for obtaining permission for said publication from the authors of the works from which they are reproduced, and must present this in the submission.

Multimedia files

SPMI Case Reports accepts video submissions to complement the case report. The content and focus of the video must be directly related to the study.

If the video shows any identifiable living patients and/or personally identifiable details, the authors need to demonstrate that consent has been obtained. If a patient consent form was provided for the related article, there is no need to provide it again for the video.

Videos are published under the same copyright terms as the associated article. Multimedia files must be sent as a separate file with the manuscript. Multimedia material must meet production quality standards for publication without the need for any modification or editing. Acceptable files are: MPEG, AVI or QuickTime formats.

Annexes/Appendices

When necessary, annexes should be used to present long or detailed surveys, descriptions of extensive mathematical calculations and/or lists of items. They should be placed after the list of references, if necessary with subtitles. Long annexes, such as algorithms, surveys and protocols, will only be published online; the URL will be provided in the printed article where the annex is cited.

If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulas and equations in appendices should be numbered separately: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a later appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on. Likewise for tables and figures: Table A.1; FIG. A.1, etc.

Style

SPMI Case Reports follows AMA Manual Style, 10th edition (https://www.amamanualofstyle.com) and ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (https://icmje.org/recommendations).

Final note - for a more complete explanation of this subject, we recommend reading the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, available at https://www.ICMJE.org.

June 2024