Q: Is it ethical to include an already reported case in a case series?
I am going to make case series for a disease. One of the cases which I want to include in the case list was already reported in a case report by another physician in a Japanese journal in the past. If I make a case series including the reported case, is that ethically acceptable?
It is great that you are taking care of keeping your publication free of ethical issues. Case series should be a report of the cases that you have personally observed and treated in your institution. You cannot include case(s) that have been published by a different author in your case series since you have personally not treated this case. You can cite this case reported by someone else in your case series and discuss it in light of your study.
Related reading:
- Is publishing a case report similar to a previously published article considered duplicate publication?
- A young researcher's guide to writing a clinical case report
- Is it ethical to publish two different outcomes from the same case as two separate case reports?
- Can I publish a case report about a medicine's side effect although two similar cases have been reported?
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