All content submitted by the author must be original work. We expect the author to have first-hand contact with the patient described in the case either through direct clinical and/or advocacy work. Once a case is reviewed and accepted, a faculty will be assigned to work with the primary author on content, style and a teaching guide. The faculty mentor will serve as the second author on the case. Input from community key informants and co-authorship will be offered to these community mentors if desired and indicated.
We encourage authors to modify and/or remove any personal identifiers including names of patients or individuals, organizations involved and specific locations. In cases where the inclusion of any identifiable personal information about a patient is desired, the explicit consent of the patient or guardian is required and a signed informed consent form from the patient (or guardian) must be submitted to Socialmedcases.
Review
All submissions are screened by Socialmedcases editors for content, compliance with requirements and standards. All submissions that successfully clear the screening process enter the group review process. The review committee is composed of faculty, community mentors and students (Social Medicine Fellows). Each case submission will be scored by 3 criteria: 1) breadth and depth of the case description, 2) degree of critical reflection by the author, and 3) innovation, feasibility and applicability of the interventions or solutions proposed. A formal decision email that includes comments and recommendations from the reviewers will be sent to the author. All publication decisions are final, and the primary author may not appeal a rejection decision. However, the editors may offer to work with interested authors on future submissions.
The AMA retains copyright of published social medicine cases developed under the Accelerating Change in Medical Education Innovation Grants Program. However, all case publications and curricular materials are available to download without cost. Subsequent publication will be covered under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
Plagiarism
Every article will be screened on submission and any significant overlap with other publications will result in automatic rejection with no right of appeal. IThenticate will be employed as a plagiarism detection software to screen written work for originality.
Publication
Once a submission is ready for publication, Socialmedcases editors will prepare the case for publication. Authors are encouraged to include their contact information alongside their publication, but this is not a required condition for publication. Cases will be available to download by members of the public free of charge after a brief registration process.
The editors reserve the right to retract a published case in the event an infringement of professional ethical codes is discovered subsequent to the case publication.
Format for citing case publications from our website: Last First initial, Last F. (year, month date). Title. Socialmedcases. Retrieved from URL.