Editorial policy

Focus and scope

The Revista Española de Casos Clínicos en Medicina Interna (Spanish Journal of Clinical Cases in Internal Medicine, or RECCMI according to the Spanish acronym) is a scientific journal published by the Sociedad Española de Medicina Interna (SEMI) under its Board of Directors. The journal aims to improve clinical expertise surrounding Internal Medicine patients and provide specialists in training and those recently accredited (as well as all other clinicians) a forum for sharing specific experiences in the shape of their first or most recent work.

The aim of the journal is to publish clinical cases and care tools capable of improving skills and training to enhance daily patient management.

RECCMI is indexed in the Regional Cooperative Online Information System for Scholarly Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal (LATINDEX), the Information Matrix for the Analysis of Journals (MIAR) and MEDES: the medical information search engine in Spanish.

Frequency of publication

The journal is published every four months. The first issue covers the period from January to April, the second from May to August, and the third from September to December. National and international researchers write their publications in Spanish with abstracts in English; these publications are presented in an electronic format and are open access. In addition, all published articles are freely available online to all our readers.

Types of contributions

Clinical cases. A clinical cases is a written detailed account describing a medical problem experienced by one or more patients that is drafted for medical, scientific, or educational purposes. Clinical cases are subject to a double-blind peer-review and original submissions will be published in the Clinical cases section.

RECCMI recognises that case reports represent nearly the lowest level of evidence-based studies (only ahead of consensus statements). However, we are also aware of the very high resolution rate for specific, clinically similar situations, and we actively participate in the growing trend of using single case reports as components of comprehensive reviews. They represent an exceptional opportunity to gather sufficient reasoning to obtain results with significant power.

Current Topics. Reviews and update articles are accepted on certain topics of interest that the RECCMI board commissions from the FEMI Working Groups or others that bring experts together regarding a specific topical content. Review papers are NOT PEER-REVIEWED according to the double-blind system. However, they are published in the Current topics section.

These papers do not follow the usual peer-review process but are reviewed by the editors. Following the RECCMI author rules, the manner of presentation for these consensus statements or group conclusions is the same as for clinical cases (real or fictitious) and must constitute a comprehensible and coherent grouping for updating the chosen item.

Peer-review process

As part of the journal's editorial management, the evaluation process is carried out with the Open Journal Systems (OJS) software, which guarantees the automated, transparent, and auditable recording of all interactions.

Articles evaluated through the double-blind peer-review system guarantee the anonymity of the authors and reviewers throughout the process.

The editor will perform an initial evaluation to confirm that the submission meets the journal's requirements. Manuscripts that do not meet journal requirements will not be considered for review. RECCMI requires that submissions in the form of a "Case Report" or "Case Series Report" be able to describe:

  • Unusual aspects of a disease or concurrent pathologies.
  • Cases of great interest and complexity.
  • Impact of new technologies in the practice of Internal Medicine.
  • Specific problems of patients with chronic disease and multiple pathologies.

The editors are responsible for the quality of the overall content of the publication. They have full responsibility and authority to reject or accept an article; they guarantee the quality of the article and the integrity of the review and publication process and undertake to guarantee the anonymity of the contributors involved.

Editors must ensure that all published research material conforms to internationally accepted ethical guidelines and, if any misconduct is suspected, take action to make all reasonable attempts to resolve the problem.

The editors commit to the use of COPE-recommended flowcharts accessible at https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts.

RECCMI does not allow trade names in published articles.

RECCMI is not responsible for the opinions expressed by the authors of the published articles.

Duration of the review process

Once the preliminary stages determined by the editor have been completed, the evaluation period can last up to 45 days maximum and the average number of weeks between submission and publication of the article is 16 weeks.

Reviewer selection

Reviewers must consider all information relating to the documents to be privileged information and maintain confidentiality. Their review shall be objective without any personal criticism of the author, and they shall state their evaluation clearly and with supporting arguments.

RECCMI reviewers are expressly encouraged to use the CARE guidelines checklist (Gagnier JJ, Kienle G, Altman DG, Moher D, Sox H, Riley D; CARE Group*. The CARE Guidelines: Consensus-based Clinical Case Reporting Guideline Development. Glob Adv Health Med 2013 Sep; 2(5): 38-43. doi: 10.7453/gahmj.2013.008) in order to maintain the quality of published works.

Reviewers should identify relevant bibliographic references not cited in the manuscript.

Reviewers shall pay particular attention to identifying any violations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) ethics standards.

Reviewers should decline to review any manuscript in which they have a conflict of interest due to competitive, collaborative, or other types of relationships with any authors, companies, or institutions related to the work.

Following the current trend of numerous scientific journals, starting September 2024, Volume 9, number 3, RECCMI will introduce as a further reviewer, in addition to the usual peer review reviewers, a routine review using an artificial intelligence program (Chatbot Generative Pretrained Transformer, ChatGPT, specifically ChapGPT-4), as a complement, never a replacement, for the reviews of our articles.

This system will be periodically and permanently evaluated by the editors of the journal and on no occasion will it replace the current peer review system. RECCMI will maintain information on new circumstances that arise from the aforementioned evaluations and their impact on the journal, in order to safeguard the clear policy of RECCMI.

Likewise, RECCMI requires absolute transparency from each reviewer in our peer review system (specifically indicating the use of artificial intelligence tools if their review had been supported in this way).

Reviewers' reports

The journal believes that authors always put significant effort into writing their manuscripts and that well-founded scientific criticism must be compatible with respect for the work of others.

RECCMI has decided to follow the CARE guidelines for the review of clinical cases.

The evaluation is carried out following a model that analyses: 1st) The presentation of the case; 2nd) Diagnostic tests; 3rd) Images and tables (if available); 4th) Discussion, and 5th) Bibliography. The journal requests that the following specific aspects be scored:

Originality:

  1. Very poor: has occurred to many people before.
  2. Poor: not innovative; repeats what others have already done.
  3. Fair: has original details but is not innovative.
  4. Sufficient: case with unique information.
  5. Excellent: highly innovative case.

Presentation:

  1. Very poor: very difficult to read and understand.
  2. Poor: not very neat; the manuscript has not been revised in detail.
  3. Fair: lacking in essential aspects; contains major errors; other elements given more attention.
  4. Good: neat, easy to read.
  5. Excellent: very thorough, very easy to read. East to understand.

Relevance:

  1. Very poor: adds absolutely nothing to knowledge.
  2. Poor: adds little to knowledge. Little interest.
  3. Fair: adds something, although minor, to the knowledge of this pathology.
  4. Sufficient: adds to knowledge. Significant results to reflect on.
  5. Excellent: significant case that will contribute to changing clinical practice or knowledge.

The possible decisions are:

  • Accept submission
  • Publishable with modifications
  • Re-submit for review
  • Not publishable

Articles sent for further review are not guaranteed to be accepted after corrections if they still do not meet the necessary RECCMI quality standards. Rejected articles will not be reviewed again.

The acceptance of papers is subject to current legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. Double publication will be penalised by immediate rejection and specific denunciation in the next issue, without prejudice to initiating a process of reporting the circumstances to the institutions to which the authors belong.

Rejection of the publication

The corresponding author for contact will be informed of the rejection of the submitted manuscript, and a summary of the reviewers' reports may be enclosed.

Anti-plagiarism policy

RECCMI does not support scientific misconduct such as plagiarism and self-plagiarism, which are strictly forbidden. Any detected cases will not be published in the journal and already published articles will be removed.

Crosscheck plagiarism software (iThenticate) will be used on all received manuscripts, and authors, reviewers, and institutions will be informed of the results when deemed appropriate by the corresponding editor.

Authors must expressly certify that manuscripts are original works that have not been previously published elsewhere and are not being considered for publication elsewhere.

  • It is assumed that authors are aware of and comply with the research ethics policies outlined in the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. Updated December 2014, accessible at https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf.
  • The journal strongly encourages authors to review their papers using the checklists published by the CARE group in order to ensure uniformity and to evaluate the quality of the publications. Said lists are accessible in multiple languages at http://www.care-statement.org/care-checklist.html. This review will be verified during the review process.
  • Authors will be required to provide retractions or corrections of possible errors.
  • Authorship will be limited to those individuals who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the article and will appear as co-authors. In addition, the corresponding author must ensure that all co-authors have been made aware of and have approved the final version of the paper and agree to its submission for publication.
  • Authors shall provide a patient consent form if identifiable personal data are submitted.
  • Authors shall notify RECCMI of any conflict of interest.
  • Authors must identify all sources used in creating the manuscript by citing those publications that were decisive or influential to the work.

To ensure clear and unambiguous identification of authors, RECCMI recommends reading and following the FECYT rules for authorship identification accessible at https://www.recursoscientificos.fecyt.es/sites/default/files/2015_02_16_normalizacion_nombre_autor.pdf.

Full information on the anti-plagiarism policy can be found in in the tab Plagiarism, Self-plagiarism, and Other Questionable Actions Policy.

Publication fees

The journal is free of charge as there are no publication or reading fees. The APC (article processing charge) is only charged when an article is accepted for publication and costs €120.00 (euros). The Spanish Foundation of Internal Medicine (FEMI) finances the remaining expenses, if any, via a sponsor.

Account: IBAN ES98 0182 0964 3302 0153 5263

Account holder: FEMI for RECCMI

Amount: €120.00 (euros)

Concept: Case xxx