Case publishing guidelines

Case publishing guidelines  guidelines are really here to help get an idea of the minimum set of expectations that we, as an editorial board, think are acceptable when uploading a case.

As Radiopaedia.org gets biggerlarger and attracts a greater number of people from across the web, we will need to tighten our expectations of whatensure that cases get publishedas as good as possible; these have evolved over the years, and as such some older cases that you find on the site would no longer fulfill these guidelines.  As such,

Please use these guidelines act as a checklist that can be used prior to upload.

If cases do not meet these criteria, wethey will be turning them into private cases that only the owner can see (this feature is pending). You will only be able to have a small number of private cases and once you have the allotted number, you'll not be ablepublished. Instead our editors will push these cases back to upload any more casesdraft mode, and ask you to either improve the case, or keep it unlisted.

Guidelines

Copyright

The image must either be free of copyright restrictions or belong to you. Read more.

Plagiarism of images or text is absolutely not acceptable. Read more.

Anonymity

All cases submitted should be completely de-identified, in such a way as to leave no way of identifying an individual patient. Ideally images should be devoid of ALL text overlay. This not only removes visual clutter, but ensures that no information is inadvertently leftincluded. Most PACS environments allow you to export without text overlay. 

Information which should NOT appear onin any of the cases includes (based on HIPAA guidelines), but is not limited to:

• name
• initials
• date of birth
• address, including full or partial postal code
• telephone or fax numbers or contact information
• e-mail addresses
• unique identifying numbers (e.g. UR, MRN, HID, etc)
• vehicle identifiers
• medical device identifiers (e.g. serial numbers)
• web or internet protocol addresses containing any link to the patient
• biometric data
• facial photograph or comparable image
• names of relatives

Additionally if a case is for one reason or another unique in a way that could lead to identification of an individual then it should also not be uploaded. This means that a case which is has been, for example, been featured in the media is usually inappropriate. 

Please note: We take this very seriously, and failure to abide by these rules a breach of our privacy policy and terms of use. If you upload a case with patient information, your case will be immediately deleted and if you repeatedly upload cases with patient details your account will be suspended. 

Image quality

The vast majority of radiology departments now have PACS and with that, the ability to export images to disc. It is unlikely that taking a photograph of a screen will provide a case that is helpful for the illustration of a sign or disease process. 

Since our aim is to create the best radiology resource of the internet, we need good quality images. Moreover, if the case includes cross-sectional imaging or DSA, the images should be uploaded as a stack. Ideally we would like aroundthese should be between 20-50-70 images per stack and excessive images (e.g. over 70100 are generally discouraged); they take far too long to load and thus make your case difficult to access by most folk on lower speed connections. 

Image quality standards

1. Resolution: no specific figure is set. IdeallyThe minimum is the native resolution of the modality should be uploaded (e.g. 512x512px for CT, 128 to 1024px for MRI (depending on sequence / scan parameters), >1024 for plain films, etc). Images can be smaller provided they still are useful when displayed full screen on a normal monitor (say 1024 x 768 px).
2. Contrast/brightness: the abnormality should be visible easily and the image displayed with optimum windowing and levels (remember that these are not dicom and therefore should be optimised at the time of capture).

Images should also be cropped appropriately, so that there is not extraneous amounts of blank space around them. Read more. 

ThereIdeally there should not be any logono text or graphical overlays on the images as (including measurements / arrows) as this will reduce the quality and teaching value of cases. If this is is crucial, uploading a separate 'annotated' version of a single image demonstrating a ROI measurement is best. 

Study findings

Just because you know what the image or stack of images shows, does not mean that everybody does! So, add in a short description about the study. ItAlthough it doesn't need to be a complete report, but should highlight the salient features.

Diagnosis

Cases need to have a diagnosis, and each case has a diagnostic certainty slider at the top of the case to help you. This may be radiological (supracondylar fracture) or histological (eosinophilic granuloma). It is important that if the diagnosis is histological, that appropriate mention is made in the discussion. Ideally you should include the histology report (and even better images of the slides).

If the diagnosis is a presumptive diagnosis pending histological confirmation, this should be clarified in the text.

In some cases, where no laboratory or pathological test are definitive, the diagnosis is presumptive. In such cases you need to convince the readers / editors of why your diagnosis is correct. 

Questions

These are not mandatory, but can turn a good case into a great case!

Discussion

The discussion portion of the case isn't mandatory, but can be helpful for more complex cases. It should be limited to this case and delegate discussion of the condition in general to the "related article" section (see below).  You can link some keywords to articles in radiopaedia (read more about linking).

Related articles

At the end of each case you should include aplease add and relevant related radiopaedia articles section, listing and linking to a minimum(minimum of one, but usually two or three, related Radiopaedia.org reference articles. Read more about linking).