What Makes a Good Editorial Comment for a Case Report?

For the last 9 months of JACC: Case Reports, our main objectives have been to make the best of a clinical case, to create an educational vehicle for authors and readers, and to provide active discussion on the appropriate management and differential diagnosis of our patients.

Every week, during the Editorial Board meeting, the Associate Editors and I have an active discussion wherein we learn from each other, we exchange experiences, and we highlight a few manuscripts that may warrant an Editorial Comment.

The author of an Editorial Comment may think that this is a simple description of the case and the literature; however, my vision is quite different when it comes to clinical cases. Therefore, this Editor’s Corner highlights the most important aspects of writing an effective Editorial Comment.

Be Considerate

When you describe the work of your colleagues, we appreciate your expertise and knowledge on the topic. That is one of the reasons that you are selected to write this Editorial Comment. Acknowledge the efforts of the authors to pull the clinical case together and that this manuscript has been through extensive peer review. When it comes to different practice, you have every right to disagree; however, even that can be communicated in a collegial way. Be gentle, be considerate, and treat the authors and the manuscript as you would like to be treated.

Build Your Argument

Provide an evidence-based Editorial Comment, and use guidelines or other landmark manuscripts to support your arguments. Take the appropriate time to build a well-written manuscript in its own right—which could be highly cited—and more importantly, useful to practicing cardiovascular clinicians. Think as if you are the reader: What are the extra aspects that you would like to see in this Editorial Comment? For example, commenting on pitfalls or on gaps of the guidelines. Overall, provide constructive criticism.

Share Your Expertise

We see quite commonly that some cases are managed differently depending on the part of the world where the authors practice. In other countries, there may be financial constraints that may not allow the same management. Share your clinical experience, and discuss the differences in clinical practice in different parts of the world. Help us open our horizons. If you are a training director and you describe a technique, it will be interesting to discuss the learning curve of the technique and the appropriate mentorship required.

Provide an Illustration, Figure, or Algorithm

My vision for JACC: Case Reports is that the Editorial Comments will have the potential to be equally cited, by complementing and supplementing, as the original manuscript. For example, Pandis and Isselbacher (1) shared a figure in a recent Editorial Comment that is important for every colleague, from fellow to senior colleague and from a multimodality imager to a cardiothoracic surgeon. Furthermore, Asatryan et al. (2) summarized electrocardiographic patterns of potentially high-risk critical coronary artery stenosis or occlusion in an illustrative figure. Both Editorial Comments were shared not only with the fellows in training in my hospital but also with colleagues from other subspecialties. This is the target of the Editorial Comment: Provide education beyond the borders of a simple description.

An algorithm as a knowledge refresher or a summary of “tips and tricks” on how to address a certain situation is always an important aspect of an Editorial Comment. Remind us of what we need to know, summarize it in an algorithm, teach us.

Back to The Basics or Back to the Future?

One of the interesting aspects of dealing with clinical cases is that a case may be highly educational or highly advanced—not necessarily rare, but mostly addressing those colleagues who have subspecialized in a certain technique and who describe an innovative procedure. For that purpose, we decided to establish 2 “corners” that you will have the opportunity to explore in this issue: the Educational Corner, which gets us “Back to the Basics” with fundamental signs and descriptions of cases that we should never forget in our differential diagnosis; and the “Technical Corner,” which will always be accompanied by an Editorial Comment.

The Technical Corner explores novel, innovative techniques in all aspects of cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery. The Editorial Comment on these papers will serve as a step-by-step guide on this technique, to provide tips and tricks for best practice, as well as to highlight the limitations and the benefits. That is why we will select worldwide experts to provide their commentary.

Make Your Editorial Flawless and User Friendly

How to condense all this knowledge in 1,500 words? Be simple and to the point. Remember that many people will read your Editorial Comment on their way to work, on their break, on their time off. It needs to be easy to read, to the point, and applicable to the audience. Think that this is a way to add your own signature to clinical practice. Therefore, make the best of it.