Variables affecting evaluation and publication of oncology case reports: a systematic analysis.

Background: Studies on factors affecting editorial decisions of scientific journals are scarce. In this study, we focused on case reports submitted to oncology journals and analyzed whether their nature or other relevant variables affected the chances of their acceptance.

Methods: We analyzed case reports submitted to 2 oncology journals: Tumori Journal and The International Journal of Biological Markers, and split them into 3 predefined groups: those (a) describing rare or unusual presentation of diseases, (b) describing the side effects of an intervention or (c) describing the success of a novel intervention.