To assess flaws, rejection rate and reasons for rejection of case reports submitted for publication in the European Annals of Otorhinolaryngology Head & Neck Diseases.

A prospective analysis of flaws noted in reviewing 118 case reports from 29 countries consecutively submitted to the European Annals of Otorhinolaryngology Head & Neck Diseases during the period Sept. 1, 2014 to Sept. 30, 2015.

The most frequent flaws, noted in 74.5% of cases, were: lack of originality (more than 15 such cases previously reported in the medical literature) and lack of new data contributing to the medical literature. Overall, 5% of the cases were accepted for publication, 7% were not resubmitted by the authors, and 88% were rejected. On univariate analysis, none of the variables under analysis correlated with acceptance or rejection of the submitted case. Editorial decision time varied from 1 to 7months (median, 1 month). In 16.3% of the 104 cases of rejection (17/104), the editors suggested resubmission in the section “Letter to the Editor” or “What is your diagnosis?”; 15 of the 17 reports were resubmitted, and 10 (66.6%) were ultimately accepted for publication.

The editorial committee of the European Annals of Otorhinolaryngology Head & Neck Diseases hope that the present data and review of the literature will provide authors with a framework to avoid major errors leading to rejection and will speed publication of the case reports they submit to our columns in the near future.