Most general radiology journals stopped publishing case reports years ago. The American Journal of Roentgenology stopped accepting them in November 2005 [1], Radiology has never carried a case report category, and Clinical Imaging — listed here in the original 2021 version of this page — no longer lists Case Report among its article types at all. What is left is a small group of dedicated case-report journals, a handful of subspecialty journals that still take them, and a set of image formats that look like case reports but are explicitly not.
This page was rebuilt in September 2026. Every fee, indexing status and article type below was checked against the journal’s own author instructions, the NLM Catalog, the DOAJ record and PubMed itself on 6 September 2026. The impact factors are from the JCR 2026 release (17 June 2026), which carries 2025 citation data — the figures in the old version of this list were from the 2020 JCR and are now five editions out of date.
Key points
- The three dedicated radiology case-report journals are Radiology Case Reports (Elsevier, USD 660), the Journal of Radiology Case Reports (USD 950) and BJR|case reports (GBP 475).
- None of them carries a Journal Impact Factor you can quote, and Scopus discontinued Radiology Case Reports in 2024.
- Several subspecialty journals still publish case reports at no cost because they are hybrid: Skeletal Radiology, Pediatric Radiology, Neuroradiology, Abdominal Radiology and Emergency Radiology.
- PubMed indexed is not the same as MEDLINE indexed. Most case-report journals reach PubMed through PubMed Central only. Check the NLM Catalog before you submit if your thesis or appraisal requires MEDLINE or Scopus.
- Write it to CARE-radiology (2024) — 38 items in 16 domains, the radiology extension of the CARE checklist [2].
Radiology journals that published case reports in 2026
The count below is the number of items from each journal tagged with the PubMed publication type “Case Reports” and published in 2026, retrieved on 6 September 2026. It is a blunt instrument — tagging is inconsistent and some journals label the same content as a brief report — but it answers the question a stale list cannot: is this journal actually still publishing case reports?
| Journal | Case reports in PubMed, 2026 | Author fee | Indexing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Radiology Case Reports (Elsevier) | 1019 | USD 660 APC | PubMed Central; not MEDLINE; Scopus coverage ended 2024 |
| Skeletal Radiology (Springer) | 42 | None unless you choose open access | MEDLINE, Scopus, JIF |
| BJR|case reports (OUP / British Institute of Radiology) | 40 | GBP 475; reduced for BIR members | PubMed Central, ESCI, DOAJ; not MEDLINE |
| Pediatric Radiology (Springer) | 19 | None unless you choose open access | MEDLINE, Scopus, JIF |
| Neuroradiology (Springer) | 15 | None unless you choose open access | MEDLINE, Scopus, JIF |
| Indian Journal of Radiology and Imaging (Thieme) | 11 | No APC (fully open access) | PubMed Central, Scopus; not currently MEDLINE |
| Journal of the Belgian Society of Radiology | 10 | GBP 483; free for BSR members | PubMed Central, DOAJ; not MEDLINE |
| Journal of Clinical Imaging Science | 9 | USD 575 for a case report | PubMed Central; not MEDLINE |
| Abdominal Radiology (Springer) | 8 | None unless you choose open access | MEDLINE, Scopus, JIF |
| Emergency Radiology (Springer) | 5 | None unless you choose open access | MEDLINE, Scopus, JIF |
| Journal of Radiology Case Reports | 0 tagged (deposits to PubMed lag by months) | USD 950 APC | PubMed Central, Scopus, ESCI, DOAJ; not MEDLINE |
| Polish Journal of Radiology | 0 | No APC, no submission fee | PubMed Central, Scopus; not MEDLINE. Only exceptional case reports |
| Egyptian Journal of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine | Not in PubMed | No APC (sponsor-funded) | Scopus, DOAJ; not in PubMed |
Two entries deserve a warning. Radiology Case Reports is by far the largest destination for radiology case reports — over a thousand in 2026 alone — but Scopus discontinued the title in 2024, so anything you publish there from 2025 onwards will not appear in a Scopus search. It remains in PubMed through PubMed Central. The Journal of Radiology Case Reports is still publishing (volume 20 in 2026) but its deposits into PubMed run months behind, so do not read an empty recent PubMed listing as evidence the journal has folded.
General medical journals that take radiology case reports
If the case has a clinical message beyond the imaging, or if the radiology journals have already rejected it, these are the realistic destinations. All four publish imaging-led cases routinely.
| Journal | Fee model | Indexing | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cureus (Springer Nature) | No APC. Free only if the case report has 5 or fewer authors, 20 or fewer references and clean formatting; otherwise Preferred Editing, averaging USD 385, capped at USD 1400 | PubMed Central; not MEDLINE | Roughly a fifth to a quarter of submissions qualify for free publication. 40 percent discount for authors in the lowest-income countries |
| BMJ Case Reports | Fellowship model: GBP 363 per year for an individual, unlimited submissions in that year. Many institutions hold a Fellowship that covers their staff. Open access is a separate GBP 525 | MEDLINE | Check whether your hospital or university already holds an institutional Fellowship before paying anything |
| Journal of Medical Case Reports (Springer Nature) | USD 1775 for a case report | MEDLINE | The most expensive of the group; waivers and discounts for the lowest-income countries |
| Clinical Case Reports (Wiley) | Open access APC | PubMed Central; not currently MEDLINE | Broad multispecialty scope, accepts imaging-led cases |
Image and quiz formats that are not case reports
These are the routes into the highest-profile journals, and they are the ones most residents miss. All of them are short, most cap the author list at two, and all of them explicitly refuse conventional case reports — submitting a rewritten case report to these sections is the most common reason for a desk rejection.
| Format | Journal | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Images in Clinical Medicine | New England Journal of Medicine | A single striking static image or video with a legend of up to 150 words and no references. Maximum two authors. The journal states it is not a vehicle for case reports. Written patient consent is mandatory |
| Images in Radiology | Radiology (RSNA) | State-of-the-art images of common and uncommon conditions. Submission to Radiology is free. It is the second most submitted manuscript type after original research |
| Radiology Diagnosis Please | Radiology (RSNA) | The monthly unknown case, published as history plus images first and the diagnosis four months later. Requires editorial approval before you submit |
| AJR Viewbox | American Journal of Roentgenology | A clinically useful, high-quality radiologic depiction. AJR states that rare or extreme case reports are not the primary focus of this type |
| Images in Clinical Radiology | Journal of the Belgian Society of Radiology | Up to 500 words and three figures. The first author must be a resident or a medical student |
| RSNA Case Collection | RSNA (not a journal) | A free, peer-reviewed teaching case database rather than a journal. Good for teaching visibility, but it is not a citable PubMed-indexed publication |
Radiology journal impact factors, JCR 2026 release
Clarivate released the Journal Citation Reports 2026 edition on 17 June 2026, covering 2025 citation data across 22,643 journals. These are the figures for the radiology titles people search for most.
| Journal | 2025 Journal Impact Factor | Previous edition |
|---|---|---|
| Radiology: Artificial Intelligence | 20.1 | 13.2 |
| Radiology | 17.6 | 15.2 |
| American Journal of Roentgenology | 7.4 | 4.7 |
| Radiology: Imaging Cancer | 7.2 | 6.3 |
| RadioGraphics | 6.2 | 5.5 |
| European Radiology | 6.0 | 4.7 |
| Insights into Imaging | 5.6 | 4.5 |
| European Radiology Experimental | 4.7 | 3.6 |
| Radiology: Cardiothoracic Imaging | 4.5 | 4.2 |
| Radiology Advances | 1.8 | First JIF |
The number people actually search for — the impact factor of Radiology Case Reports or of the Journal of Radiology Case Reports — does not exist. Neither is ranked with a Journal Impact Factor in the JCR; the Journal of Radiology Case Reports appears in the 2026 release as an Emerging Sources Citation Index title with metrics pending. Any impact factor quoted for these journals on a metrics aggregator site is that site’s own calculation. If a numeric impact factor matters for your thesis submission or promotion file, the case belongs in a MEDLINE-indexed subspecialty journal, not a case-report-only journal.
PubMed, MEDLINE, PMC and Scopus are not the same thing
This is where most case report decisions go wrong. Every one of the terms below means something different, and a journal can satisfy one while failing the rest.
| Term | What it means | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| PubMed | The search interface. Contains MEDLINE records plus everything deposited in PubMed Central plus some publisher-supplied records | A journal being findable in PubMed proves very little on its own |
| MEDLINE | The subset selected by the NLM Literature Selection Technical Review Committee. Records get MeSH indexing | This is what most institutions mean by an indexed journal. Check currentindexingstatus in the NLM Catalog |
| PubMed Central (PMC) | The full-text archive. Journals can deposit here without being selected for MEDLINE | How most case-report journals get into PubMed. Legitimate, but a lower bar |
| Scopus | Elsevier’s citation database, used for the h-index and many national ranking systems | Titles can be discontinued: Radiology Case Reports was discontinued in 2024 |
| Web of Science / ESCI | Clarivate’s database. ESCI is the tier below SCIE and is the source of most case-report journal listings | ESCI titles now receive a JIF, but many case-report journals still show no JIF |
The practical check takes two minutes: search the journal in the NLM Catalog and read the “Currently indexed for MEDLINE” line, then confirm the fee and licence in the journal’s DOAJ record. Do this before you write, not after acceptance.
Write it to CARE-radiology, not from memory
The reporting standard for case reports is the CARE statement, a 13-item checklist published in 2013 [3] with an explanation and elaboration document in 2017 [4]. In 2024 a group of 40 radiologists, methodologists and journal editors published CARE-radiology, the radiology-specific extension, developed using EQUATOR Network methodology: 38 items across 16 domains [2].
What CARE-radiology adds over the generic checklist is precisely what reviewers reject radiology cases for omitting: the imaging technique in usable detail (modality, scanner, field strength, sequences, contrast agent and dose, phase timing, reconstruction), who interpreted the images and under what conditions, how the imaging findings were correlated with pathology, surgery or follow-up, and a description of the differential that the imaging actually excluded.
- Say what the case adds. One sentence, in the introduction, before anything else. If you cannot write it, the case is not publishable.
- Include the word case report in the title along with the phenomenon of interest — CARE item 1, and it also makes the paper findable.
- Give a timeline. A table or figure with dates for presentation, imaging, intervention and follow-up.
- Report the imaging protocol, not just the findings.
- Get written consent from the patient or guardian, and anonymise the exported images: burned-in identifiers, accession numbers, DICOM headers and face-visible three-dimensional reformats all identify people.
- State that the report follows CARE-radiology and cite the guideline.
Predatory invitations are aimed at exactly this audience
Case reports are the entry point for residents, which makes their authors the primary target for predatory publishers. A 2024 survey of radiology trainees in Clinical Imaging documented the volume of unsolicited scam invitations from fake journals and conferences reaching radiology-in-training inboxes [5]. The pattern is consistent: unsolicited flattery, a promised review turnaround measured in days, a fee disclosed only after acceptance, a title nearly identical to an established journal, and an editorial board that has not consented to be listed.
Verify independently every time. Look the journal up in the NLM Catalog, in DOAJ and in the Scopus or Web of Science source lists, and work through the Think. Check. Submit. checklist. Never accept a publisher’s claim about its own indexing at face value.
Frequently asked questions
References
- Buckley O, Torreggiani WC. The demise of the case report. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2007;189(2):W54-5. PMID: 17646437
- Wang M, Luo X, Xiao X, et al. CARE-radiology statement explanation and elaboration: reporting guideline for radiological case reports. BMJ Evid Based Med. 2024;29(6):399-408. PMID: 38458654
- Gagnier JJ, Kienle G, Altman DG, Moher D, Sox H, Riley D; CARE Group. The CARE guidelines: consensus-based clinical case reporting guideline development. BMJ Case Rep. 2013;2013:bcr2013201554. PMID: 24155002
- Riley DS, Barber MS, Kienle GS, et al. CARE guidelines for case reports: explanation and elaboration document. J Clin Epidemiol. 2017;89:218-235. PMID: 28529185
- Lakhani DA, Radmard M, Hesami M, et al. Unsolicited scam invitations from predatory publications and fraudulent conferences: Radiology-in-training experience. Clin Imaging. 2024;113:110230. PMID: 38945061
- Simkus P, Edwards H, Banisauskaite A. Finding the right home for your radiology article: a useful tool. Clin Radiol. 2021;76(12):938-939. PMID: 34583827
Related reading
- Radiology thesis topics — choosing a project that can also produce a publication.
- A guide for first-year radiology residents — where academic work fits in the first year.
- Radiology cases — the case archive on this site.
- Radiology spotters for MD and DNB — practice cases for the exam.
Improve Content And Help Your Colleagues!
Found an error in the post? Please let us know using our contact page and we will update it with due credits!
If you wish to contribute radiological images for this case (or any other article on the website), you can submit them here and you will be duly credited: Submit radiology case
While some doctors may have a doctorate in medicine, most radiologist jobs work as employees in the Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand. Their salaries are fixed, though they can receive a range of benefits, depending on their qualifications. A lot of radiologist jobs require a graduate degree. A doctorate degree in medicine can earn a high salary and be a valuable asset to a healthcare practice. While the salary is high, the work can be challenging and stressful.