Personal Data
To preserve the anonymity of patients and research subjects, authors must remove all potentially identifying information—including patient likenesses, identification numbers, names, initials, geographic location, etc.—from images, charts, graphs, tables, and text before being submitted for consideration by RSNA Case Collection.

For photographs, video, computerized renderings, or 3-D reconstructions of patients, a cropped or adequately masked image that excludes identifiable features may be acceptable. Note: The simple masking of eyes in photographs is not sufficient to preserve anonymity.

In the rare circumstances when identifiable images, videos, photographs, or surface renderings are essential to conveying critical scientific or educational information, the author must obtain an RSNA-specific letter of informed consent from the patient or patient’s guardian before submission. This permission requires that the individual be offered the ability to see the case as part of obtaining informed consent.

To respect your patient’s and any other individual’s privacy, please do not submit the signed forms to RSNA. Please retain copies of the signed forms in the event they should be needed, and provide a letter from your institutional official indicating that patient/ individual informed consent has been obtained. If consent, permission, or release is made subject to any conditions, RSNA must be made aware in writing of all such conditions before publication.

The editorial board may independently determine that patient/ research subject consent is required prior to publication if the content is deemed to reveal identifying information/ patient likenesses, etc.

Sole Submission
The cases of original research should only be submitted solely to RSNA Case Collection.

Authors must attest that a case on the same or similar material has not already been published by them or has not been or will not be submitted to another journal by them or by colleagues at their institution before their work appears in RSNA Case Collection.

Non-original Content
Authors must identify any components of their submission that they did not create or for which they do not own the copyright, regardless of whether the material was previously published.

Authors who wish to use previously published figures or tables for which they do not possess a license must obtain written permission from the original publisher. (To request permission to reprint materials originally published in RSNA journals, use our permissions request form.)

If you plan to use an adaptation of the previously published material, include the adapted version in the permission request that you send to the original publisher. Request permission to reproduce the item in both the print and online versions of the journal without any time restrictions or requirements for hyperlinks to the original publisher’s Web site. Do not pay permission fees if this request is not granted: If the right to reproduce previously published figures or tables online is denied you, we must replace those pieces by black boxes Likewise, figures and tables with time-restricted permission for online reproduction must be replaced by black boxes after the term of the reprint license expires. Because it may be difficult to obtain unrestricted permission from commercial publishers, we discourage authors from using materials from such sources.

Previously published figures and tables must be clearly identified in a legend or footnote by using the phrase “Reprinted, with permission, from reference [number],” or if the reprinted figure or table has been adapted, “Adapted and reprinted, with permission, from reference [number].” The reference to the original source of the work should be numbered as though that source were cited where the figure or table is first cited in the manuscript, and it should be included in the References.

Copyright Statement
In consideration of the activity of the Radiological Society of North America, Inc. (RSNA) in reviewing, editing, and publishing the cases, complete copyright of the case and any supplemental tables, images, or other information included with the article will be transferred to the RSNA, effective if and when the article is accepted for publication in RSNA Case Collection.

In addition, in the situation of authors who are officers or employees of the U.S. government, RSNA recognizes that works prepared by them as part of their official duties are in the public domain.

RSNA grants to each of the authors a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, display and distribute all or any part of the images included in the article, including artwork, radiologic images and related captions, but not the other elements (such as text, charts, graphs, tables and software) included in the article.

Authors reserve the following rights relating to the article:

1. Other than copyright, all proprietary rights, including any patent rights relating to the subject matter of the case.
2. The right of personal use in lectures, lecture notes, and educational exhibits

Scientific/ Ethical Misconduct
RSNA Case Collection follows the ICMJE "Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals," found at http://www.icmje.org/recommendations. Breaches of ethical conduct include but are not limited to redundant (duplicate) publication, scientific misconduct (such as falsification or fabrication of data and deceptive manipulation of images), and plagiarism.

The Editor is responsible for investigating all instances of alleged misconduct identified by RCC staff, Editorial Board members, Reviewers, or readers of submitted or published materials and determining whether corrective action is needed. Readers who suspect that an instance of scientific misconduct, plagiarism, duplicate (redundant) publication, or unreported conflict of interest has occurred should write to the appropriate RSNA Case Collection Editorial Office. The Editor and Deputy Editors reserve the right to request the authors to provide additional data collected during their investigations.

When concern about conduct arises, the Editor may investigate and resolve the matter personally or may form an ad hoc committee of Editorial Board members and administrative staff to review the facts, discuss whether misconduct has occurred, and decide what responsive measures, if any, should be undertaken.

As soon as possible after an allegation is made, the Editor will outline the issue under investigation in a written communication to the individuals involved and will request their written response. Depending on the nature of the allegation and the response, the Editor may also contact officials at the authors’ or reviewers’ institution(s).

The final results of investigation and any measures taken in response to the investigation will be communicated to all parties involved in a timely manner. In accordance with Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, the Editor reserves the right to notify the division director, departmental chair, or institutional administrator, funding agency or the Office of Research Integrity as well as Journal readers, of the facts and outcome of the investigation.

Conflicts of Interest
Authors must describe any direct or indirect financial interest they may have in the subject matter of a submitted cases, and they must authorize RSNA to publish this financial disclosure with the article if deemed appropriate by the Editor. The Society’s financial disclosure policy is as follows: "Each author shall describe (a) any direct financial interest that author has in the subject matter discussed in the submitted case, and (b) any affiliation or financial involvement that author has with or in any organization having a direct financial interest in the subject matter discussed in the submitted case. All authors of manuscripts accepted for publication are required to submit a completed ICMJE Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest Form. The submission of a manuscript to a Radiology journal grants permission for RSNA to publish the financial information described above. If the manuscript is published this information will be published with the manuscript."

Please note that financial interest also includes financial support of an author’s study by industry. In such an instance, information should be included at the beginning of the Materials and Methods section of the text. Authors should indicate (a) the name of the industry providing support for the study, (b) the type of support (financial, provision of equipment or contrast agents, etc), and (c) that the authors had control of the data and information submitted for publication. For authors who are employees of or consultants to the industry providing support, it must be clearly stated that the nonemployee or nonconsultant authors had control of the data and information that might present a conflict of interest for the other employee or consultant authors. Statements regarding control of data and information are also needed for any authors who are employees of or consultants to an industry whose products are being evaluated in the study, even if the industry did not support the study.

At the Editor’s discretion, industry supported trials with solely industry authors may be accepted for publication if: 1) the protocol was clearly defined a priori and is available for review in a nationally recognized registry, such as clinicaltrials.gov; 2) anonymized original data are available for review at the Editor’s discretion. Any other nonfinancial conflicts of interest should also be disclosed to the Editor, with the understanding that the information may be published if deemed appropriate by the Editor.

Conflicts of interest also apply to members of RSNA Case Collection Editorial Boards and to reviewers. Members of the Editorial Boards are asked to sign a conflict of interest disclosure statement, disclosing any financial or other interest that may bias their objectivity when performing their duties as a member of the Editorial Board. Editorial board members with personal, professional, institutional, or financial conflicts of interest with authors or material will recuse themselves from editorial decision making. Reviewers should state explicitly (in the Comments for Editor section of the review) whether there are conflicts of interest that could bias their review of a given manuscript. Reviewers should not review a manuscript if they believe they are unable to provide an unbiased review. Also, any individual who has reviewed a manuscript should not use for personal interest or gain the knowledge of the manuscript contents obtained prior to its publication.

Appeals
The authors of submissions that are rejected after peer review have the right to appeal to the Editor for reconsideration within 30 days after notification of the decision. On the basis of the merits of the appeal, the Editor will determine whether further consideration is warranted. The Editor’s decision on the appeal is final. An appeal that is based on the process by which peer review is conducted will not be considered. To appeal, contact RSNA Case Collections Office.

Authorship
RSNA Case Collection follows the guidelines on authorship given by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. ICMJE further states that “acquisition of funding; general supervision of a research group or general administrative support; and writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, and proofreading” do not justify authorship. RSNA Case Collection requires that authors fulfill the ICMJE criteria to be listed as authors.

See the ICMJE’s "Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals" (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf) for their complete guidelines on authorship.

The author list should be finalized prior to submission. Additional authors are generally not allowable after an initial decision to accept the case.

RSNA Case Collection does not allow multiple corresponding or senior authors. Each case can only have one author with up to three co-authors.

License for Use of Images
Authors whose cases are accepted for publication in RSNA Case Collection are automatically granted from RSNA a license for use of their figures.

Plagiarism
RSNA accepts cases only with the understanding that they are contributed solely to RSNA Case Collection; authors must attest that a case on the same or similar material has not already been published by them, and has not been and will not be submitted to another publication by them or by colleagues at their institution before their work appears in RSNA Case Collection.

Problematic cases will be returned to the authors without peer review.

The images can’t be copied from another publication or duplicated for another publication after acceptance to RSNA Case Collection without permission. If your submitted images do not meet the above requirements, the case will be returned to you without being considered for publication.

It is not allowed to copy text from other sources. If paraphrased material is included, it must be cited by source. Information taken from other studies must be referenced properly, i.e. the reference included in the reference list and the number indicated directly in the text. Copied and/or unreferenced text from other sources is regarded as plagiarism.