Special section “Case Reports in Urology”

I was very proud to receive the invitation to join the Editorial Board of AME Case Reports (ACR) to head the Section “Case Reports in Urology”. The significance of case reports tends to be misunderstood by journal editors and academics because of their poor quality and because they “negatively affect the impact factor” of the journal! Most academics were at one time residents and if they were honest, their career in publishing probably included a number of case reports, either through their authorship or as their research material. Writing is an art; disseminating and sharing knowledge is true support for professionals. Every day we come across a large number of requests for articles from numerous medical journals and newspapers in our e-mail inbox; an extremely difficult task for many publishers is the search for sources of knowledge that should be disseminated.

Writing a scientific article or a case report in not much different from producing a work of art. Every article, during its writing, goes through some stages of maturation. It is difficult to specify these phases because they often happen simultaneously. However, one should: (I) put ideas on paper; (II) order the ideas (regrouping in paragraphs, organizing the subjects in a logical sequence); (III) complete and review the text (grammar, concordance and style). Clarity and objectivity must always be in the minds of those who write, as this is one of the most important points that is judged by reviewers.

The book The Art of Writing is a collection that helps us to think about how to write, the style, reading scientific articles and how to be critical when we are preparing an article. Because of this, we hope that our readers are motivated on reading this foreword, and that they will also contribute and share their teachings to ACR "Case Reports in Urology" helping this journal to fulfilling its mission of informing and training great professionals.

I encourage you to join us on this important mission.