Looking for a journal to publish in

[propsych]

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Hello,

I am looking for a journal that accepts case studies/ has accepted papers with small sample sizes (think under 10). Impact factor isn't a huge concern, but data looks great and it would be great to get it out there. If you know of any such journals please let me know asap!!!

🙂 Thanks

 

[WisNeuro]

Dozens of journals accept case studies. Depends on what the case study is pertinent to.

 

[neurobain]

Can you tell us more about the study?

 

[propsych]

Can you tell us more about the study?

sure! It's a sleep study examining the effects of naps on performance in college student athletes. n=5 so no stat. analysis, used means.
Mood states, comfortable interpersonal distance scale, self efficacy, and task preference all showed improvements.

 

[psychstudent5]

try JANE. Journal / Author Name Estimator
you can enter abstracts or keywords and it will identify journals that may fit your study.

 

[propsych]

try JANE. Journal / Author Name Estimator
you can enter abstracts or keywords and it will identify journals that may fit your study.

Thanks!!!

 

[neurobain]

sure! It's a sleep study examining the effects of naps on performance in college student athletes. n=5 so no stat. analysis, used means.
Mood states, comfortable interpersonal distance scale, self efficacy, and task preference all showed improvements.

Is there a way to increase your sample size? It would be helpful in publishing, especially since you don't have a control group.

 

[propsych]

Is there a way to increase your sample size? It would be helpful in publishing, especially since you don't have a control group.

Actually yes! we will be running a second iteration of the study in the fall, but that will only bring us up to about 10 maybe 15 if we are extremely lucky. and we did have a no-nap control actually.. this was a within study. Thing is, everyone is looking to publish now, and not wait. It might be a suggestion I bring to them though.

 

[WisNeuro]

My only thought would be, is this novel enough that a case series is interesting enough. Usually case studies/series have to have a great deal of importance/uniqueness in many journals to be published. If you look up "naps improve" and add in any search term (memory, performance, mood, academic achievement, errors at work in nursing, etc.) you get a huge amount of actual studies. What about this case series is something that the literature does not already capture?

 

[pediatric_psydoc]

Yes, WisNeuro has a good point. In my experience (I admit, I've only first authored 3 case studies), case studies that I co-authored were on conditions that the literature didn't already capture (e.g., misdiagnosis of a rare condition and the repercussions, rare disorder, rare comorbidities).

Waiting to publish until the sample size can be increased is probably best. That way, you can do statistical analyses, have more meaningful results, and likely get a higher impact journal interested.

 

[Ollie123]

This sounds more like a pilot/feasibility study or a single-subject design study than a case study. I'd aim for a run-of-the-mill low-tier specialty journal. A lot will depend on the quality of the writing, the quality of data collection and (as WisNeuro said) your ability to justify what it adds to the literature.

Case studies could go anywhere. I think even NEJM takes case reports and most of the clinically-oriented journals I read regularly will do so, but this doesn't sound like it would be of interest.

 

[deleted343839]

This sounds more like a pilot/feasibility study or a single-subject design study than a case study. I'd aim for a run-of-the-mill low-tier specialty journal. A lot will depend on the quality of the writing, the quality of data collection and (as WisNeuro said) your ability to justify what it adds to the literature.

I've published a couple of papers like this, describing a new intervention, the underlying theory, some info about the development of the content/components, and topped off with a couple of case studies. Depending on the journal and the subfield this is sometimes easier to push through than a straight case study.

 

[propsych]

Thanks for all the feedback guys, definitely will look into bumping up our sample size and potentially adding new measures. My team might still want to publish though, so I'll be looking into some smaller impact journals