Clinical Case Submission Terms and Conditions

Important information to consider before submitting your Clinical Case:

Cases can be submitted via the online dedicated ESC Congresses Clinical Case submission platform ONLY.
No late submissions will be accepted after the submission deadline.

The submitter must be the presenter of the case.

All submissions must be made in English.

Important information – Kindly note that you will have no option to access your clinical case submission once the services are closed. We therefore advise you to keep a copy of your submission should you want to refer back to it.

General information

Draft Status

You can start working on your case submission and save it for later completion.
The system allows you to re-access your case version until you actually SUBMIT it.
NB: Cases that are in draft status after the deadline will not be included in the review process.

Changes and corrections

Once submitted, it is not possible to make any corrections to the content or information (such as Presenter details, topic, authors' list etc.....). In order to correct your case you must first withdraw it and then submit a new version prior to the deadline (See below for withdrawal procedure).
Note that, changes are not possible after the deadline.

Withdrawal

If you want/need to withdraw a case already submitted, a written statement reflecting the reason(s) for this decision needs to be sent, as quickly as possible, at clinicalcases@escardio.org stating the title and number of the case to be withdrawn.

Additional information and criteria for submission

Clinical Case Content

The Clinical Case must be Clear, Educational, Practical and REAL:
The purpose of a clinical case presentation is to communicate diagnostic reasoning in the light of the current ESC Clinical Practice Guidelines providing a clear description of the patient’s condition and further management options based on these guidelines.
The case needs to be educational and not necessarily rare or unusual.

Important: Patient must never be identifiable.

Patient data (name, date of birth, hospital number…..) must be removed.

Please refer below to the Patient Consent chapter.

Please note that for rare cases, some of the case information (video, images) could constitute indirect identification, patient should also be in agreement with this.

Also not authorised:

• Trademarks. Use generic drug names. The use of commercial drug names, brands and registered trademarks is strictly prohibited. Drugs should be referred to by the active substance or pharmacological designation
• Company names and location
• Web sites and email addresses

Please pay specific attention in deleting such information on images or clips included in your submission.

Failure to comply with the submission terms and conditions, as well as with the submission guidelines will/may lead to automatic rejection of the submission.

Clinical Case Format

The clinical case submission portal provides the required structure and mandatory fields to be completed.
We advise all submitters to review the submission Guidelines to familiarise themselves with the content and format requirements.
All fields must be completed for the submission to be complete and considered for evaluation.

Topics for Clinical Case Submission

The topic list is organised by main topics and several layers of subtopics to maximize precision. Appropriately choosing the main topic and first subheadings is more important than the lowest layers of subtopics. 

Main topic – At the time of submission, the submitter must select one single Main topic to index the abstract.

It is important to carefully select the best matching topic as this choice will determine under which area the case will be reviewed and graded.

Therefore, submitters should consider all potential options available before selecting the submission topic.

Related topic(s) – The submitter will also have the option to select up to 3 related topics (for indexation once published).

Clinical Case Authors

Your case must list at least 1 author in order to be submitted.
Please note that the Submitter must be the first author/Clinical Case Presenter

Additional Authors to be listed:

You may enter up to 3 co-authors in the authors list. Please make sure the information given for each author is correct, as no changes will be possible after the case is submitted (see paragraph on changes and corrections above).

The submitter certifies and warranties to the ESC that he/she has permission from all persons he/she enters as co-authors to be listed in this case and that they are aware that their names will appear in all publications.

There is no limit to the number of clinical cases an author/individual may submit, but the same case cannot be submitted twice, even under a different topic and/or with a different title. If you submit two cases with the same content, the submission service will automatically keep the most recent case submitted and withdraw the other. Note that duplicate draft cases will not be deleted.

Clinical Case Grading and Selection

All cases submitted must comply with the submission terms and conditions, as well as with the submission guidelines to be considered for acceptance.

Evaluation and grading of the clinical cases will be performed by a panel of experts.

Grading criteria will mainly consider scientific merit and educational value.

The final selection will be made by the Committee that will determine the format and schedule of presentation for each case. No rescheduling or changes will be possible.

Clinical Case Acceptance and Presentation

Accepted cases will be featured in dedicated sessions. 

If accepted as oral presentation, presentation and Interaction on the case will be conducted in English. Presenters are expected to speak/write good English.

All case submitters will be notified by email about the outcome (accepted or not accepted) of the review and selection process. Please ensure that email provided as the time of submission is accurate as all correspondences will be sent via email.

If the case is accepted, further instructions will be provided at the time of the results announcement.

Presentation policy

Submission of a clinical case constitutes a formal commitment to present the work if accepted.

If none of the authors can upload the related presentation as per the required format assigned by the Upload deadline - the case should be withdrawn.

Failure(s) to upload the case presentation and register for the Congress will automatically lead to the withdrawal of the case from the programme. 

Publication of Cases and Embargo

All accepted and presented cases will be considered for publication on the ESC Clinical Case Gallery.

Submitted/accepted cases should not have been published in any journals and/or online publications nor presented at any international congresses - Until presentation during Congress.
Breaking of the Embargo Policy by a presenter or co-author will lead to:

• Withdrawal of their presentation from the ESC Scientific Session
• Retraction from all ESC publications

Patient Consent

It is the authors responsibility to ensure that :
- They have obtained all necessary consent(s), approvals and authorisations in connection with the Case submitted to the ESC with the patient and any organization involved (Hospital, Clinic ...)
- All the content of the Case, including the text, its title and media files have been stripped of all personal information that could be used to identify the patient.

Author(s) are responsible to obtain an official patient’s consent for publication of their clinical case for educational purposes and for social media educational campaigns. In case the patient does not give full consent (including the social media acceptance), the case cannot be submitted.

Authors must be able to provide a copy of the written patient consent and any other related authorization upon request.

Affirmation of Originality and Copyright transfer statement

By submitting your work to the ESC:

• You consent to have authors’ names, affiliation and biographical material being used in connection with the publication of your work.
• Author(s) represents and warrants to the ESC that he/she/they is/are sole author(s) of the work, that all authors have participated in and agree with the content and conclusions of the work, and that the work is original and does not infringe upon any copyright, proprietary or personal right of any third party.
• The submitter hereby affirms that the work submitted is original, except for extracts from copyrighted works fully authorised by the copyright holders, and that all statements declared as facts are based on thorough examination and investigation for accurateness.
• Submitted clinical cases should not have been published in any other journals and/or online publications nor presented at any previous international congress.

An author submitting or presenting published work may jeopardize future acceptance of abstracts and clinical cases.

• The content belongs to the author(s). However, if the case is accepted the submitter agrees, on behalf of all co-authors, to transfer and assign to the ESC free of charge, on a non-exclusive basis, for twenty years from the present submission the rights to edit, publish, reproduce, reformat, distribute in whole or in part the case and prepare all type of derivative works such as press releases and/or educational products, using all communication tools and means, now known or hereinafter developed, including any and all digital means and any and all supports or forms of media, now known or hereinafter developed, in particular all paper, analog, digital, numerical and electronic media, including Internet, Intranet and Extranet sites and social media. This includes use in indexes or search databases in print, electronic, or other media.
• Author(s) retain the right, after presentation at the Congress, to subsequently include the work in articles, books, or derivative works that he/she authors or edits provided said use does not imply the endorsement of the ESC.

The submitter signs for all co-authors. He/she accepts responsibility for the present rules for submission and presentation on behalf of all co-authors.

Conflict of interest

The Congress Programme Committee requests all clinical case presenters to disclose their potential conflict(s) of interest at the time of the submission of the agreement form. Please state "None" if no conflicts exist.

It is also the responsibility of the presenter to disclose any potential conflict(s) of interest from co-authors to the presentation on the presentation itself (as may be required).

This will allow the audience to take potential conflicts of interest into account when assessing the objectivity of the presentation.

A potential conflict of interest may arise from various relationships, past or present, such as employment, consultancy, investments and stock ownership, funding for research, family relationship, etc.

All potential conflicts of interest must be stated.

This pertains to relationships with pharmaceutical companies, biomedical device manufacturers, or other corporations whose products or services are related to the subject matter of the article. Such relationships include, but are not limited to, employment by an industrial concern, ownership of stock, membership on a standing advisory council or committee, being on the board of directors, or being publicly associated with the company or its products. Other areas of real or perceived conflict of interest could include receiving honoraria or consulting fees or receiving grants or funds from such corporations or individuals representing such corporations.

Data Privacy

By certifying that you have read these Submission Terms and Conditions, you also confirm having received the prior approval from the co-authors to provide their data to the ESC.

The information collected in this CALL FOR CLINICAL CASES is subject to data processing to proceed with the elaboration of the Congress abstract-based programme.

Provision of personal data is a statutory requirement to list the authors who have contributed to the research submitted. Authors not listed in the submission will not be acknowledged in the case if accepted for publication and presentation at the Congress and promotion of the clinical case.

The recipients of the data are ESC Staff who process the submissions and the ESC Committees and volunteers involved in the abstract – based programme and the platform service provider.

Data collected will be kept for 20 years.

Transfer of personal data to ESC Staff, contractors as well as other ESC related scientific organisations occurs for production, promotion and dissemination of the Congress Content.

In accordance with the chapter 3 of the European Regulation 2016/679 with regards to data protection, you have the right to request from ESC, access to and rectification or erasure of your personal data or restriction of processing concerning your data or to object to processing as well as the right to data portability. This is done thru withdrawal of the clinical case according to the terms and conditions of withdrawal.

For such, please contact (together with a proof of identity):

Data Privacy

European Society of Cardiology

Les Templiers

2035 Route des Colles

CS 80179 Biot

06903 SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS CEDEX, France

Or by email

You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, and for information, ESC has appointed a Data Protection Officer.

Applicable law

All the rules pertaining to the present submission are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of France without regard to any conflicts of laws principles thereof that would require the application of the law of any other jurisdiction. Any disputes arising in relation hereto shall be submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the French Tribunal de Grande Instance located in Grasse, France.