Sponsored by
The Cureus Journal of Medical Science presents a publishing competition
Dedicated Cranial Radiosurgery: Clinical Experience with New & Innovative SRS Technologies
$9,000
IN HONORARIUMS
The Cureus Journal of Medical Science is proud to introduce the Dedicated Cranial Radiosurgery: Clinical Experience with New & Innovative SRS Technologies case report and case series publishing competition.
With recent technological advancements that significantly reduce the costs and complexities of state-of-the-art SRS delivery (e.g. self-shielding, linac beam generation, etc.), modern radiosurgery dedicated to brain, head, and neck indications is becoming increasingly available to the estimated millions of potential patients who currently lack access.
In an effort to create broader awareness and understanding of related clinical experiences with such innovations, this program aims to share the resulting publications with the Cureus global community of neurosurgeons, radiation oncologists, medical physicists, medical oncologists, and others who might benefit. To further encourage dissemination, published materials will also be designated Open Access and indexed with PubMed Central.
Individual authors may submit multiple articles. Eligible submissions shall include case series and case reports (featuring a maximum of five cases) focused on new and innovative SRS technologies dedicated to brain, head, and neck indications, including malignant and benign tumors, as well as functional disease (trigeminal neuralgia, pain, movement disorders, etc.) and vascular diseases (arteriovenous malformations). Publications must highlight a case description, treatment details, dosimetric quality metrics, follow-up data, and other details as relevant. Supporting images and data tables are highly encouraged. Technical papers focused on new and innovative SRS technologies are also eligible.
The winners of this competition will be determined by crowd-sourced ratings from the medical community using the Cureus Scholarly Impact Quotient™ (SIQ).
Program administration has been enabled through the financial support of ZAP Surgical Systems. Article eligibility, editorial review, peer review, publication, and competition winner determination are strictly independent of the sponsor.
Peer Review Panel
All article submissions will undergo independent pre-publication peer review by a world-class team of experts.
Timothy Chen
MD | Radiation OncologyRadiation Oncology, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, USA
Felix Ehret
MD | Radiation OncologyRadiation Oncology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, DEU | Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA | Radiosurgery, European Radiosurgery Center Munich, Munich, DEU
Sebastien Froelich
MD, Professor | Neurological SurgeryDepartment of Neurosurgery, Lariboisière University Hospital, Paris, FRA
Alonso N. Gutierrez
PhD | Medical PhysicsDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Miami Cancer Institute, Miami, USA | Department of Radiation Oncology, Florida International University, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Miami, USA
Eduardo E. Lovo
MSc, MD | Neurological SurgeryNeurosurgery-Gamma Knife Program, International Cancer Center, Diagnostic Hospital, San Salvador, SLV
Andreas Mack
Associate Professor | Medical PhysicsRadiosurgery, Swiss Neuro Radiosurgery Center, Zurich, CHE
Takashi Maruyama
PhD, MD | Neurological SurgeryDepartment of Neurosurgery, Tokyo Women’s Medical University,, Tokyo, JPN | Neurosurgery, Utsunomiya Brain and Spine Center, Utsunomiya, JPN
Morena Sallabanda
MD, PhD | Radiation OncologyRadiation Oncology, Institute of Advanced Radiosurgery (IRCA), Madrid, ESP
Jason Sheehan
PhD, MD | Neurological SurgeryDepartment of Neurosurgery, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, USA
Gozde Yazici
Professor, MD | Radiation OncologyRadiation Oncology, Hacettepe University Medical School, Ankara, TUR
Requirements
Competition entry and article submission is entirely free. All submitted work must be previously unpublished. Only case reports/series and technical reports are eligible for submission.
All articles must be submitted and formatted via the template-driven, self-publishing Cureus platform. Authors are encouraged to include supporting images, charts, tables and/or videos within their article submissions. For additional information on publishing with Cureus, please refer to our Author Guide.
Other Stipulations
- All clinical studies must be compliant with applicable regulatory, ethics / IRB, and other rules governing protection of human subjects.
- All non-clinical studies must be compliant with applicable AAUC, AAALAC, and other related regulations.
- This program is not intended to promote or otherwise encourage unapproved, un-cleared use of products or any product for unapproved new use.
- This program in no way promotes or purports to encourage any research that is not in compliance with any local, federal, or other applicable governing laws.
Statement of Independence
Cureus Publishing Competitions are intended to encourage medical discovery and document clinical experiences – be they positive, negative, or neutral and foster broader educational outreach through Open Access publication that is free to both authors and readers.
Article submissions must adhere to the described “call for articles” and are open to any and all related manufacturer or vendor technologies.
As a firewall to ensure objective and credible science, article selection, editorial review, peer review and publication are strictly independent of the sponsoring company.
Winning articles are selected exclusively via peer review panel and community crowdsourced scoring. Neither the sponsoring company, nor Cureus, can determine the competition outcome.
In addition to his roles as Cureus Founder, President and co-Editor-in-Chief, Dr. John R. Adler is also the Founder and CEO of Zap Surgical. Dr. Adler has no input or involvement in article selection, editorial review, peer review or publication of articles submitted via this competition.
Awards
Winning Article Honorariums
The authors of the three highest-rated cases will be awarded an honorarium for Cureus Scientific Excellence™ which will be determined by Cureus SIQ™ (Scholarly Impact Quotient™) ratings.
1st Place: $5,000 USD
2nd Place: $3,000 USD
3rd Place: $1,000 USD
Subsequent to formal editorial and peer review, published articles undergo SIQ scoring - Cureus’ unique crowdsourced, post-publication rating system. In addition to measuring engagement, SIQ allows the community-at-large to rate the quality of individual articles. Readers assign scores from 1 to 10 on criteria including clarity and rationale, clinical importance, study design and methods, data analysis, novelty of conclusions and quality of presentation.
Aggregated community SIQ scores allow clinicians and researchers to quickly assess article quality in a manner similar to that of Amazon® and Yelp® community reviews.
Eligible articles must receive a minimum of five scores. (A Cureus user can assign only one score per article.) As engagement and scoring is critical to winning, authors are highly encouraged to share their published articles via social media and email.
Sunshine Act Reporting
Section 6002 of the Affordable Care Act requires applicable manufacturers of covered drugs, devices, biologicals, and medical supplies to report payments or other transfers of value made to physicians and teaching hospitals. For winning article and referral awards paid to “covered recipients,” award fees shall be supplied to Zap Surgical for subsequent Sunshine Act reporting.
Key Dates
- Tuesday, January 21, 2025 – Competition begins; articles may now be submitted
- Tuesday, April 22, 2025 – Article submission deadline @ 5:00 pm ET
- Tuesday, May 20, 2025 – Peer review of all eligible articles concludes
- Tuesday, June 17, 2025 – Crowdsourced scoring (SIQ) complete @ 5:00 pm ET
- Thursday, June 19, 2025 – Winning articles announced
