The Cureus Publishing Process

An Introduction to Publishing with Cureus

Cureus is committed to providing easy, timely and affordable article publication. By
offering a largely do-it-yourself publishing process, we expect all submitting authors to
adhere to our rigorous submission process and requirements. This stringent process
ensures that all articles meet the Cureus standard and also allows for many of our
authors to publish at no cost.

Cureus does not tolerate plagiarism, data or figure manipulation, knowingly providing
incorrect information, copyright infringement, inaccurate author attributions, attempts to
inappropriately manipulate the peer review process, failures to declare conflicts of
interest, fraud and libel. Cureus pledges to vigorously pursue and investigate any
offending parties to ensure that their transgressions are recognized by their employer,
institution and/or relevant governing body.

Important: Cureus publishing requirements exist in part to ensure that each published
article is accepted for indexing in PubMed Central (PMC). All requirements listed below
must be met in order for your articles to be published in Cureus and indexed in PMC.
Articles published in Cureus will appear in PubMed Central approximately six weeks
after publication.

Article Draft to Publication Process

If you encounter technical issues during the submission process, please
email support@cureus.com.

1. The submitting author enters all article information, including all co-authors and
corresponding affiliations, and copy-pastes the article text while adding any
relevant media. The author is then required to disclose any relevant conflicts of
interest and adhere to any relevant ethics statements. Lastly, the author enters
contact information for five potential reviewers. (View our comprehensive Author
Instructions for a more detailed look at the submission process.)
2. Once satisfied with the article draft, the author submits the article for an initial
review by the Cureus editorial team. (Channel and competition articles are exempt.)
Based on this review, the article will be directed down one of the following paths:
a. If all Cureus editorial requirements have been met, the article will be forwarded
for a more in-depth review before ultimately entering peer review.
b. If substantial copy editing is needed, our Preferred Editing service will be
required to proceed.
c. If severe language issues are present, professional third-party language
editing services will be required prior to resubmission.
3. The article is approved for peer review after the following has been confirmed:
 a. All Cureus editorial requirements have been addressed.
b. Preferred Editing service has been purchased, if required.
c. Professional third-party language editing services have been utilized, if
required.
Invitations are emailed to the preselected peer reviewers when the article is
approved for peer review. The editor also invites additional reviewers with relevant
domain knowledge at this time. During peer review, the author can invite new
reviewers and send reminders to previously invited reviewers via the author
dashboard.
4. The article is unlocked for editing when two reviews have been submitted. The
author may now choose to:
a. Wait for additional reviews (all article versions are saved and available to the
author and reviewers) before revising and submitting for publication approval.
b. Make revisions and request that the article is re-reviewed by those same
reviewers.
c. Make revisions and submit for publication approval, while also providing a brief
explanation of the revisions.
5. Upon receiving the publication request, the editor ensures that all reviewer
comments have been acknowledged. If the revised manuscript does not adequately
reflect reviewer feedback, the editor is likely to defer publication of the article. The
author is then notified that further revision is required.
6. The author is notified via email when the article has been approved for publication.
The author signs in and publishes the article and also rates the anonymous
reviewers. This unique process allows the author to acknowledge the vital
contributions made by reviewers, while also providing constructive feedback and
helping to build a stronger and more respectful scholarly community.

The Cureus publishing process may vary in length due to article complexity, length and
the availability of reviewers with sufficient domain knowledge. Cureus strives to publish
articles within 2-3 weeks of submission. In order to accelerate the review process,
authors are encouraged to invite multiple reviewers with relevant domain knowledge.

Qualifying for Free Publication

As stated above, all non-channel and non-competition article submissions receive an
initial review to determine if the article meets all Cureus editorial requirements (as listed
in this Author Guide) and qualifies for free publication

This initial review focuses on the following areas: reference formatting and accuracy;
media quality, formatting, labels and placement; spelling, grammar, syntax and
punctuation errors; author names and affiliations, proper use of acronyms and
initialisms; text and article formatting.
Articles with minimal errors will be permitted to publish for free. (Preferred Editing will be
an option for those authors who wish to purchase it.) Articles with too many errors will
be required to purchase our Preferred Editing service (use our calculator to estimate
potential editing fees) and articles with severe language issues will require professional
language editing by a third party in order to be considered for peer review and free
publication in Cureus. Please note that DIY editing services such as Grammarly will not
be accepted.

Accepted Article Types

Cureus accepts five article types. To be considered for publication, each article type
must include the sections listed below. Only original articles may include abstract
subheadings.

 Original article

Original articles report original research and are classified as primary literature.
This is the most common type of journal manuscript used to publish full reports of
data from research. Original articles may also be referred to as research article,
research, or just article, as this format is suitable for many different fields and
different types of studies. Meta-analysis articles should be submitted as original
articles.

Original articles are limited to 30 references and contain the following sections:
abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusions,
references.

 Review article

Review articles give an overview of existing literature in a field, often identifying

specific problems or issues and providing a balanced analysis derived from
available published work on the topic. Review articles provide a comprehensive
summary of research on the selected topic, and a perspective on the state of the
field and where it is heading. Review articles can be one of two types, broadly
speaking: literature reviews or systematic reviews. Cureus does not accept “brief”
or “mini” reviews. Bibliometric analysis articles are only accepted when correctly
submitted to a Cureus channel.

Review articles are limited to 5 authors and 50 references and contain the following
sections: abstract, introduction and background, review, conclusions, references.
  Case report

Case reports present the details of real patient cases from medical or clinical
practice. Cases may contribute significantly to the existing knowledge on the field
or showcase less novel results. The report is expected to discuss the signs,
symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of a disease. A goal of case reports is to make
other researchers aware of the possibility that a specific phenomenon might occur.

Case reports are limited to 5 authors and 20 references and contain the following
sections: abstract, introduction, case presentation, discussion, conclusions,
references.

 Technical report

Technical reports are formal reports designed to convey technical information in a

clear and easily accessible format. They are typically divided into sections which
allow different readers to access different levels of information. A technical report
(also scientific report) is a document that describes the process, progress, or
results of technical or scientific research or the state of a technical or scientific
research problem. It might also include recommendations and conclusions of the
research.

Technical reports are limited to 5 authors and 20 references and contain the
following sections: abstract, introduction, technical report, discussion, conclusions,
references.

 Editorial

Editorials include perspective pieces, opinion articles or commentaries. Before

submitting an editorial, the author must communicate via email with Cureus Editors-
in-Chief to directly convey the rationale and importance of the proposed article.
Editorials will only be approved if submitted by senior clinicians or researchers with
an established publishing history.

Editorials are limited to 5 authors and 5 references and contain the following
sections: abstract, editorial, references.

Author Instructions
Before Getting Started: SEO Tips to Boost Article Visibility
It’s important to do everything you can to boost the search engine visibility of your
articles. Here are two easy tips that will help drive your articles to the top of search
engine results.

Optimizing Article Keywords

The majority of traffic to your published article will arrive directly from Google. Increase
your article’s discoverability with these easy tips:

1. Create a search engine friendly title. (Include 1-2 keywords related to your topic.)
2. Optimize your abstract. (Place keywords in the first two sentences and repeat
several times throughout the remainder of your abstract.)
3. Use keywords throughout your article. (Make sure the keywords are consistent with
your topic and field of study.)
Backlinking to Cureus Articles

Do you have a profile or bio page on your hospital or university’s website? Adding
hyperlinks on this page that link to your Cureus articles will provide a big boost to their
“importance” in the eyes of Google and other search engines. The result? Higher
ranked results when your article’s topic or keyword are searched.

The Role of the Submitter

Articles should be submitted by the author. The submitting author will assume all
responsibility throughout the article’s peer review and publication. The submitting author
may designate a co-author to serve as corresponding author.

Submitting on behalf of an author: If an administrator wishes to submit an article on

behalf of an author, the administrator must do so while signed in with the author’s
Cureus account. Additionally, all Cureus email notifications sent during the submission
process will be sent to the submitting author (not the administrator). For these reasons,
we strongly recommend that authors submit their own work.

Submitting an Article
Authors must complete the following steps in order to submit an article draft for peer
review. Authors may save and exit the submission process at any time by clicking “Exit”
in the top right corner of the page.

Important: Cureus operates a merit-based publication system, in which we publish all

articles that satisfy Cureus editorial requirements and contain no fraudulent or
dangerous science. It is the submitting author’s responsibility to meet us halfway by
submitting an article draft that meets all listed editorial requirements.
1. Getting Started

Are you submitting on behalf of a channel? Are you entering a competition? Designate
your article as a channel and/or competition article here, then choose the article type
(original, review, case report, technical report, editorial). It’s important to make sure this
information is correct as it cannot be changed after moving on to the Title, etc. section.

2. Title, etc.

Title

Enter the article title in Title Case. Do not enter the title in all caps. Beginning with this
step, you may preview your draft at any time to see how the published version will be
displayed.

Abstract

Enter your article abstract. Abstracts are limited to 3,500 characters. Subheaders are
permitted in original article abstracts only.

Categories

Select up to three article categories. (You must select at least one.)

Keywords
Add at least one and up to ten keyword to your article. Keywords will allow your article
to be more easily searchable when published.

3. Authors

Add any additional co-authors (including email addresses and complete affiliation
including location). Review articles, case reports, technical reports and editorials may
feature a maximum of five authors. (Original articles do not have an author limit.) Each
additional entry must include an email address and affiliation with location included.
Medical students should list the article category as their department (e.g. neurosurgery,
family medicine, etc.). When adding authors who already have confirmed Cureus
accounts, no author information may be entered or changed, however, each co-author
must update his/her profile to ensure a complete name and affiliation is listed.
 There is only one primary (first) author. The submitting author is listed as the primary
author by default; this can be changed by dragging and dropping the authors into the
desired order.

4. Disclosures

Please provide all relevant information pertaining to any human or animal subjects and
disclose any relevant conflicts of interest (COI). You may also add acknowledgements
at this time.

In the event that human or animal subjects are included in the article, please provide the
relevant IRB names and approval numbers and confirm that informed consent was
obtained or waived.

The submitting author is responsible for including all co-author COI and disclosure
information. Are you unsure about potential conflicts of interest among your co-authors?
You can send an email request for this information directly to your co-authors from
inside the submission process.

Conflicts of interest may involve 3rd party payment or service for any aspect of the
submitted work, relevant financial activities outside the submitted work, patents that
could be considered broadly relevant to the work and any relationships not covered
previously.

Based on the provided information and disclosures, Cureus will automatically generate
an Ethics Statement and Conflict of Interest Disclosures to be included alongside the
published article. Please see the Publication Ethics and Conflicts of Interest sections of
the Author Guide to view a detailed breakdown of required statements and disclosures.

5. Article

Enter the main article content here. Article sections will vary depending on the article
type selected earlier in the submission process. We do not recommend composing your
article directly in the text field. Instead, compose your article in the word processor of
your choice and then copy and paste your article text into the appropriate section.
Please do not include section names (e.g. Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results,
etc.) as these are added automatically.
All articles must adhere to Cureus formatting styles - no paragraph indentations, only
one line return after each paragraph and only one space between sentences. Please
remove any text styling before copying and pasting your text into the appropriate field.

Numbers 1-9 should be spelled out except in cases of measurement. (e.g. 7 mm)
Numbers higher than nine should be entered numerically. (10, 100, 463, 1,932, etc.)

Citations: References should be cited using square brackets. These must be placed at
the end of the sentence before the period. For example: This is an example sentence
[1]. If multiple references are cited in one sentence, please list them as follows: [1-4],
[1,3], [5,9-12], etc. Footnotes are not permitted. Citations are not permitted in figure,
table, video or interactive model titles. They should instead be included in the media
legend or table cells.

Media: Media is not permitted in the abstract, introduction or conclusions section of any
article type. The only exception is the introduction section of a review article. Each
article is permitted up to 25 media items.

To add media to your article first place your cursor in the desired location in the article
section text field and click one of the Insert Figure, Table, Video or Interactive Model
buttons on the article section toolbar. You will then be prompted to upload the figure,
paste or create the table or paste the video or interactive model URL and add a title and
optional legend.

Please visit our Media Guide for detailed instructions on adding each media type as well
as examples of unacceptable media.

Subheaders: Cureus allows for three levels of subheaders. Both types of subheaders
should be followed by a line return before the next paragraph begins.

Major subheaders should be formatted using the subheader style found in the “Styles”
dropdown menu. Major subheaders should be in sentence case, i.e. the first word
should be capitalized and all other words should be in lowercase, except proper nouns
and acronyms/initialisms (such as GBM, SRS, etc.).

Minor subheaders should be in title case and italicized. If the article contains a third
level of subheader, it should be in sentence case and lead off the paragraph, followed
by a colon. E.g. Patient zero: This patient exhibited signs of…

Formulas: Cureus supports LaTex. Formulas may be built using LaTeX during your
submission or you may copy/paste and convert your pre-prepared formulas. Please
keep this in mind when preparing your manuscript.

Appendices (optional): Add any supplemental information and media here.

6. References

Creating references is simple with our automated converting tool. Simply copy and
paste your reference list from a text document and select “Convert references.” We’ll do
our best to detect each reference type based on its formatting.

Once all references have been converted, please preview (and edit as necessary) each
reference to ensure that it has been converted correctly. When editing your converted
references, please do not add punctuation at the end - punctuation will be added
automatically. If you prefer, you can also enter your references one-by-one.

For more detailed instructions, please view the References section.

7. Reviewers

The submitting author is required to invite a minimum of five individuals with requisite
domain knowledge to review the article. Prior to the forwarding of a review invitation,
each author-submitted reviewer is carefully vetted by Cureus editorial staff with a
specific focus on relevant scientific expertise.

In addition to author-invited reviewers, Cureus editorial staff will handpick selected

members of the Cureus editorial board and/or allied specialists from the larger scientific
community to review articles within their area of specialty.

8. Summary

The summary contains a section-by-section outline of your article. You can review each
aspect of your article and jump directly to a specific section of the submission process if
you’d like to make changes.

If any issues with the reference citations are detected, you will receive a notification and
list of the citation or reference-related issues (e.g. missing citations, missing references,
incorrectly formatted citations). All issues must be fixed in order to proceed to the next
step and submit your article.

9. Submit
 Please preview your article draft one last time and make sure that everything looks
good. You cannot submit your draft without first previewing your work. When you’re
satisfied, click the ‘Submit for Editorial Preview’ button. Once your article has been
approved by our editorial team, the review invitation emails will be sent out and the peer
review process will begin. For more information on what happens next, please see The
Cureus Publishing Process.

10. Purchasing Preferred Editing Service or Uploading Third Party Editing Service
Receipt

If, after submission, you receive an email stating that our Preferred Editing service is
required, you will be prompted to enter your payment information and resubmit the
article.

If, after submission, you receive an email stating that professional third-party language
editing is required, you will be prompted to enter the name of the service and upload an
invoice or receipt when resubmitting the article.

Managing the Peer Review Process

You can oversee your article’s peer review from the My Documents tab of your
dashboard. Monitor peer review progress with up-to-the-minute statistics, remind invited
reviewers or invite new ones and view reviewer comments as they are submitted.

References
Reference Limits

The maximum allowed number of references varies by article type:

 Review articles: 50 references

 Original articles: 30 references
 Technical reports: 20 references
 Case reports: 20 references
 Editorials: 5 references
Adding DOIs
The DOI (digital object identifier) is a string of numbers that uniquely identifies a
published article. The DOI is permanently assigned to an article and provides a
persistent link to current information about that article, including location. This enables
readers to find the online article irrespective of any subsequent changes in the web site
structure, in the management responsibility of the journal in which it was first published,
or the location of the website on which the journal is hosted.

Cureus requires DOI numbers, when available, to be included in all references. If a DOI
was not assigned, then try to find a link to the published paper and add the URL to the
corresponding field in the reference

If you have a PubMed ID, but no DOI, you can try searching for the DOI using this tool.

Citing Unpublished Material

Material that has not yet been accepted for publication should be noted as “unpublished
data” and should not be included in the reference list. The reference list should only
include publications cited within the article text.

All material included in the reference list must have been previously published in citable
journals or books. If you wish to reference material that does not meet this specification,
such as an abstract without DOI, poster, unpublished data or personal communication,
please include the citation within the text of your article.

To cite an abstract without DOI, poster or other unpublished material in the body of your
article, please use the following format: (Type of unpublished material: Author names.
Title in Title Case. Meeting Title (if applicable); Date). If needed, repeated subsequent
citations for the same item should be shortened to include first author name and date as
follows: (Type of unpublished material: First author name, date).

Citing References

References should be cited using square brackets. These should be placed at the end
of the sentence before the period. For example: This is an example sentence [1]. If
multiple references are cited in one sentence, please list them as follows: [1-4], [1,3],
[5,9-12], etc. Footnotes are not permitted.

Please number references in the order in which they are mentioned in the text; they
should not be alphabetized. All co-authors must be cited when creating a reference. If
more than seven authors, insert “et al.” after the first three authors. Author names
should be formatted as seen in the examples below.

Additional Requirements

Journal names should be abbreviated according to the Index Medicus system. For more
information, please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors:
Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly
Work in Medical Journals.

Please adhere to the following requirements for each reference type. Submissions that
do not follow these requirements will not be published. Please pay particular attention to
the following:

 All references must return a positive result when clicked.

 Do not reference a website that no longer exists. (Defunct journals may still be
referenced.)
 When referencing a book (chapter or whole), editors (if available), publisher and
publisher location must be listed.
 When referencing a journal article, only the first letter of the first word should be
capitalized. (Note: Book titles should be listed in title case, i.e. the first letter of each
word is capitalized.)
 Website references must include an access date and the name of the citation (i.e.
not just the URL).
 List only the volume number of the journal. Issue and supplement numbers are not
needed. If referencing a book chapter, please include the edition and volume
numbers.
 Please list the page numbers of the cited chapter or article.
 The DOI number should be added to the end of the reference, if available. The
“DOI” abbreviation should not be included.

Prior to converting your references, please ensure they are formatted as follows:

Electronic journal articles:

Huynen MMTE, Martens P, Hilderlink HBM: The health impacts of globalization: a
conceptual framework. Global Health. 2005, 1:14-16. Accessed: January 25, 2012.
http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/1/1/14.
Article within a journal
Koonin EV, Altschul SF, Bork P: BRCA1 protein products: functional motifs. Nat Genet.
1996, 13:266-267.
Website
New child vaccine gets funding boost. (2001). Accessed: March 21, 2001:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/health/story_13178.asp
Book chapter, or article within a book
Schnepf E: From prey via endosymbiont to plastids: comparative studies in
dinoflagellates. In Origins of Plastids. Lewin RA (ed): Chapman and Hall, New York;
1993. 2:53-76.
Whole issue of journal
Ponder B, Johnston S, Chodosh L (Eds): Innovative oncology. In Breast Cancer Res
1998, 10:1-72.
Complete book
Margulis L: Origin of Eukaryotic Cells. Yale University Press, New Haven; 1970.
Book with institutional author
Advisory Committee on Genetic Modification: Annual Report. London; 1999.

If you choose to use reference management software, Cureus

recommends EndNote for easy management and formatting of citations and reference
lists. You can download Cureus' preferred style here.

Policies and Procedures

Open Peer Review

Cureus is a formally peer-reviewed medical journal. All submitted articles must undergo
a single-blind peer review process in which reviewers know the identity of the authors,
but authors do not know the identify of the reviewers.

Reviewers are made anonymous through Cureus' automated system. Once a reviewer
accepts the review invitation, he or she is assigned a Greek letter to be used for
identification purposes by the authors (e.g. Reviewer Alpha).

Authors are required to invite a minimum of five reviewers when submitting their draft.
Cureus Editors-in-Chief invite additional reviewers with relevant domain knowledge to
ensure that comprehensive criticism is provided, thus ensuring the publishing process is
both fruitful and efficient.

ICMJE Uniform Requirements of Authors

Cureus adheres to the ICMJE uniform requirements of authorship. All authors of an

article must meet the following requirements:

"Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design,

acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it
critically for important intellectual content; and 3) final approval of the version to be published.
Authors should meet conditions 1, 2, and 3.
When a large, multicenter group has conducted the work, the group should identify the
individuals who accept direct responsibility for the article (3). These individuals should fully
meet the criteria for authorship/contributorship defined above, and editors will ask these
individuals to complete journal-specific author and conflict-of-interest disclosure forms. When
submitting a article authored by a group, the corresponding author should clearly indicate the
preferred citation and identify all individual authors as well as the group name. Journals
generally list other members of the group in the Acknowledgments. The NLM indexes the group
name and the names of individuals the group has identified as being directly responsible for the
article; it also lists the names of collaborators if they are listed in Acknowledgments.
Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone
does not constitute authorship.
All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship, and all those who qualify
should be listed.
Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for
appropriate portions of the content."

Cureus suggests the following (or a similar) format. Please use initials to refer to each
author.

AB carried out the molecular genetic studies, participated in the sequence alignment and drafted
the manuscript. JY carried out the immunoassays. MT participated in the sequence alignment.
ES participated in the design of the study and performed the statistical analysis. FG conceived of
the study, participated in its design and coordination and helped to draft the manuscript. All
authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Any contributor who does not meet the criteria for authorship may be listed in the
Acknowledgements section. Examples include a person who provided technical help or
writing assistance or a department chair that provided general support.

The corresponding author’s role and responsibilities are to:

1. Inform all co-authors when an article bearing their name has been submitted to
Cureus. (Upon submission, each co-author will also receive an email requesting
confirmation of authorship).
2. Manage correspondence between Cureus and all co-authors, keeping the full co-
author group apprised of the article progress. (Each co-author will receive
automated email notifications confirming authorship, article publication, and, if
necessary, article retraction.)
3. Declare all relevant conflicts of interest on behalf of all co-authors.
4. Ensure, to the best of his/her abilities, that the article fully adheres to all Cureus
policies (including such items as publication ethics, data deposition, materials
deposition, etc).
5. Respond to all queries pertaining to the published article, while also providing
relevant data and materials as requested.

Conflicts of Interest
Cureus requires all parties involved in the publication process (all authors, reviewers,
Cureus EIC and post-publication SIQ™ scorers) to fully declare any potential conflicts of
interest (COI).

Authors are required to declare all competing interests during the submission process.
Reviewers are expected to consider any potential conflicts of interest before agreeing to
review, and to declare, in detail, any relevant conflicts of interest before submitting their
review. Editors-in-Chief are expected to recuse themselves from the publication process
if they feel they have a conflict of interest in regards to the article.

All potential conflicts of interest should be declared. Please disclose a relationship

and/or conflict of interest if faced with even the slightest amount of uncertainty as to its
potential relevance. Examples of conflicts of interest include, but are not limited to:
possible financial benefits if the article is published; prior working, or personal,
relationships with any of the authors; patent or grant activity that could be considered
broadly relevant to the work; personal material or financial gain (such as free travel,
gifts, etc.) relating to the work; personal convictions (religious, political, etc.) which may
have a bearing on the work, etc.

A complete list of funding sources (institutional, corporate, grants, etc.) and relevant
relationships and financial activities must be detailed in the Ethics Statements and
Conflict of Interest Disclosures section of the article submission process.

The following COI sections contain questions posed to the authors during the
submission process. All COI sections must be addressed in order to satisfy Cureus COI
requirements and are reprinted below as they appear in the article submission process.
The language contained in the four sections below is based upon the ICMJE Form for
Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. (Click each header to view the section as it
appears in the submission process.)

The Work Under Consideration for Publication

Did you or your institution at any time receive payment or services from a third party
(government, commercial, private foundation, etc.) for any aspect of the submitted work
(such as grants, data monitoring board, study design, manuscript preparation, statistical
analysis, etc.)?

Relevant Financial Activities Outside the Work

Please indicate all financial relationships (regardless of compensation amount)

associated with the submitting author and all co-authors. You should disclose
interactions with any entity that could be considered broadly relevant to your work.
Report all relationships that were present during the 36 months prior to publication.
Remember – if there is any question, it is better to disclose a relationship than not to do
so.
For grants you have received for work outside the submitted work, only disclose support
from entities that could be perceived to be affected financially by the published work,
such as drug companies, or foundations supported by entities that could be perceived to
have a financial stake in the outcome.

Intellectual Property: Patents & Copyrights

Do you have any patents, whether planned, pending or issued, that could be considered
broadly relevant to this work?

Relationships Not Covered Previously

Are there other relationships or activities that readers could perceive to have influenced,
or that give the appearance of potentially influencing, what you wrote in the submitted
work?

Disclosure of 3rd Party Funding

Separately from declaring any conflicts of interest, Cureus also requires that authors
disclose any payments or services received from a 3rd party (government, commercial,
private foundation, etc.) for any aspect of the submitted work (such as grants, data
monitoring board, study design, article preparation, statistical analysis, etc.).

This information is included in a disclosure statement attached to the final published

article.

Human and Animal Subjects

Where applicable, Cureus requires that authors provide information detailing the
relevant ethical standards which were met when conducting research involving the
study of human and/or animal participants or tissue.

Authors are required to provide such information whenever research is conducted on

humans or human tissue; on animals or animal tissue; when conducting field studies; or
in any instance requiring the approval of an Institutional Review Board (IRB). In cases
that required IRB approval, the IRB that granted the approval should be named in the
article.

This information is included in a disclosure statement attached to the final published

article.

Human Subjects Research

For studies involving human subjects, appropriate approval must have been obtained
from the relevant institutional review board or ethics committee. Before conducting the
research, approval must have been obtained from an institutional review board (IRB) or
ethics committee. The author must also include this information detailing their approval
as part of their Materials & Methods section (including the name of the granting
organization, the approval reference numbers and, optionally, the statement, approval
letter and/or application approval).

Authors must include a statement confirming that informed consent was either obtained
or waived. Where possible, a copy of the consent form should be provided as
supplemental information. If consent was verbal instead of written, then an explanation
should be provided (in the Materials and Methods section) and verbal consent must
have been approved by the IRB which gave permission for the study.

Patient privacy and anonymity must be protected. Authors must confirm that no
identifying information (such as names, images and identifying data) is included in the
article. Exceptions may be made only if the individuals in question have provided explicit
approval. For more information about patient privacy, anonymity and informed consent,
please refer to the ICMJE Privacy and Confidentiality guidelines.

Animal Research

For studies involving regulated animals (which includes all live vertebrates and/or higher
invertebrates), appropriate approval must have been obtained according to either
international or local laws and regulations. Before conducting the research, approval
must have been obtained from an institutional review board (IRB) or ethics committee.
Authors must also include this information detailing their approval as part of their
Materials & Methods section (including the name of the granting organization and the
protocol number). It should be noted that non-human primates research is subject to
specific guidelines from the Weatherall (2006) report (The Use of Non-Human Primates
in Research).

For research conducted on non-regulated animals, the author must explain why ethical
approval was not required. The handling of experimental animals should be held to the
highest standards kept by the author’s institution.

Cureus strongly encourages all authors to comply with the 'Animal Research: Reporting
In Vivo Experiments' (ARRIVE) guidelines, developed by NC3Rs. Articles should be
specific in descriptions of the organism(s) used in the study. When known, these
descriptions should indicate strain names.

Publication Ethics and COPE

Cureus adheres to the COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines. Cureus
EICs follow recommended COPE procedures whenever alerted to an issue requiring
investigation.
Cureus is committed and adheres to the prevailing industry standards and procedures
for investigating publication ethics.

Cureus does not tolerate plagiarism, data or figure manipulation, knowingly providing
incorrect information, copyright infringement, inaccurate author attributions, attempts to
inappropriately manipulate the peer review process, failures to declare conflicts of
interest, fraud and libel. This list should not be considered exhaustive – those with
additional questions should investigate additional resources found at the World
Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) or
the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Cureus pledges to rigorously enforce all standards, and promptly follow up on any
transgressions. In extreme cases, this may call for article retraction and the reporting of
individuals to their employer, institution or some appropriate body for further
investigation. Any complaints or tips regarding the above should be directed
to info@cureus.com.

Discipline Specific Standards

We strongly recommend all authors adhere to the reporting standards adopted by their
field or study design. The following is a list of standards that should be followed
depending on the study type:

Articles reporting on protein structures should follow the standards within

the Worldwide Protein Data Bank (a general resource listing reporting standards and
worldwide deposition databases for protein information).

Articles reporting on diagnostic accuracy studies (studies evaluating the ability of a

test to differentiate between patients who have the target condition and those who do
not have the target condition) should follow the STARD requirements.

Articles reporting on clinical trials must follow the WHO definition of a clinical trial. In
accordance with the ICMJE guidelines, all trials initiated from July 1st, 2005 must be
registered in an approved registry. Unregistered trials will not be considered.

Reports of systematic reviews and meta-analyses must use the PRISMA statement
for clinical articles, which may be used for all non-clinical articles. Authors should
include a completed PRISMA checklist and flow diagram to accompany their text and
should state (within their Materials & Methods section) whether a protocol exists for their
systematic review (if so, a copy of the protocol must be supplied as supplemental
information). Authors may register their systematic review (e.g. in a registry such
as PROSPERO) and should provide the registry number in their article. Systematic
reviews or meta-analyses should include those terms in the title, abstract and/or full
article.
Reports utilizing quantitative real time PCR should follow the MIQE guidelines and
checklist.

Articles reporting on microarray experiments should conform to the standards

published by the Functional Genomics Data Society, the most well known being
the MIAME guidelines. The MIAME checklist must be provided, and all data from the
experiments must be deposited in a publicly accessible database
(ArrayExpress or GEO) with the accession numbers provided in the article.

Articles which report on medical observational/epidemiological studies (specifically

cohort, case-control and cross-sectional studies) must adhere to the STROBE initiative.

In addition, Cureus suggests that authors consult the EQUATOR Network (a general
resource listing various reporting standards for health research studies); the MIBBI
Portal (a listing of minimum information guidelines from diverse bioscience
communities); or the BioSharing site for additional reporting guidelines or checklists
which might apply to their work.

Generally speaking, data should be referred to by the most specific identifier available
for the database archive to which it is submitted.

Confidentiality
All information regarding submitted articles is confidential, and Cureus will never
publicly comment on submitted or rejected articles. Additionally, reviewer identities will
remain confidential unless permission is given to reveal those identities. Authors,
reviewers and Editors-in-Chief must also treat all correspondence as confidential unless
explicitly stated otherwise.

Commenting Policies
Cureus requires that all public comments follow the normal standards of professional
discourse. Users must sign in to their Cureus profile in order to comment on an article or
poster. Under no circumstances does Cureus allow anonymous or pseudonymous
commenting or user profiles. Additionally, Cureus maintains a zero tolerance policy for
any language deemed insulting, inflammatory, obscene or libelous.

All comments which do not meet these standards will be removed, while repeat
offenders will have their commenting rights revoked.

Copyright Permissions
Cureus publishes all accepted articles under a CC-BY license.
It is the author’s responsibility to obtain the appropriate permissions from the original
publisher to republish any previously published text, figures, tables, supplementary
information, etc., in an open access journal under a CC-BY license.

Cureus does not accept articles that have previously appeared in a recognized peer-
reviewed journal (as this represents dual publication).

Cureus does accept submissions which have previously been presented at conferences
or appeared in other ‘non-journal’ venues (for example: blogs or posters).

Retraction Policy
Cureus reserves the right to retract articles that are found to be fraudulent (e.g.
containing data manipulation or misrepresentation) or in serious breach of one of our
policies. Evidence of plagiarism, falsification of data, or other scientific misconduct
associated with a published article is determined at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.
Any scientific misconduct will result in removal of the article and the printing of a
retraction as is consistent with the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical
Journal Editors. For more information on the Cureus retraction policy, please contact us
at info@cureus.com.