To ring in the new year, Cureus produced a new video to help educate authors about our publishing process, our mission, and the scrutiny each paper receives prior to publication. 

Click the photo below to view the short animation and share it with your colleagues.   

The Cureus Journal of Medical Science believes in following the science, no matter who or where it comes from. The world of medical publishing is filled with elitist gatekeeping, but Cureus is committed to helping clinicians and researchers from all over the world publish their peer-reviewed work. All articles published in Cureus undergo timely and robust peer review as well as three distinct phases of editorial review. 

Prior to peer review, article submissions are assessed for scientific errors, language, readability, formatting, conflicts of interest, and plagiarism. If too many language or formatting errors are identified, the authors must purchase our Preferred Editing service to proceed.

Meanwhile, articles that fulfill our stated criteria in these areas are approved for peer review. Cureus invites a minimum of six reviewers with relevant domain experience and articles must receive at least two completed peer reviews containing critical feedback in order to move forward. Reviews that don’t measure up will be rejected and the review period will restart. Many articles receive more than two reviews, sometimes as many as five or six!

Many of our articles complete peer review within just a few days. There’s a common misconception that peer review needs to take longer. Journals often masquerade behind a complex process where they claim ”great” peer-review occurs, but the reality is that the vast majority of articles can be reviewed over the course of a few hours.

After revising the article based on the reviewer comments, the author will submit for final review by at least one Cureus associate editor, sometimes more. Our team of associate editors consists of physicians of all backgrounds who carefully scrutinize articles to ensure that 1) the peer reviews contain critical feedback, 2) the author has made the necessary revisions in response to peer review, and 3) that the science is credible. Articles containing dangerous or misleading science will be rejected, as will articles containing fraudulent data or findings.

Cureus is not afraid to publish credible science that goes against the grain. After all, history is rife with examples of so-called experts being proven wrong and it’s important to remember that the general consensus is not always correct. Testing these assumptions forms the very bedrock of the scientific process and should be encouraged, not vilified. Cureus promises to always remain open-minded, transparent, inclusive and accessible, because that is what Open Access publishing is all about.