Channel Preview Checklists Guide.xlsx

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2	Channel Preview Checklist Guide
3	A curator's guide to evaluating articles at First and Second Channel Preview
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6	How To Use This Guide
7	Every article submitted through your channel passes through two curator preview stages: First Channel Preview and Second Channel Preview. The guide below shows you what to look for, provides helpful examples (✓ correct / ✗ incorrect), and indicates which actions to take. Unless a specific item says otherwise, noncompliant items should be deferred to the authors for correction.
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9	⚠️ Pay particular attention to these items that are often missed by curators.
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11	First Channel Preview			This stage occurs before peer review. Check for eligibility, compliance, scientific validity, and formatting issues that must be resolved before the article is sent to reviewers.
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13	Channel Eligibility			All articles that do not meet channel eligibility requirements must be removed from the channel with a notification to the author stating the reasons why.
14	⚠️	Item		Check	Example
15	⚠️		Author affiliations	Verify that the article meets your channel's affiliation requirements.	✓ Authors are affiliated with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (correct channel). ✗ Authors are affiliated with the University of Michigan, but the article was submitted to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine channel.
16	⚠️		Previously submitted / desk-rejected submissions	Verify that the article has not already been submitted to the channel and desk rejected. A desk-rejected article may only be resubmitted if the original desk rejection was due to an article type change (e.g., the article was submitted as the wrong type and needs to be resubmitted under the correct one). Desk rejections for any other reason are not eligible for resubmission.	✓ First submission of the manuscript. ✓ Manuscript was desk-rejected because it was submitted as an Original Article but should have been a Case Report; resubmitted under the correct article type. ✗ The same manuscript (or substantially the same version) was desk rejected for a reason other than article type (e.g., out of scope, insufficient scientific merit) and is resubmitted anyway. ✗ The same manuscript is submitted to the channel more than once concurrently (duplicate/parallel submission).
17			Article scope	Verify that the article aligns with the channel's academic or clinical focus. Also confirm that the article falls within Cureus's overall journal scope: medical science relevant to the global healthcare community. Articles outside this scope (e.g., veterinary science, non-medical basic science) should not proceed, even if they happen to fit a channel's general subject area. If an article fails either check, click "Email Author" in the Editorial Actions bar to explain the reason, then click "Remove from Channel."	✓ A Cardiology channel receives an original article evaluating outcomes after transcatheter aortic valve replacement. ✗ A Cardiology channel receives a case report on endoscopic management of peptic ulcer disease. The curator emails the author, explaining the scope mismatch, and then removes it from the channel. (wrong channel scope) ✗ A channel receives an article on veterinary cardiology. The curator emails the author, then removes it from the channel. (outside Cureus's medical science scope entirely, regardless of channel fit)
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19	Authors & Affiliations			If any of the following items are not compliant, defer the article to the authors so they can make the required corrections.
20	⚠️	Item		Check	Example
21	⚠️		Author contribution (ICMJE)	All listed authors must meet ICMJE's four authorship criteria. Substantial contribution to conception/design or data acquisition/analysis; drafting or critically revising the manuscript; final approval of the version to be published; and agreement to be accountable for the work. During submission, each author's specific contribution must be selected from the contributions dropdown. Anyone who doesn't meet all four criteria should not be listed as an author. They can be credited in the Acknowledgements section instead (with their consent).	✓ Each author's role is selected (e.g., study design, data collection, manuscript drafting, final approval), and every listed author meets all four ICMJE criteria ✓ A statistician who ran the analysis but had no other role is credited in Acknowledgements rather than listed as a co-author ✗ Someone who only provided funding or general lab supervision is listed as a co-author ✗ Author contributions are left blank/unselected during submission
22	⚠️		Author affiliations	Every affiliation must be complete with a consistent format: department, institution, city, and country. For multiple authors from the same institution, department and institution names must be spelled identically. The department field must not contain a professional title.	✓ Department of Internal Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA ✓ All authors list “Harvard Medical School” ✓ Medical students list “Medical School” or the relevant specialty (e.g., “Family Medicine”) as their department ✗ One author lists “Harvard Medical School,” another lists “Harvard Med School” ✗ Department field reads “Medical Student” or “Professor of Surgery”
23			Author names	Must be in title case.	✓ John A. Smith ✗ john a. smith / JOHN A. SMITH
24			Author name suffixes	Author names must not include professional titles such as "Dr." or "Professor," before or after the name. Suffixes like Senior, Junior, II, III, etc. are permitted only when they are genuinely part of the author's legal name, not when used to indicate seniority, rank, or professional standing among co-authors.	✓ John A. Smith ✓ John A. Smith Jr. (suffix is part of his legal name) ✗ Dr. John A. Smith (professional title included) ✗ Professor Maria Chen (professional title included) ✗ John A. Smith, Senior (suffix added to signal he's the senior author, not part of his actual name)
25			Medical student authorship	Per the Author Guide, submissions authored solely by medical students are not accepted.	✓ At least one non-medical-student co-author (resident, fellow, attending, etc.) is listed ✗ All listed authors are 4th-year medical students, with no other author type on the byline
26			IRB review	Required for all prospective studies. Either an IRB approval statement or, if the study was exempted, an explanation of why. Not required by default for retrospective studies. However, if the authors mention that a retrospective study did go through IRB approval, follow up to confirm the name of the approving committee and the date of approval.	✓ Prospective study: "This study was approved by the XYZ Institutional Review Board (approval #2024-118)." ✓ Prospective study, exempted: "This study was exempted from IRB review because [reason]." ✓ Retrospective study with no IRB mention at all — no follow-up needed ✓ Retrospective study that mentions IRB approval: committee name and approval date are both provided ✗ Prospective study with no IRB approval or exemption explanation anywhere in the article ✗ Retrospective study mentions "IRB approved" but doesn't name the committee or give a date
27			Clinical trial registration	Only RCTs (randomized controlled trials) must be registered in a registry (e.g., ClinicalTrials.gov, CTRI, WHO-recognized registries, etc.). Registration can be retrospective as long as it occurs before publication in Cureus, but IRB approval must be obtained prospectively for RCTs.	✓ RCT registered in an approved registry before publication in Cureus, even if registered after enrollment began ✗ RCT published in Cureus with no registration in any approved registry
28			Human subjects disclosure	Required if human subjects or human tissue was studied. The disclosure/consent statement must be included in the informed consent / disclosure / conflict-of-interest (COI) section. Including it in the Materials & Methods or Case Presentation section as well is desirable but not required.	✓ Consent/disclosure statement present in the informed consent/disclosure/COI section ✓ Consent/disclosure statement present in both the COI section and Materials & Methods (extra, not required, but fine) ✗ Human subjects/tissue studied, but no disclosure statement in the informed consent/disclosure/COI section, even if it's mentioned in Materials & Methods
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30	Media			If any of the following items are not compliant, defer the article to the authors so they can make the required corrections.
31	⚠️	Item		Check	Example
32	⚠️		Acronyms / initialisms in media	Acronyms and initialisms used in a figure/table must be defined in the legend, even if defined elsewhere in the article. Common exceptions that don't require spelling out (per the body-text acronym exceptions list, such as CT, MRI, IV, ER, ED, HIV/AIDS, BMI, RN, GI, FDA, SD, CI, MD, PhD) also don't need to be defined in media legends.	✓ Legend: "TAVR: transcatheter aortic valve replacement" ✓ Legend uses "MRI" with no definition MRI is a common exception, no definition required ✗ Legend uses "TAVR" with no definition anywhere in the legend
33			Media mentions and location	Figures/tables must be placed directly after the paragraph in which they are first mentioned.	✓ Figure 1 appears immediately after the paragraph referencing it ✗ Figure 1 is mentioned in paragraph 2 but placed after paragraph 5
34			Media inclusion	If a figure/table is mentioned in the text, it must actually be included in the article.	✓ Every figure referenced in-text is present ✗ Text says “as shown in Figure 2” but no Figure 2 exists in the submission
35			Media title numbering	Two separate rules apply to media titles: Numbering — Media items (figures, tables, videos) are auto-numbered by the system. Do not manually type the figure/table number into the title field. Citations — Citations must not be included in the media title. If a citation is needed, it belongs in the legend field (or, for tables, directly in the table) — not the title.	✓ Title: "Axial CT showing hepatic lesion" (no number typed in, no citation) ✓ Citation for a reproduced figure appears in the legend: "Reproduced with permission from Smith et al. [4]" ✗ Title: "Figure 1: Axial CT showing hepatic lesion" (number manually typed into title) ✗ Title: "Axial CT showing hepatic lesion [4]" (citation placed in title instead of legend)
36			Legend length	Media legends may not exceed 2,000 characters, including spaces.	✓ Legend is thorough but stays under the 2,000 character limit ✗ Legend runs well past 2,000 characters
37			Title/legend capitalization consistency	Capitalization and punctuation style for media titles and legends must be consistent throughout the article.	✓ All figure/table titles follow the same capitalization convention ✗ Figure 1 title is in title case; Figure 2 title is in sentence case
38			Appendices	Only genuinely supplemental material (survey forms, letters, etc.) belongs in appendices.	✓ Patient survey instrument included as an appendix ✗ A core data table is placed in the appendix instead of the body
39			Videos	Must play in YouTube or Vimeo (not other hosts, not raw file uploads).	✓ Embedded YouTube link plays correctly ✗ Video hosted on an unsupported platform or link is broken
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41	Figures			If any of the following items are not compliant, defer the article to the authors so they can make the required corrections.
42	⚠️	Item		Check	Example
43			Formatting	No blurry, stretched, skewed, unclear, or uncropped images.	✓ Sharp, correctly proportioned, cropped to relevant content ✗ Pixelated screenshot, stretched aspect ratio, visible surrounding UI/browser chrome
44			File specifications	Accepted file types: PNG, JPEG, TIFF. Minimum width 900px (1600px recommended). Maximum file size 10MB.	✓ 1800px-wide PNG, 4MB file ✗ 600px-wide JPEG, or a 15MB file
45			Patient ID information	All identifying patient information must be obscured, including faces, names, MRNs, dates, and tattoos.	✓ Eyes/face blacked out, name fields redacted on scans, visible tattoos cropped or blurred out ✗ Visible patient name or unmasked face in a clinical photo ✗ Identifiable tattoo left visible in an image (tattoos are increasingly common and can be as identifying as a face)
46			Copyright/licensing (attribution)	If an image is not original to the authors, an attribution and permission note must be included in the legend. It is the authors' responsibility, not Cureus's or the curator's, to determine the license the borrowed image was published (e.g., CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND, etc.), whether that license permits the use and any modifications made (cropping, annotating, relabeling), and to obtain any additional permission the license requires.	✓ "Reproduced with permission from [Source], [Year]," with a license that allows the use as submitted ✓ Image modified from the original (e.g., cropped, arrows added) with a license/permission that explicitly allows modification ✗ Image pulled from another publication with no attribution ✗ Image attributed, but published under a restrictive license (e.g., CC BY-NC-ND) that doesn't permit the modifications the authors made ✗ Image attributed, but the underlying license doesn't actually permit reuse in this context, and no separate permission was obtained
47			Copyright/licensing (symbols)	Copyright/trademark symbols where needed (e.g., ©, ™, ®).	✓ © 2023 Radiological Society, used with permission ✗ Symbol omitted where the source requires it
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49	Tables			If any of the following items are not compliant, defer the article to the authors so they can make the required corrections.
50	⚠️	Item		Check	Example
51	⚠️		Citations	Studies referenced by author name in a table must be cited alongside the author name within the same row (not just in the legend). For forest plots specifically, citations may go either alongside the author names on the plot or in the legend. Both are acceptable.	✓ Table row: "Smith et al. (2019) [7]" cited alongside the author name; forest plot citations placed on the plot or in the legend ✗ Table lists author names with no citation anywhere, or a table (non-forest-plot) citation appears only in the legend
52			Nested tables	No tables pasted into a single cell of another table.	✓ Data presented as one clean table ✗ A second table is pasted inside one cell of the main table
53			Line returns in cells	No multi-row cells created with line breaks inside a single cell.	✓ One data point per cell ✗ A single cell contains three stacked lines of text separated by line breaks
54			Tables submitted as figures	No tables submitted as screenshots/images instead of native tables. This is especially common in case reports, where authors upload lab values or a lab report as a figure instead of building a native table.	✓ Table built using the platform's table tool ✗ A screenshot of a spreadsheet is inserted as a "figure" ✗ A case report uploads a screenshot or photo of lab values/report as a figure instead of entering the data as a native table
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56	Article Body & Formatting			If any of the following items are not compliant, defer the article to the authors so they can make the required corrections.
57	⚠️	Item		Check	Example
58	⚠️		Acronyms/initialisms spelled out (some exceptions)	Acronyms must be spelled out with the acronym in parentheses at first use in BOTH the abstract and the body. The following are common exceptions that do not need to be spelled out: CT, MRI, IV, ER, ED, HIV/AIDS, BMI, RN, GI, FDA, SD, CI, MD, PhD.	✓ "...acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication..." then AKI used thereafter ✓ "...underwent a CT scan..." with no expansion required — CT is a listed exception ✗ AKI used in the abstract with no prior spelled-out definition ✗ Flagging "MRI" as needing definition — it doesn't, it's a listed exception
59	⚠️		In-text reference citations	Citations may be included mid-sentence or at the end of the sentence, but before the period.	✓ "...has been well documented [3]." ✓ "...has been well documented in prior work, [3] which supports this approach." (mid-sentence) ✗ "...has been well documented. [3]" (citation after the period)
60			Title formatting	Must follow APA title style (title case, one sentence, no ending period). Acronyms, initialisms, or abbreviations are not permitted in the title, with exceptions for common ones (e.g., COVID-19, HIV, MRI).	✓ A Rare Case of Adenovirus Hepatitis in an Immunocompetent Adult ✓ A Case of COVID-19-Associated Guillain-Barré Syndrome (COVID-19 is an accepted exception) ✗ a rare case of adenovirus hepatitis in an immunocompetent adult ✗ A Rare Presentation of NASH in a Pediatric Patient (NASH is not an accepted title exception)
61			Abstract subheaders	Abstract subheaders are permitted for original articles ONLY, but not mandatory. Original articles may also use a consolidated (non-subheaded) abstract. Subheaders are not permitted in abstracts for other article types.	✓ Original article abstract uses Background / Methods / Results / Conclusion subheaders ✓ Original article abstract is written as a single consolidated paragraph with no subheaders ✗ A case report abstract uses formal subheaders
62			Previously presented as abstract/poster	If the article was previously presented as an abstract or poster, this must be disclosed at the end of the Introduction section.	✓ Disclosure sentence appears as the final line of the Introduction: "This work was previously presented as a poster at [Conference], 2023." ✗ Disclosure is missing entirely ✗ Disclosure appears earlier in the Introduction or in a different section rather than at the end
63			Previously posted to preprint server	If the article was previously posted to a preprint server, this must be disclosed at the end of the Introduction section.	✓ Disclosure sentence appears as the final line of the Introduction: "A preprint of this manuscript was posted to medRxiv." ✗ Disclosure is missing entirely ✗ Disclosure appears earlier in the Introduction or in a different section rather than at the end
64			Drug names	Brand-name drugs are treated as a proper noun (capitalized); generic drug names remain lowercase throughout, including mid-sentence — not simply “sentence case.”	✓ Tylenol (brand, capitalized) / acetaminophen (generic, lowercase even mid-sentence) ✗ tylenol (brand, lowercase) ✗ Acetaminophen (generic, capitalized)
65			Subheader formatting	Subheaders must be styled and capitalized correctly per journal convention. Cureus recognizes three subheader levels, each with its own formatting rule (see Author Guide for full detail): Major subheaders: sentence case (first word capitalized, rest lowercase except proper nouns/acronyms), styled using the "Subheader" style. Minor subheaders: title case, italicized. Third-level subheaders: sentence case, leads directly into the paragraph followed by a colon (e.g., "Patient outcomes: The patient was discharged...").	✓ Major: "Patient presentation" / Minor: Diagnostic Workup (italicized, title case) / Third-level: "Follow-up: The patient returned for..." ✗ Mixed styles: "case presentation" vs. "DISCUSSION" vs. "Conclusion:." ✗ A minor subheader left un-italicized, or a major subheader in title case instead of sentence case
66			Text formatting	Exactly one line return after each paragraph (not zero, not double. No bulleted lists anywhere in the article body. Numbers 1–9 spelled out unless measurements; numbers 10+ are always entered numerically	✓ Standard single line return between paragraphs, no indentation ✓ Content is written in full prose/paragraph form ✓ “Three patients were enrolled” / “3 mg was administered” / “12 patients completed follow-up,” even at the start of a sentence ✗ Extra blank line (double return) inserted between paragraphs ✗ A list of symptoms is presented as bullet points ✗ “Twelve patients completed follow-up” spelled out solely because it begins a sentence
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68	References			If any of the following items are not compliant, defer the article to the authors so they can make the required corrections.
69	⚠️	Item		Check	Example
70			Article title	Must be in sentence case.	✓ Adenovirus hepatitis in an immunocompetent host: a case report ✗ Adenovirus Hepatitis in an Immunocompetent Host: A Case Report
71			Author count	All co-authors must be listed unless there are more than seven; if more than seven, insert “et al.” after the first three authors.	✓ Eight authors: first three named, then “et al.” ✗ All eight authors listed individually with no “et al.”
72			Journal Article References	Journal title in Title Case, abbreviated per Index Medicus if listed. Author names in plain text, never hyperlinked with the title. List only the volume number. Issue and supplement numbers should NOT be included (this reverses the prior checklist wording). A month is not required. Format the DOI by appending it directly after the page range with no “doi.org/” prefix and no “DOI” label.	✓ N Engl J Med ✓ Author names appear as plain text; only the title/DOI is hyperlinked ✓ Yang SH, Du Y, Li XL, et al.: ...Am J Med Sci. 2017, 354:117-24.10.1016/j.amjms.2017.03.032 ✓ Volume included (354), no issue number, no month, DOI appended directly after the page range ✗ New england journal of medicine (unabbreviated, wrong case) ✗ Entire reference, including author names, is one hyperlink ✗ 2023 Mar;45(2):112-118 (issue number and month included; both should be omitted) ✗ doi.org/10.1234/example.5678 (should not include the “doi.org/” prefix or be listed separately)
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74	Second Channel Preview			Occurs after peer review.
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76	Curators often make the following mistakes: treating a low-effort, non-substantive peer review as sufficient (pause and contact Cureus rather than deciding alone); approving articles where authors revised some comments but silently ignored others; forgetting to invite a re-reviewer when a reviewer's decision was left pending.
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78		Item		Check	Follow-up Action
79			Peer review substance	Do the peer reviews contain substantive, critical feedback (not just “looks good, approve”)?	If a review seems low-effort or you're unsure whether it should be rejected, contact Cureus first to confirm before taking action, don't reject a review unilaterally.
80			Article/reference/media formatting	Do any glaring formatting errors remain from the first preview stage (references, media, structure)?	Defer if significant errors remain. Minor, isolated issues may not require another full deferral. Use judgment, but when in doubt, defer.
81			Author revisions	Have the authors made adequate revisions in response to the peer review comments?	If revisions are inadequate or superficial, defer back to the authors for a genuine revision.
82			Author responses to comments	Did the authors provide an adequate response to each individual comment, explaining why they revised or chose not to?	If responses are missing, vague, or don't address the comment raised, defer and request a complete point-by-point response.
83			Pending reviewer decisions	Did one or more reviewers indicate their decision is still pending?	Invite them to re-review the article. Refer to your channel admin or curator guide for the re-reviewer invitation steps.
84			Reviewer recommended rejection	Did one or more reviewers recommend rejecting the article? Do you agree with that assessment?	If you agree, contact Cureus to request rejection rather than continuing to defer indefinitely.
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