
$8,000
IN PRIZES
The Cureus Journal of Medical Science is proud to introduce the Proton Therapy: Advanced Applications for the Most Challenging Cases publishing competition. We are seeking new publications demonstrating innovative treatment plans and exceptional clinical responses in which Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy (IMPT) has been utilized. Eligible submissions shall include related technical reports, case reports and case series.
Our goal is to share the results with the Cureus global community of radiation oncologists, neurosurgeons (where applicable), and medical physicists, as well as patients who might benefit. To encourage dissemination and cross-disciplinary awareness, all published materials will be Open Access and indexed with PubMed Central.
The winner of this competition will be determined by general acclaim of the medical community using Cureus Scholarly Impact Quotient™ (SIQ™) crowdsourcing technology.
Program administration has been enabled through the financial support of Varian Medical Systems. Article selection, editorial review, peer review, publication, and competition winner determination are strictly independent of the sponsor.
Peer Review Panel
All article submissions will undergo an independent pre-publication peer review conducted by a world-class team of experts.

Steve Frank
M.D., Professor | Radiation OncologyDepartment of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Ricky Sharma
M.D. | Radiation OncologyDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University College London, London, GBR


Ranald MacKay
Ph.D. | Medical PhysicsChristie Medical Physics & Engineering, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust

Lei Dong
Ph.D., Professor | Medical PhysicsDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA



Jean-Philippe Pignol
M.D., Ph.D. | Radiation OncologyDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Erasmus Medical Center Cancer Institute

William Regine
M.D., Professor | Radiation OncologyRadiation Oncology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA
Competition Entries
The entry period is now closed. Competition entries appear below as they are published. Now is your chance to rate and discuss these articles. Remember, prizes will be awarded to the three highest-rated articles!
Requirements
Competition entry and article submission is entirely free. Eligible entrees include technical reports, case reports and case series only. All submitted work must be previously unpublished and should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere.
All articles must be submitted and formatted via the template-driven, self-publishing Cureus platform. Authors are encouraged to include supporting animations and 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, uncleared 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 determined exclusively via peer review panel and community crowdsourced scoring. Neither the sponsoring company, nor Cureus, can determine the competition outcome.

Awards
Three Cureus Scientific Excellence™ prizes will be awarded to the published articles that receive the highest Cureus SIQ™ (Scholarly Impact Quotient™) rating:
1st Place: $5,000 USD
2nd Place: $2,000 USD
3rd Place: $1,000 USD
Subsequent to a formal editorial and peer review, published articles undergo SIQ scoring – Cureus’ unique crowdsourced, secondary peer-review process. In addition to measuring engagement, SIQ allows the community-at-large to rate the scientific impact and quality of individual articles. Reviewers assign ratings 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.
As engagement and ratings are critical to winning, authors are highly encouraged to share their published articles via social media and email.

Key Dates
- Tuesday, May 9, 2017 – Competition announced
- Tuesday, August 8, 2017 – Article submission deadline
- Tuesday, September 19, 2017 – Peer review of all eligible articles concludes
- Tuesday, October 24, 2017 – Competition crowdsourced review (SIQ) concludes
- Tuesday, October 31, 2017 – Winning articles announced