Innovative Silicon Valley-based medical journal, Cureus, becomes part of Springer Nature as company expands its health division

Acquisition is an important addition to Springer Nature’s leading OA portfolio

The Cureus Journal of Medical Science has been acquired by Springer Nature. With its innovative business model, Cureus solves the challenge of open access (OA) publishing of peer-reviewed articles by medical professionals without access to research grant funds. 

Founded in Silicon Valley in 2009, Cureus has designed a unique, highly efficient, OA publishing platform. Well-drafted, relevant and credible submissions are published for free following peer review. Relevant submissions that do not meet Cureus language and formatting standards require the purchase of the journal’s low-cost editing service. Cureus’s use of a ‘do-it-yourself’ submission platform and article templates allows for rapid turn-around times, with more than half of all accepted articles published in 3 weeks or less of initial submission. 

Cureus has established itself as a leader within the Open Access publishing movement with a philosophy emphasizing scientific credibility over perceived impact. This has resulted in over 32,000 articles published to date as well as a growing monthly audience of over one million unique readers contributing over three million monthly article views.

Cureus founder and Dorothy TK Chan Professor of Neurosurgery and Radiation Oncology (Emeritus) at Stanford University, John Adler, said: 

“I am incredibly excited by our new relationship with Springer Nature. I am confident that together we can accelerate Cureus’ mission to eliminate publishing barriers for new medical knowledge and create an entirely new category of healthcare network.”

Joachim Krieger, Managing Director Springer Nature Health, commented: 

“We are delighted to welcome Cureus to the Springer Nature family. With their community-focused approach to publishing and the innovative new thinking and culture they will bring, I am looking forward to working together to create a dynamic, open repository of medical knowledge accessible to the whole world”. 

Alexander Muacevic, Cureus co-founder and Medical Director of the European Radiosurgery Center in Munich and Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Munich, added:

“As two practicing Neurosurgery professors, we founded Cureus as much as a community network as an academic journal. Moving forward as part of Springer Nature will enable us to grow and deliver on our vision of a next generation medical knowledge sharing community”.

With the focus on physicians and medical practitioners, Cureus joins Springer Healthcare, Springer Medizin and Bohn Stafleu van Loghum, as part of the newly formed Springer Nature health division. It follows the acquisition earlier this year of Austrian health tech start-up, Medbee. 

The acquisition complements Springer Nature’s over 20 year commitment to OA. With c600 fully OA journals and the ability to publish OA on the remainder of their 2400 titles, including Nature, Springer Nature supports over 2.5 million authors globally in making their research OA. In 2021 Springer Nature became the first publisher to publish over one million articles OA.