About GMS CURAC
Editorial Board
Review Board
Author's Guidelines
Author's Contract

GMS Current Topics in Computer and Robot Assisted Surgery (GMS CURAC) is an interdisciplinary journal. GMS CURAC offers all scientists from the field of Computer- and Robot-Assisted Surgery the possibility to publish their research results online.

GMS CURAC guarantees an efficient and effective quality assurance process by an extensive and stringent peer review. GMS CURAC does not require the author to transfer the copyright. The author, as originator of the scientific accomplishment, still disposes over all the rights on his work. The author grants GMS CURAC only the right to store the article in databases and to distribute and reproduce it in electronic form. GMS CURAC adheres to the Open Access Charta of German Medical Science.

Refer to our author's guidelines for important details on the conception and lay-out of the articles.

Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c. Peter M. Schlag
Dipl. Math. techn. Thomas Lange
Dipl. Inf. Sebastian Eulenstein

Department of Surgery and Surgical Oncology
Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Lindenberger Weg 80
13125 Berlin

PD Dr. Volkmar Falk, Heart Center Leipzig, Cardiac Surgery
Prof. Dr. Hubertus Feussner, Technical University Munich, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Chirurgische Klinik und Poliklinik, Visceral Surgery
Prof. Dr. Stefan Haßfeld, Klinikum Dortmund, Maxillofacial Surgery
PD Dr. Christopher Nimsky, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Neurochirurgische Klinik, Neurosurgery
Prof. Dr. Meixensberger, University of Leipzig, Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Neurosurgery
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Preim, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Chair of Visualization

Dr. Gero Strauß, Universitätsklinikum Leipzig, HNO-Klinik und Poliklinik, Ear, Nose and Throat Medicine (ENT)
Prof. Dr. Heinz Wörn, University of Karlsruhe, Institute for Process Control and Robotics (IPR)
Dr. Stefan Zachow, Zuse Institute Berlin, Medical Planning Systems

• Summary
  
  
  • The contribution has to be in word format. Until now there is no special format template. Please consider the information given in 3. Manuscript Preparation. The manuscripts have to be sent per e-mail to Mr. Thomas Lange (thomas.lange@charite.de). In the future also a manuscript management system will be provided.
  
  
  • The length of the manuscript has to be at least 2000 and not more than 4000 words.
  
  
  • The reviews are carried out by at least two reviewers. If possible one of the reviewers should be a medical and one a technical expert. The manuscripts are rated with: accepted, accepted with minor changes or rejected. On the basis of these reviews the editorial board comes to a final decision about the acceptance of a contribution.
  
  
  • A signed author contract has to be sent to GMS CURAC.
  
  
  • In addition a signed declaration of authorship and a signed declaration of competing interests have to be sent to GMS CURAC.
  
  

1. General Information
   GMS Computer- and Robot-Assisted Surgery (CURAC) is an open access e-journal, which publishes articles from the whole area of Computer- and Robot-Assisted Surgery in English on an interdisciplinary level. All articles go through an investigation procedure before publication. The authors' guidelines principally follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors: Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals.
   
   
2. Publication Requirements
   The submitted manuscripts or substantial parts of them should not have been previously published or submitted for publication somewhere else. The abbreviated version of the contents for presentation at a meeting is not regarded as a publication.
   
   2.1 Authorship and Copyright
   All authors insure that they have furnished a substantial contribution to the article and that they are in agreement with form and contents of the manuscript. The author conducting the negotiations confirms in the Author's Contract that he or she holds the copyrights on the works as well as on the text and illustrations attached therein. If material (e.g. illustrations or tables) is used from other sources, the author must submit a written statement from the holder of the copyrights indicating agreement with publication in GMS CURAC. In cases of publication, the author grants GMS CURAC the right to store the work in databases for an unlimited period of time, to distribute and to reproduce the article in electronic form, as well as to provide individualized print-outs for users by means of a print-on-demand service. All remaining exploitation rights of the author are not restricted. However, all further publications should make reference to the original publication (originally published in: GMS CURAC 2006;1:...).
   
   2.2 Conflict of Interests
   Financial or other support by institutes or companies, as well as promotion funds, is to be stated in the acknowledgments. All financial or other connections, which the author has to a company, whose products or competition products play an important role in represented facts of the matter, should be described and enclosed in the cover letter. This notification is handled confidentially and only when the manuscript is accepted for publication it will be published together with the manuscript after due consultation with the author.
   
   2.3 Protection of Patients' Rights to Privacy
   When using records of patients it must be guaranteed that the person is not identifiable on the basis of the portrayal. Otherwise, the author must seek explicit consent from the person concerned (or their representative) that he or she agrees with the publication in the present form. The existence of such a consent is to be confirmed by the author in writing.
   
   
3. Manuscript Preparation
   
   3.1 In General
   The manuscripts have to be submitted in English. The manuscripts may contain tables, graphics and images as well as sound and video sequences.
   
   3.1.1 Cover letter
   All manuscripts should be accompanied by a cover letter. In this cover letter the authors must state any overlap of the manuscript submitted to GMS CURAC with manuscripts already published or submitted elsewhere. The authors should also declare that and how each coauthor contributed to the research project and the preparation of the manuscript. The submitting author also has to affirm that all coauthors have read the final manuscript and agree with its publication in the present form. Finally, any potential conflicts of interests must be disclosed in this letter.
   
   3.1.2 Title Page
   On the first page of the manuscript the English title of the article is stated, followed by the surnames and first names of all authors, their email addresses and the facilities where they are active. Then give separately the name, mail and email address of the author conducting the correspondence.
   
   3.1.3 Abstract and Keywordsr
   All original contributions, case descriptions and review articles are to be preceded by an English abstract. The abstract should not exceed 150 words. The author should specify suitable keywords.
   
   3.1.4 Literature References
   The literature cited in the text is listed at the end of the article according to the Vancouver Style of References also used in Medline (see National Library of Medicine). References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in square brackets. Please do not use footnotes!
   
   Some examples:
   
   Standard journal article:
   Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347(4):284-7.
   
   Monograph:
   Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002.
   
   Chapter/Contribution in a monograph:
   Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113.
   
   CD-ROM:
   Anderson SC, Poulsen KB. Anderson's electronic atlas of hematology [CD-ROM]. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2002.
   
   Journal article on the Internet:
   Eysenbach G. SARS and population health technology. J Med Internet Res. 2003;5(2):e14.
   Available from: http://www.jmir.org/2003/2/e14/
   
   Homepage/Website:
   Cancer-Pain.org [homepage on the Internet]. New York: Association of Cancer Online Resources, Inc.; c2000-01 [updated 2002 May 16; cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.cancer-pain.org/
   
   Further detailed sample references under http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html.
   
   3.2 Article Types
   Original work (research articles) deals with current problems, with adequate empirical or experimental methodology. It should be evident from the papers that they make a substantial contribution in clarifying the formulated problem. They are to be subdivided into: abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusions. In addition invited review articles exist.
   
   3.3 Technical Requirements
   
   3.3.1 Typography und technical notations
   Do not use block style or hyphenation when drawing up your manuscripts. Line breaks are only to be inserted in paragraphs. Literature references are to be numbered consecutively in the text and listed at the end of the document as text, under no circumstances by means of the automatic footnote function. All illustrations and tables are to be provided with legends and numbered consecutively.
   The basic units of the International System for Measures and Weights (SI) and the units derived from them are to be used for all units of measurement. For the indication of blood pressure values the unit "mmHg" is permissible, for the indication of temperatures the unit °C. When using other units in illustrations and tables the conversion factors are to be indicated in the legend.
   The nomenclature of the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) resp. the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) is to be used for the designation of chemical substances. The additional indication of the register number of the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) is recommended.
   Generally, the generic name is to be used when mentioning drugs. If certain commercial products were used in the research, then these trade names and the names of the producer should be quoted in the method part. In addition, this data will be indexable via the recording in special data fields (s. 3.1.2). The spelling in the "Red List" applies. Abbreviations without solutions should be only used, if they are generally common (DNA, WHO). All remaining abbreviations are to be identified when first used. If necessary, an abbreviation list should be added. References on statistics: Graphpad software offers numerous freely available online computers for statistic calculations.
   
   3.3.2 Text Formats
   The contributions have to be submitted in Word format without a special template and sent via e-mail to Mr. Thomas Lange ( thomas.lange@charite.de).
   
   3.3.3 Graphic Formats
   The following graphic formats may be used: the formats TIFF and BMP (loss-free bitmap-formats); GIF and PNG (bitmap-formats compressed) for charts, JPG (compressible bitmap-format) for photos. Even if the graphics are integrated in the text, they should be provided additionally as separate files with clear file names.
   
   
4. Review Process
   GMS CURAC confirms the receipt of each manuscript. Each submitted manuscript is peer-reviewed to assess the originality and scientific quality of the presented material. The reviews are carried out by at least two reviewers. If possible one of the reviewers should be a medical and one a technical expert. The manuscripts are rated with: accepted, accepted with minor changes or rejected. On the basis of these reviews the editorial board comes to a final decision about the acceptance of a contribution. The authors are informed about the decision as fast as possible.