Cureus published 5,884 peer-reviewed articles in 2020, a 116% increase over our 2019 total of 2,719. As always, every one of these articles is available free of charge to all interested readers.

Last year also saw a nearly 300% increase in total article views with over 15.2 million across Cureus and PMC! The publishing world is increasingly moving towards an Open Access-only future and we're proud to be leading the way!

In addition to our huge jump in publications and readership, we never stopped working to improve the journal and your experience as an author, reviewer or reader. Listing all of the major changes would require a much longer email so here are some highlights:

Our Cureus Honors rewards program allows active authors, reviewers and readers to earn a variety of benefits. Progress towards one of our rewards tiers can be tracked via the new Cureus Honors Dashboard located on your Cureus profile page. Have you already qualified for a rewards tier? Take a look and find out!

Advanced metrics for all published articles are now visible to all Cureus readers! Article views, PDF downloads and citation reporting from multiple indexes can be viewed by clicking the 'Article Metrics' link on any published article page. Both Cureus and PMC article views and PDF downloads are visible as well as article reads over time and by country. Readers and authors can see how many times an article is read, downloaded, and cited, and even which states and countries make up the majority of its audience.

Our Social Boost option allows authors of high-quality articles to purchase social media exposure. Authors of qualifying articles will have the option to purchase a standard or premium social boost to increase awareness of their research and get their article in front of a larger audience of medical and healthcare professionals.

We also improved the design and performance of our search engine so you can quickly find articles, authors and posters. Last, but not least, auto-updating peer review certificates were added to the dashboards of all users who have completed at least one article review. You can download your certificate right now on the My Reviews tab of your dashboard.

We also welcomed 10 new academic channels in 2020. Departments and organizations continue to recognize the value delivered by a Cureus academic channel, which simply can't be matched by costly internally-produced newsletters and journals.

• American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council
• Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Department of Neurosurgery
• The Florida Medical Student Research Publications
• International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation
• Medicine-Pediatrics Academic Channel
• Research Update Inc

As part of our groundbreaking arrangement with several Florida-based medical schools, we have expanded the FLAGSHIP brand to include the following schools, each of which can be selected when submitting to the FLAGSHIP channel:

• Florida Atlantic University
• Florida International University
• Florida State University
• Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM)
• Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine
• University of Central Florida
• University of South Florida

The Clinical Applications and Benefits Using Closed-Incision Negative Pressure Therapy (ciNPT) for Incision and Surrounding Soft Tissue Management competition wrapped up in August with the following articles taking home prizes:

• 1st place - $5,000 honorarium (9.03 SIQ): Clinical Experiences with Closed Incisional Negative Pressure Wound Treatment on Various Anatomic Locations
• 2nd place - $2,000 honorarium (8.78 SIQ): Closed Incision Negative Pressure Therapy Achieves Better Outcome Than Standard Wound Care: Clinical Outcome and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis in Open Ventral Hernia Repair With Synthetic Mesh Positioning
• 3rd place - $1,000 honorarium (8.58 SIQ): Closure of a Complex Lower Extremity Wound With the Use of Multiple Negative Pressure Therapy Modalities

The Strategies to Promote Long-Term Cardiac Implant Site Health competition articles are currently undergoing peer and editorial review ahead of the February 2nd peer review deadline. A few articles have already been published - take a look and assign your SIQ score to help determine the winning articles!