Learn what reviewers check, item by item.
Free, plain-language lessons on reporting your research.
Who's behind it
Alex Juusela, MD, MPH, FACOG
Maternal-Fetal Medicine Physician
Stetleaf and Stetleaf Academy are founded and led by Alex Juusela, MD, MPH, FACOG.
Alex Juusela, MD, MPH, FACOG, is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist (American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, an ABMS member board) and a fellowship-trained maternal-fetal medicine physician. Views are his own.
FACOG: Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
What you'll find in Stetleaf Academy
If you're writing up a research project, Stetleaf Academy walks through the part that often gets left to the last minute: reporting it clearly enough that editors and reviewers can follow what you did.
- Short articles, one topic each. On writing your paper, using reporting guidelines, finding and citing the literature, and understanding peer review.
- A self-check in every article, in our own words, to use on your own draft before you submit.
- Labeled examples. Examples are made up or come from openly licensed published papers, and each one says which.
Everything here is free and needs no account.
How each article works
Each article explains why the topic matters and the key ideas, walks through a worked example, lists common pitfalls, and ends with a quick self-check. Further reading and references point you to the original sources.
What Stetleaf will check, and what it won't
Stetleaf isn't open yet, and this site doesn't accept manuscripts. When it opens, here is what it will and won't do.
It's a check you run yourself to help get your manuscript ready for peer review. It doesn't replace peer review, your reviewers or editors, or your advisor and committee.
What it will check
We're building Stetleaf, a tool that will check manuscripts against reporting guidelines. Its first version will check selected items of the CONSORT 2025 reporting guideline, plus two general checks: whether the usual section headings, such as Introduction, Methods and Results, are there, and whether each numbered citation in the text matches an entry in the reference list. Each report will list the checks it ran. It won't check theses or dissertations, and it is not peer review.
- Every finding shows its evidence. Each one points to the place in your text it's about and names the rule behind it.
- English only. Stetleaf currently checks papers written in English.
- United States and Canada. When it opens, Stetleaf will be offered to users in the United States and Canada. Uploads won't be available for accounts whose province chosen at sign-up is Quebec.
What it won't do
- A check of the reporting, not the science. It doesn't judge your methods, your results or whether your study is good. That stays with you, your co-authors and your reviewers.
- Not peer review, and it doesn't replace editors or reviewers.
- Not a grade. It doesn't rate your paper or predict whether a journal will accept it.
Your manuscript
Stetleaf doesn't accept manuscript uploads yet.
Our financial interest. Alex Juusela owns Stetleaf LLC, the company that runs Stetleaf Academy and is developing Stetleaf. Lessons may link to Stetleaf's waitlist, and he benefits if you sign up.
Join the waitlist — sign-ups aren't open yet.
Stetleaf and Stetleaf Academy are not affiliated with, reviewed by or endorsed by any reporting-guideline group or the EQUATOR Network, or any journal.