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  1. Colin E Willoughby⇑,
  2. Stephen B Kaye⇑
  1. Dept of Eye and Vision Science, Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, United Kingdom and St. Paul’s Eye Unit, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
  1. Correspondence to Professor Colin E Willoughby; cewilloughby{at}bmj.com
  2. Professor Stephen B Kaye; sbkaye{at}bmj.com
  • Received 25 May 2016
  • Accepted 25 May 2016

We are delighted to introduce BMJ Open Ophthalmology, a new open access journal published by BMJ.

The journal will publish a broad range of articles of particular clinical, scientific, educational or surgical value. Many of the current ophthalmology journals, particularly traditional journals in the field, are limited by being predominantly either clinical or basic science, with less translational and vision science. We envisage diverse content reflecting current and innovative research linked within an online digital interactive framework that is freely available, unrestricted and immediately accessible.

By encouraging clinical and basic science articles from all aspects of ophthalmology and vision science, the needs of clinicians and the applications of the work of scientists will be met and integrated, fostering a close interaction between basic, translational and clinical sciences. In an era of continual and rapid advances in ophthalmology, there is an overwhelming need for a journal such as BMJ Open Ophthalmology which will provide an integrated digital platform for the publication of quality basic and clinical science research.

MAINTAINING SCIENTIFIC RIGOUR

BMJ has set a high standard as one of the leading authorities among medical journals, and has been distinguished for its record of ongoing innovation in medical publishing. BMJ has pioneered open access and as editors we are fully committed to the principles of open access. A central aim of BMJ Open Ophthalmology is therefore to combine the benefits of open access with a commitment to maintaining scientific rigour through the process of stringent peer-review.

The emphasis of peer review will be the scientific and ethical validity of the research. All articles published in BMJ Open Ophthalmology will have been approved following external peer review by at least two expert reviewers selected by our international editorial board. We aim for rapid peer review and the publication of accepted articles will be continual and fully citeable.

ENCOURAGING OPEN ACCESS AND OPEN DATA

All articles will be open access allowing freely available unrestricted and immediate online access to research globally, with the article copyright retained by the author under a Creative Commons License. Access to the content of BMJ Open Ophthalmology will not be restricted by borders, wealth or status and available to a diverse group of researchers and the wider public, providing the author with a global audience. Unrestricted by a print edition authors are encouraged to submit their original data which will be open access and available in the public domain.

FOSTERING AN INTERACTIVE DIGITAL PLATFORM

We plan an interactive evolving journal which provokes scientific debate and clinical commentary in which the readership, authors and public can engage and contribute.

  • We will utilise social media to encourage debate and comment on the journal content and exceptional articles will be press-released.

  • The journal will provide article-level metrics including counts of views, downloads and citations.

  • Digital and multimedia submissions will be hosted to reflect clinical imaging, surgical videos, scientific and clinical teaching and diagnostics.

  • The journal will maximise visibility of authors research by ensuring free online access to a global audience.

  • As the journal becomes established we aim to gain listing in the PubMed database and ISI Current Contents (Web of Science) and indexed by Scopus and Google Scholar.

It is any exciting time in ophthalmology with many rapidly changing advances in cell and gene-based therapies for ocular disease, novel pharmacological and therapeutic advances, rapid developments in imaging and surgical techniques, with strong inter-disciplinary links bridging the laboratory and our patients. BMJ Open Ophthalmology will have a distinct footprint in the ophthalmology and vision science community by addressing the needs of clinicians and scientists. We look forward to receiving your research submissions and welcome your feedback on all aspects of BMJ Open Ophthalmology.

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/