BMJ Open Ophthalmology ====================== * Stephen B Kaye * medical education * vision *BMJ Open Ophthalmology* was launched in autumn 2016. Its remit is to provide an open-access platform for basic, translational and clinical research in ophthalmology and vision Science. *BMJ Open Ophthalmology* aims to: * Publish a broad range of articles of particular clinical, scientific, educational or surgical value on a rapid publication schedule. * Facilitate a close interaction between basic, translational and clinical sciences through publication and fostering interdisciplinary research. * Provide an interactive digital platform that is freely available, unrestricted and immediately accessible. * Provoke scientific debate and clinical commentary in which the readership, authors and public can engage and contribute through both social and multimedia. Since its launch, the journal has grown significantly, with submitted and accepted papers increasing from 61 and 16 in 2016, to 136 and 59 in 2019 (figure 1), with an overall acceptance rate of 44%. It has also seen a steady increase in the transfer of good quality papers from other BMJ journals. ![Figure 1](http://bmjophth.bmj.com/https://bmjophth.bmj.com/content/bmjophth/5/1/e000530/F1.medium.gif) [Figure 1](http://bmjophth.bmj.com/content/5/1/e000530/F1) Figure 1 *BMJ Open Ophthalmology* submissions and acceptances since launch. *BMJ Open Ophthalmology* has attracted an international authorship with 18% of papers from Europe, 17% from the USA and 16% from Japan, China and India combined. The mean (median) time to a first decision has reduced from 47 (43) days in 2016 to 40 (20) days in 2019. The mean time from acceptance to online publication is 23 days. As an open access journal, *BMJ Open Ophthalmology* has seen a substantial rise in the number of article downloads from around the world. At the time of writing, the top 10 most downloaded papers in 2019 had been accessed a total of 26 537 times . The number of citations *BMJ Open Ophthalmology* articles have received has correspondingly increased from 4 in 2017 to 136 in 2019. *BMJ Open Ophthalmology* is indexed in the following major databases: Web of Science Core Collection: Emerging Sources Citation Index, PubMed Central, DOAJ, Google Scholar, and Scopus. ## Patient and public partnership Taking the lead from *The BMJ’s* innovative patient partnership strategy, *BMJ Open Ophthalmology* encourages authors to partake in similar schemes. As such, authors submitting research papers are required to include a ‘Patient and Public Involvement Statement’ within the methods section of their paper, describing how they involved patients and the public in their research. *BMJ Open Ophthalmology* believes that partnering with patients, their carers, support networks and the public is an ethical imperative and essential to improving the quality, safety, value and sustainability of health systems and research. ## Data sharing Sharing the full datasets underlying the results in your article brings many benefits. It enables reuse, reduces research waste and promotes collaboration. Greater transparency increases trust in research results by allowing results to be independently verified. These benefits lead to a more reliable evidence base and a healthier world. In line with *The BMJ*, *BMJ Open Ophthalmology* encourages authors to make available as much of the underlying data from their articles as possible (without compromising participant privacy), but the least that is required is the minimum data required to reproduce the results presented in the associated article. *BMJ Open Ophthalmology* considers any files generated by authors’ research as constituting relevant data. This may be raw or processed data. Examples include (but are not limited to) individual-level de-identified patient data, survey results, interview transcripts, statistical codes, images, videos, spreadsheets, audio files, text files and imaging and scan files. ## Editorial board The editorial board has grown to include Associate Editors from USA, Japan, the UK and India, with expert representation from all areas of ophthalmology, basic and clinical sciences, and vision science as listed below. On behalf of the editorial team of *BMJ Open Ophthalmology*, we wish to thank you for your support of the journal since its launch, and we hope you will join us for the next phase of the journal’s development, whether as a reader, author or reviewer. **Editor-in-Chief** **Professor Stephen B. Kaye, FRCS, FRCOphth, MD** University of Liverpool Liverpool, UK orcid.org/0000-0003-0390-0592 Editorial office: info.bmjophth@bmj.com **Associate Editors** **Dr Gabriela Czanner, PhD** University of Liverpool Liverpool, UK orcid.org/0000-0002-1157-2093 **Area of expertise:** Biostatistics **Dr Bernhard Steger, MD** Medical University Innsbruck Innsbruck, Austria orcid.org/0000-0002-5316-4661 **Area of expertise:** Cataract and refractive surgery **Dr Vito Romano, MD** Royal Liverpool University Hospital Liverpool, UK orcid.org/0000-0002-5148-7643 **Area of expertise:** Cataract and refractive surgery Dr Sajjad Ahmad **PhD, FRCOphth** Moorfields Eye Hospital London, UK orcid.org – not available **Area of expertise:** Cornea and ocular surface Professor Stephanie Watson **PhD, FRANZCO** Sydney Eye Hospital Sydney, Australia orcid.org/0000-0001-6699-1765 **Area of expertise:** Cornea and ocular surface **Professor Darlene A. Dartt, PhD** Harvard Medical School Boston, MA, USA orcid.org/0000-0002-0576-6932 **Area of expertise:** Cornea and ocular surface (basic science) **Dr Louise F. Porter, PhD, MSc, MBChB, PhD** University of Liverpool Liverpool, UK orcid.org/0000-0002-7406-0319 **Area of expertise:** Genetics Dr Ryo Asaoka, MD, PhD The University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan orcid.org/0000-0001-7182-1912 **Area of expertise:** Glaucoma **Dr Shunsuke Nakakura, MD, PhD** Saneikai Tsukazaki Hospital Himeji, Japan orcid.org/0000-0002-1094-1862 **Area of expertise:** Glaucoma **Dr Kazunori Hirasawa, MD** Kitasato University Tokyo, Japan orcid.org/0000-0001-5100-005X **Area of expertise:** Glaucoma **Dr David Yorston, MBChB, FRCOphth, FRCOphth** NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Glasgow, UK orcid.org/0000-0001-7259-5320 **Area of expertise:** Global ophthalmology and retina **Ms Savitha Madhusudhan, MBBS, DO, FRCOphth** Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital Liverpool, UK orcid.org/0000-0002-8203-0929 **Area of expertise:** Medical retina **Dr Kevin Hamill, PhD** University of Liverpool Liverpool, UK orcid.org/0000-0002-7852-1944 **Area of expertise:** Molecular ophthalmology **Professor Anat Galor, MD, MSPH, MD, MSPH** University of Miami Miami, FL, USA orcid.org/0000-0002-3026-6155 **Area of expertise:** Ocular surface **Dr Saaeha Rauz, PhD, FRCOphth** University of Birmingham Birmingham, UK orcid.org/0000-0003-4627-3496 **Area of expertise:** Ocular surface and translational research **Dr Yalin Zheng, PhD** University of Liverpool Liverpool, UK orcid.org/0000-0002-7873-0922 **Area of expertise:** Ocular imaging **Professor Bhupendra Patel, LRCP, MRCS, MBChB, DORCS, FRCS, FRCOphth** University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT, USA orcid.org/0000-0002-7873-0922 **Area of expertise:** Oculoplastics and orbit **Dr Ramesh Kekunnaya, MD** L V Prasad Eye Institute Hyderabad, India orcid.org/0000-0003-4673-8927 **Area of expertise:** Paediatric ophthalmology and strabismus **Professor David A. Eichenbaum, MD** Retina Vitreous Associates of Florida Tampa, FL, USA orcid.org/0000-0003-0654-0668 **Area of expertise:** Retina **Dr Michael Williams, MD, MRCOphth, MMedEd** Queens University Belfast Belfast, UK orcid.org/0000-0002-5051-5921 **Area of expertise:** Retina **Dr Sidney Schechet, MD** University of Chicago Medicine Chicago, US orcid.org/0000-0001-8996-3855 **Area of expertise:** Retina **Professor Baljean Dhillon, FRCS, FRCPS, FRCOphth** University of Edinburgh Edinburgh, UK orcid.org – not available **Area of expertise:** Retina and neurology **Professor Conor Murphy, MBBChBAO, MMedSc, FRCSI, FRCOphth, PhD** Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Dublin, Ireland orcid.org/0000-0003-2171-0418 **Area of expertise:** Uveitis and ocular inflammatory disease **Professor James Wolffsohn, BSc, PgCertHE, MBA, PhD, PFHEA, FRSB, FCOptom, FAAO** Aston University Birmingham, UK orcid.org/0000-0003-4673-8927 **Area of expertise:** Visual science Social Media Editor **Dr Mariya Moosajee, MBBS, PhD, FRCOphth** University College London London, UK orcid.org/0000-0003-1688-5360 **Area of expertise:** Genetics Twitter: @BMJ_Ophth ## Footnotes * Contributors Authors own work. * Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. * Competing interests None declared. * Patient consent for publication Not required. * Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed. 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