Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology at 50

Abstract

This year we celebrate the publication of the 50th volume of Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology (CEO), the official journal of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (RANZCO). The roots of the journal lie in the Transactions of the Ophthalmological Society of Australia, which was published annually from 1939 to 1971 to record the proceedings from the annual meeting of the Ophthalmological Society of Australia. With the formation of the Australian College of Ophthalmologists in 1969, a standardised training programme was developed for Australian ophthalmologists. It was then decided that the annual meeting proceedings would be suspended, and a full journal would be launched to stimulate reporting of clinical and academic activities, and to support clinical education. Thus, in 1973, the first of three annual issues of the Australian Journal of Ophthalmology (AJO) was published. Today, with an estimated 30 000 or more academic journals currently in existence, the launch of another would hardly raise eyebrows. However, 50 years ago the founding members felt obliged to apologise for adding to the number of scientific publications: ‘While the proliferation of another medical journal is regretted, it is a necessary part of fulfilling some of the objectives of the College’.1 Each of the five decades since the launch has seen change and transformation as the journal has kept abreast with developments in academic publishing. Since the launch of what was to become CEO in 1973, there have been nine Editors-in-Chief, each of whom shaped the journal with their own vision and strategy. The 1980s was a period of early growth. In 1982, external reviewers were utilised for the first time, as the Editor-in-Chief recognised that the Editorial Board would struggle to provide expert opinions on the diverse yet increasingly specialised topics. In 1985, the AJO merged with the Transactions of the Ophthalmological Society of New Zealand to form the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Ophthalmology (ANZJO). This cemented the ties between the ophthalmic communities of both countries and was the precursor to the merging of the Australian and New Zealand ophthalmic societies a decade later. During the 1990s, the Editor-in-Chief discussed the merits of the emerging ISI ‘citation index’2 and worked to entice Australasian authors to publish their best research in ANZJO. In 1999 the journal expanded to six annual issues, and was also launched online on the World Wide Web, enabling readers from all over the world to access articles. The 2000s were a time of globalisation as the journal evolved from a regionally focussed publication into a highly respected international journal. In 2000, the journal name was changed to Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology to appeal to a larger and more international authorship and readership, and 6 years later the annual volume was expanded to the current nine issues. In 2009, the first Special Issue was published, featuring a selection of invited review papers on the theme of imaging in ophthalmology. During the 2010s, CEO became the first ophthalmology journal to launch an iPad app, and evolved into a top tier journal. After a decade of dedicated focus by the Editors-in-Chief on improving the quality of the published articles, the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) increased such that by 2019, CEO was ranked 11th in the field of ophthalmology in the world and the journal became one of the highest JIF-ranked medical journals in Australasia. In the past 2 years, CEO has become the first quartile-1 ophthalmology journal to appoint a woman Editor-in-Chief, and women's representation on the Editorial Board has increased to 50%. The first CEO Social Media Editor has recently been appointed, and the subsequent launch on Twitter has resulted in CEO papers achieving record Altmetric scores. Of course the ultimate success of a journal can be measured by the impact of the published papers on fellow researchers, practice or policy. Citations are considered the key indicator of impact, so as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of CEO, it seems timely to reflect on the articles that have generated the most citations over the years. Looking at the impactful articles from the last 50 years, seven papers stand out, having attracted more than 200 cites since publication. The oldest of these was published in 1998; a clinical science study presenting an 18-month follow-up of exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and intravitreal triamcinolone.3 The remaining six were all published in the current millennium. Two more clinical science papers feature in this list; one 2003 paper from the Blue Mountains Eye Study reporting on the prevalence and associations of dry eye syndrome in an older population,4 and another paper from 2001 looking at the safety and efficacy of intravitreal triamcinolone for cystoid macular oedema in uveitis.5 This latter paper is the second highest cited CEO article of the past 50 years, and has received 290 citations to date. The popularity and impact of review papers is evident, along with their ability to quickly accrue citations; four of the seven most cited papers are review articles, with three of them published in the last decade. A 2012 article focused on the epidemiology and pathophysiology of central serous chorioretinopathy,6 while a 2000 review that described the early pathology of retinal neurodegeneration in diabetes7 is the third highest cited CEO article on the list, with 282 citations to date. The remaining two papers were commissioned for editions of the journal Special Issues; the first Special Issue was published in 2009, and one has been published almost every year since. The 2012 Special Issue was based around the theme of glaucoma, and the highest cited paper from that issue aimed to define the clinical and experimental concepts of glaucoma.8 The most cited article published in 50 years of CEO is also the most recently published of all the top-cited 50 articles; a review of the global prevalence, major risk factors, screening practices and public health challenges of diabetic retinopathy9 was commissioned for the 2016 Special Issue on diabetic eye disease, and this has attracted 359 citations at the time of this article going to press. Every Editor-in-Chief knows how difficult it can be to predict which articles will have the most impact, particularly as it can take a number of years for an article to reach its peak annual citation frequency. Thus, it is interesting to look at the most cited of the recently published papers to find any clues as to new hot topics. Examining papers published during the last 2 years there are five research paper themes which are accruing good numbers of citations. Papers in the areas of glaucoma,10, 11 AMD,12, 13 cataract14, 15 and refractive surgery16 are already generating significant attention. Topical papers on COVID-1917-19 and climate change20 are also having impact, reflecting two of the most important issues facing society at this time. Examining the articles that are impacting on fellow researchers can highlight topical themes in the short term, and can measure research influence in the longer term. However, no study of the most impactful ophthalmic research published in Australasia would be complete without travelling back 80 years to Norman Gregg's seminal article, ‘Congenital cataract following German measles in the mother’,21 published in 1941 in Transactions of the Ophthalmological Society of Australia. Gregg noticed a relationship between congenital cataracts in babies born to mothers who reported rubella infection while pregnant. Despite a degree of scepticism from some peers, Gregg's theory became universally accepted, and ultimately altered the study of birth defects as researchers expanded the potential causes to include viruses. At the time of this article going to press, Gregg's paper has been cited 1289 times. As we celebrate 50 years of the RANZCO journal, we thank past and present Editors-in-Chief, Editorial Board members, authors and reviewers for their support and contributions over the years. Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology is now accessed by more than 7000 institutions globally, with more than 350 000 article downloads each year. We continue to embrace developments in academic publishing, and look forward to another 50 years of publishing impactful articles. Victoria Cartwright is the Managing Editor for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology.

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