Latest news

Read an interview with author Dr Cheng-Chiang Chang

The Editor in Chief has issued a new call for papers.  Read it here. 

Journal newsletter sent to subscribers in week 31, 2009. Register to receive future newsletters. 

Journal newsletter sent to subscribers in week 26, 2009. Register to receive future newsletters. 

Peer reviewers are sought. Click here to apply or to update your details.     

Read an interview with the Editor in Chief, and the announcement of the launch of the journal.  

Check the Publisher's Blog for recent news

Journal overview

Aims and scope:

Ophthalmology and Eye Diseases is an open access, peer reviewed journal covering all aspects of ophthalmology and vision science, especially the prevention, diagnosis and management of disorders of the eye. Related pathophysiology, genetics and epidemiology are also included.

Indexed by:

• CAS
  
• Directory of Open Access Journals
  
• OAIster
  

Editorial standards and procedures:

Submissions, excluding editorials, letters to the editor and dedications, will be peer reviewed by two reviewers.  Reviewers are required to provide fair, balanced and constructive reports.  

Under our Fairness in Peer Review Policy authors may appeal against reviewers' recommendations which are ill-founded, unobjective or unfair.  Appeals are considered by the Editor in Chief or Associate Editor.

Papers are not sent to peer reviewers following submission of a revised manuscript. Editorial decisions on re-submitted papers are based on the author's response to the initial peer review report.

National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy compliant:

As of April 7 2008, the US NIH Public Access Policy requires that all peer reviewed articles resulting from research carried out with NIH funding be deposited in the Pubmed Central archive.

If you are an NIH employee or grantee Libertas Academica will ensure that you comply with the policy by depositing your paper at Pubmed Central on your behalf. 

Information for authors

Call for papers:

Read the Editor in Chief's latest call for papers here.

Submission types accepted:

Submissions of the following types of manuscripts are accepted:

• Original research articles.
• Reviews: comprehensive, authoritative, descriptions of any subject within the journal's scope. They may cover basic science and clinical reviews, ethics, pro/con debates, and equipment reviews.
• Commentaries: focused and opinionated articles on any subject within the journal's scope. These articles are usually related to a contemporary issue.
• Hypotheses: articles that present an original hypothesis backed solely by previously published results rather than any new evidence. They should outline significant progress in thinking that would also be testable.
• Letters to the Editor: these can be either a re-analysis of a previously published article, or a response to such a re-analysis from the authors of the original publication.
• Methodology articles: these discuss a new experimental method, test or procedure. The article must describe a demonstrable advance on what is currently available. The method needs to have been well tested and ideally, but not necessarily, used in a way that proves its value.
• Short reports: brief reports of data from original research.
• Meeting reports: a report pertaining to activity at a meeting or conference Articles published in this journal are immediately available without delay upon publication and enjoy substantial visibility.
• Case reports: reports of clinical cases that can be educational, describe a diagnostic or therapeutic dilemma, suggest an association, or present an important adverse reaction. Case reports must meet appropriate ethical standards.

All submissions are subject to prompt, objective and fair peer review in compliance with our Fairness in Peer Review Policy.  Copyright in published articles remains with the author(s).  Authors are continually informed of the progress of their paper and our staff are friendly and responsive. 

One author recently wrote: "I would like to say that this is the most author-friendly editing process I have experienced in over 150 publications. Thank you most sincerely."

Criteria for publication: 

Publication is dependent on peer reviewers' judgement of papers.  Reviewers are asked to provide thoughtful and unbiased feedback to authors to ensure that the conclusions of papers are valid and manuscripts achieve reasonable standards of scholarliness and intelligibility. 

Previous work in the field must be acknowledged and papers should read without unreasonable difficulty.  Papers should fit comfortably within the scope of the journal.

Reviewers are asked to act in a fair, objective and constructive manner which maintains quality standards and helps authors to communicate their research.  They are instructed that in areas of genuinely novel research issues may be raised which cannot immediately be resolved and that absolutely rigorous validation of data may therefore not be possible. 

More information on the role of peer reviewers is available on the information for reviewers page.  Where authors consider that reviewers have made recommendations which are unreasonable, unobjective or ill-founded they may appeal them to the Editor in Chief or Associate Editor under our Fairness in Peer Review Policy.

Articles submitted to other journals:

We are willing to consider papers which have been peer reviewed by other journals but not accepted for publication. 

Services for authors:

Prior to peer review of your paper we can:

• Have your paper's reference style revised to meet our requirements,
• Have your paper's English revised by specialist English-speaking technical editors.

After peer review of your paper we can:

• Have your paper revised in accordance with peer reviewer's recommendations and have a summary of responses to the reviewers created by our specialist external substantive editors,
• Provide bound reprints of your article in colour or black and white ,
• Provide online-early rapid publication if your paper prior to typesetting.

What other authors have said:

Libertas Academica actively requests, receives and acts upon feedback from authors, readers and editorial boards.  Here's what some recent authors have said about us:

"Within a couple of days the reviewers had been procured and the manuscript was out."

"The communication between your staff and me has been terrific.  Whenever progress is made with the manuscript, I receive notice.  Quite honestly, I've never had such complete communication with a journal."

"LA is different, and hopefully represents a kind of scientific publication machinery that removes the hurdles from free flow of scientific thought."

Article processing fees:

All submissions to this journal are subject to an article processing fee if they are accepted for publication.  Article processing fees are used to fund the processing of your paper and development of the journal.  Article processing fees are the only compulsory charge you will face and do not vary according to word count, page count, colour figures or any other factor.  There is no additional charge for the author(s) to make any use of their article and no charge to readers to access it.

Full fee waivers are available for authors working in undeveloped nations and partial discounts of 20-50% are available to authors in other nations.  Authors must be able to verifiably demonstrate their suitability for a discount or waiver.  Availability of waivers and discounts is subject to monthly availability and is given at the publisher's discretion.  Waivers and discounts must be applied for prior to submission.  Neither are available after submission.

Register as a peer reviewer:

Do you wish to register as a peer reviewer?  Or are you already a registered peer reviewer but you need to update your contact details?   To register or update your details visit the peer reviewer registration form. 

Applicants must be able to demonstrate at least five years of continuous experience in the journal's subject area including at least two in the previous 24 months.

Editor in Chief profile

Dr Joshua Cameron is currently working in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and is a Research Fellow in the Molecular Bases of Eye Diseases at the Schepens Eye Research Institute, Boston MA.  He is also a Sr. Lecturer at Northeastern University, Boston, MA and also teaches the Responsible Conduct for Research Course to post-doctoral fellows at Harvard University. Dr. Cameron has also taught courses in Medical Fundamentals and Neurobiology of Behavior at Eagle Gate College in Salt Lake City, UT and Harvard University. He received his PhD from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT where he studied the function and disease association of the macular degeneration genes ELOVl4 and HTRA1.

Dr Cameron’s current research looks to better understand the involvement of retinoic acid in eye and retina development and function. Retinoic acid and other vitamin A derivatives are essential for normal retinal development and function. Retinoic acid is a potent modulator of presumably several gene targets. Gene expression profiling is being used to discover the gene targets of retinoic acid. Understanding the role of retinoic acid during eye development will provide insight into the mechanisms involved in both retinal development and disease.

Editorial Board

Rain G Bosworth, PhD
Project Scientist, Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

Chih-Chao Chan, PhD
Chief, Section of Immunopathology, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

Robert E Cone, PhD
Professor, Immunology, University of Connecticut Health Centre, Farmingtom, CT, USA

Nigel G F Cooper, PhD
Professor, Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA

Richard D Dix, PhD
Professor, Department of Biology, and Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

Farida Emran, PhD
Post Doctoral Fellow, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

Peter Gouras, PhD
Professor of Opthalmology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

Robert L Hendricks, PhD
Professor, Opthalmology, Immunology and Molecular Microbiology and Genetics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Stephen C Kaufmann, MD, PhD
Professor and Lyon Endowed Chair of Opthalmology, Director of Cornea and Refractive Surgery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

Ira Kurtz, PhD
Professor of Medicine, Chief, Division of Nephrology, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Stuart A Lipton, MD, PhD
Professor, Director and Senior Vice President, Burnham Centre for Neuroscience, Aging and Stem Cell Research, Burnham Institute, The Salk Institute, The Scripps Research Institute and University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

Ashim K Mitra, PhD
UM Curator's Professor of Pharmacy, VP for Interdisciplinary Research, School of Pharmacy, University of Missouri, Kansas City, MO, USA

Ann C Morris, PhD
Post Doctoral Associate, Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

David L Nelson, PhD
Professor, Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

Noorjahan Panjwani, PhD
Professor and Director of Opthalmic Research, Opthalmology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

Mansoor Sarfarazi, PhD
Professor of Human Molecular Genetics, Head of Molecular Opthalmic Genetics, University of Connecticut Health Centre, Farmington, CT, USA

Ronald H Silverman, PhD
Professor, Opthalmology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA

Sylvia B Smith, PhD
Professor of Cellular Biology and Anatomy, Opthalmology and Graduate Studies, Co-Director of Vision Discovery Institute, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA, USA

Zong Zhong Tong, PhD
Post Doctoral Fellow, Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Cornelia M Weyand, MD
Professor of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

Terri L Young, PhD
Professor of Opthalmology and Pediatrics, Duke University Medical Centre, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

Join an editorial board or update your details:

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