Singing the Blues

For this feature I decided not to follow the brief exactly. This year, we should not just be recognizing and celebrating a single article in a single year; rather, we should be celebrating the amazing increase in quality eye research over time and the exceptional response that has supported it. And we should be celebrating the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the Blue Journal of Ophthalmology for launching Ophthalmology Retina and Ophthalmology Glaucoma, which provide new opportunities for eye researchers to share their work under the imprimatur of ophthalmology.

The American Academy of Ophthalmology and its predecessors have published the original Blue Journal of Ophthalmology and its predecessors for a long time. In 2018, it published volume 125 – the first issue of the Blue Journal of Ophthalmology was published in the 1890s. In the subsequent 125 years, the journal became one of the premier options for publishing top-quality eye research; for instance, most of the landmark publications from the ETDRS study were published in Ophthalmology (1).

It sounds like the Blue Journal of Ophthalmology is on a multigenerational roll. In that case, why would it need to change? The volume of eye research is exploding. That research needs a quality venue and a quality audience to make an impact. Ophthalmology Retina and Ophthalmology Glaucoma provide both that venue and that audience. The venue of Ophthalmology is known for very high-quality peer review and publishing important research papers with a high citation rate.

Ophthalmology Retina was launched in January 2017 and published an issue every other month the first year and every month in 2018, its second year. Ophthalmology Glaucoma was launched in 2018 and published an issue every other month for the first year. These two new ophthalmic journals provide high-quality venues for publishing ophthalmic research, concentrating it into an easily accessible format. That, in my opinion, is worth celebrating.