Correspondence Address:
Gullapalli N Rao
L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Road No. 2, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad-500 034
India

Full Text

Medical science is progressing at a breathtaking pace, with laboratory results being translated to clinical care almost instantly. Effective dissemination of all this information to health-care professionals is key to the successful practice of new techniques of potentially great benefit. This also applies to all aspects of eye care. International ophthalmology journals publish a lot of new information but are beyond the reach of many of us in the developing world, necessitating the publication of national or regional journals.

The decision to publish a journal carries with it a significant responsibility. The All India Ophthalmological Society has to be congratulated for undertaking this onerous task to serve the interests of its members.

The requirements of Indian Ophthalmologists are fundamentally different from those of our colleagues in the developed countries. This is primarily because of the tremendous disparity in the standards of ophthalmologic care in India, which ranges from state-of-the-art to very basic. Issues related to all these methods of eye-care delivery require discussion, with the information made available to all Indian Ophthalmologists. Over the past nearly six years, this has been the attempt of the editorial board, culminating in the current structure of IJO.

The success of any journal is dependent on a multiplicity of factors: the quality of the content, fair review system, able editorial board, dedicated editorial staff, appropriate infrastructural support, and financial viability. On all these counts, I have been fortunate. Contributions from outstanding academicians substantially enhanced the quality of the journal, thorough and critical reviews made the selection of articles easier, and the outstanding talent of the editorial board set the tone for the journal. The editorial staff performed a superb job under a variety of financial constraints and often unreasonable demands. The support from L.V. Prasad Eye Institute has been pivotal. Science writers, bio-statisticians, members of the information technology group and administrative staff have provided their unreserved and unstinting support. All this effort obviously needed funds. Our friends from the ophthalmic industry have been exceedingly generous and this gesture made IJO the ophthalmic journal with the highest number of advertisement pages in the world. To every one of these groups, I am eternally indebted.

The rigorous component of the Editor's job was handled mostly by Taraprasad Das during the first three years and during the second term Lalit Dandona has become a new asset. T.P. Das combined his editorial talent with his willingness to improve as demonstrated by his attendance at courses on journal editing. Lalit Dandona with his expertise in research, epidemiology and public health has made the journal what it is today. Their editorial talents, which surpass my own, have been the journal's major strength. I have been singularly fortunate to benefit from their association and I place on record my most sincere appreciation to them.

Much progress has been made with the journal. Some say that we can match the best in the world. I beg to disagree with them since much needs to be done to reach that stage. If we carefully analyse the journal, most of the original articles have been contributed by a handful of institutions. This must change. We need to receive manuscripts from a wider variety of institutions and authors. The membership of the All India Ophthalmological Society has to make sure that the standards of the journal continue to improve, since this is their responsibility. The journal needs able leadership to achieve a place among the top ophthalmic reference journals in the world. This person must have vision, ability, scholarship, international exposure, reputation in the concerned speciality, and the support of a substantial infrastructure.

It has been a great privilege to have access to the new ideas of academicians in Indian ophthalmology and for this opportunity, I convey my sincere gratitude to all the members of All India Ophthalmological Society. These six years have been wonderful indeed.