JCRS 2008: Building on the past, looking to the future

Abstract

The past year has brought change and growth for the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery. As we are reminded by the header of every cover of the journal, JCRS is a joint effort of trans-Atlantic partners—the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS) and the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS), 2 organizations comprised of thousands dedicated to advancement of the field of anterior segment surgery. The journal's impact is not limited to these 2 continents, however, and by many measures has never been greater. Requests for full-text JCRS articles on ScienceDirect (www.ScienceDirect.com) increased from 192 445 to 261 231 last year—an increase of 36%. For 2006, the most recent year for which complete figures are available, the journal achieved an impact factor of 2.285 from the Institute for Scientific Information (Journal Citation Reports, Thomson Scientific), an all-time high for JCRS. The impact rank of JCRS increased from 13 to 11 of 45 ophthalmology journals and from 32 to 22 of 138 surgery journals spanning all surgical specialties. This trend is being fueled by significant increases in the number of submissions and in the quality of accepted manuscripts. In 2007, we received 1332 submissions, up 19% from the year prior, and we are currently able to accept fewer than one-third of these for publication. We wish to thank all those who submit their work to the journal, as its success depends almost entirely upon their ingenuity, attention to detail, and sense of what is important in this rapidly evolving field. The most cited articles contributing to the new impact factor highlight the diversity of JCRS and its readership. Two of the 5 most cited manuscripts addressed the role of corneal biomechanics in anterior segment diagnostics.1,2 Another was an in vitro study of retinal pigment epithelium cell death rates with blue light–absorbing intraocular lenses.3 One paper analyzed cataract and refractive surgery practice patterns among ASCRS members,4 and another described the association between tamsulosin use and intraoperative floppy-iris syndrome.5 These offerings reflect the standing tradition at JCRS of providing readers with several forums for scientific and clinical dialogue, from technique descriptions, laboratory investigations, and consultation columns to surveys, reviews, and more. We hope that a continued commitment to this menu of choices will help JCRS engage our readers, who have a variety of interests and needs spanning the science and practice of cataract and refractive surgery. In support of this same goal, we continue to organize JCRS-sponsored symposia: At ESCRS 2007, a well-attended symposium featured “Controversies in Cataract and Refractive Surgery,” and at ASCRS in 2008, the topic will be “High-Risk Scenarios in Cataract and Refractive Surgery.” The face of JCRS continues to change, and 2007 was no exception. Not only was the readability enhanced and photographs of first authors included, but the editorial cast morphed and expanded. To enhance the scope and quality of our special sections, we are fortunate to have added Oliver Findl, MD, as a Review/Update section editor and Rupert Menapace, MD, as a fourth Consultation Section editor. While we lamented the graduation of Doug Koch, MD, to editor emeritus status and honored his 18 years of editorial service at the spring editorial board meeting (with bow ties on every neck), we were also pleased to welcome Nick Mamalis, MD, as the new editor and B.J. Dupps, MD, PhD, as an associate editor. In view of the increasing number of submissions and more rigorous criteria for publication, we wish to thank our editorial board and increasingly busy peer reviewers, upon whom we depend completely in our efforts to publish a high-quality journal. We thank you, the reader, for your support and feedback, and our dedicated editorial staff across 2 continents—Christine Ford, Wendy Pacheco, Lou Dragon, Louise Brennan, and Alexandra Brinkmann. Please accept our wishes for a happy and prosperous 2008, and thank you for your support of JCRS.