Title: Indian Journal of Ophthalmology - New beginning, new aspirations, new trajectory
Abstract: I am grateful to the 19,000 strong All India Ophthalmological Society members for overwhelmingly reposing their faith in me as the new editor of Indian Journal of Ophthalmology (IJO). Thank you for the privilege of representing you. I promise to work with enthusiasm and dedication and do what it takes to make you all proud of IJO and the science that it represents. Every new beginning thrives on a solid foundation. The threshold of transition is the right juncture to treasure the past. Indian ophthalmology has had a robust growth in the past few decades, step-in-step with the rest of the world. Pivotal to this growth has been the simultaneous development of IJO under the leadership of very capable editors with a distinct vision for the future – Prof. SN Cooper, Prof. SRK Malik, Prof. Madan Mohan, Dr. Tony Fernandez, Dr. Ittyerah TP, Dr. Gullapalli N Rao, Dr. Taraprasad Das, Dr. Barun Kumar Nayak, and Dr. S Natarajan, each a legend. Their collective wisdom, energy, and enthusiasm have made IJO what it is today. As a young faculty at L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, I have watched with awe and admiration and have been duly inspired by the transformational leadership that Dr. Rao provided to nurture IJO in the 1990s. It is humbling and somewhat intimidating to try and step into the big shoes of these academic giants and fit into the 65-year legacy of IJO. A new beginning heralds hope and renewed enthusiasm. As the new editor, my primary responsibility would be to proactively lead from the front and augment the quality of scientific contents of the journal. There will be evident changes such as categorization of the manuscripts in line with the contemporary peer-reviewed publication standards, initiation of standard checklists for the authors and the reviewers, seamless submission process, intense training of the new editorial team to enable objective scientific peer review, expedited review process aimed at a primary decision within 6 weeks, and a well-oiled production pipeline to ensure that the research comes out in print while it is still hot. Authors wishing to report extremely important and potentially practice-changing cutting edge original research can specifically seek an expedited publication - the journal will ensure rapid peer review, and if accepted, publication within 3 months. The new cover page of IJO is only a harbinger of many more well-contemplated, robust, and relevant changes to come in the next few months. As an author, you will experience the ease of submission, responsive editorial communications, objective and time-bound decisions, and constructive suggestions to improve the manuscript. We realize it is important to lucidly blend cutting edge science with regional relevance and clinical context so that the new ideas are read with interest, assimilated, and implemented. As a reader, you will begin seeing the fruits of some of these changes soon – current, credible, and informative review articles by the leaders in the field, evidence-based and experience-tempered guest editorials, knowledge-packed annual subspecialty updates, thematic special issues, interesting and clinically relevant original research with practical implications that you can straightaway apply to your own practice, and case reports and photo essays that you can easily relate to. The strength of an editor comes from the editorial team. The editorial board has been structured to maximize the focus on talent and action and includes the best of the bright and restless minds and opinion-leaders from all over the world - a wonderful medley of exuberant energy of the youth and unbeatable power of experience. Together, we aim to make IJO interesting and relevant, dynamic and responsive, informative and practice changing - a journal that truly represents solid science and the throbbing changes in academic ophthalmology. IJO is your journal, your voice. We necessarily need your active involvement. We invite you to look up to IJO as a source of cutting-edge knowledge in ophthalmology. We strongly encourage the already consummate and flourishing academicians among you as much as the enthusiastic young ophthalmologists to seriously consider IJO to publish their work. Manuscript review is often a thankless background job, but it is the most crucial lifeline for a peer-reviewed scientific journal. We hope you will volunteer your time and energy and join IJO for peer review. A young reviewer will learn the nuances of publishing. Finally, we expect you to communicate and let us know what you like, what you don’t, and why. Your brickbats and bouquets will keep us grounded and on our toes. Let us welcome a new beginning with an open heart and embrace the change with an open mind. Let us look forward with immense hope and enthusiasm to the bright future of our journal and that of Indian ophthalmology.