Abstract
This table is the web’s most complete list of open-access ophthalmology, optometry, and vision science journals. Journals are categorized by language, impact factor,whether they are Medline-indexed, available in PubMedCentral, require author processing fees, and other facts. NEWS AND UPDATES AT BOTTOM OF PAGE.
Christopher T. Leffler, MD, MPH. Scientists want their findings to be widely known through publication. The conventional wisdom in academia is that one wants to publish in the journal with the highest impact factor, which is based on the number of citations the average article in the journal receives. Traditionally, the journals with the highest impact factor were likely to have the highest distribution and the widest availability. Today, the internet has turned this situation on its head, because anyone can publish anything to a worldwide audience instantaneously. The open access internet is the platform with the widest availability. As of this writing, in March 2011, there are estimated to be 6.9 billion people on our planet, and 2.0 billion are estimated to have internet access. This number is exploding with the introduction of smartphones. No academic journal has adistribution close to this. But in order to help people findyour work amid all the clutter of the internet, it helps to have it in an academic journal pointed to by Medline, and it still doesn’t hurt if the journal has a high impact factor. The ideal journal would be Medline-indexed, archived in PubmedCentral, with no author processing fees, available immediately, in full-text html (as opposed to just pdf format), with a high impact factor. Here are some open-access journals of interest in ophthalmology, optometry, and vision science. The table lists English-language journals free for the author, followed by those for which the author pays, and then journals not permitting English articles. Within each section, the highest-impact journals are listed first, followed by Pubmedcentral journals, followed by Medline-indexed journals, and then non-Medline-indexed journals.
| Journal Title. | Medline-indexed? | In Pubmed Central? | Free for author? | Notes: |
| ****FREE FOR AUTHOR*** | ||||
| Archives of Ophthalmology | Yes | No | Yes | 1 year delay before open access. Impact factor 3.86 in 2009. |
| Acta Ophthalmologica | Yes | No | Yes. Can pay to unlock immediately. | 1 year delay before open access. Impact factor 2.44. |
| Molecular Vision | Yes | Yes | Yes | ARVO. Impact factor 2.33 in 2008. |
| Eye (London) | Yes | Yes | Yes | 1-2 year delay before open access.Impact factor 1.97. |
| Optometry and Vision Science | Yes | No | Yes | 1 year delay for open access. Impact factor 1.64. |
| Journal of Neuro-Ophthalmology | Yes | No | Yes | 1 year delay for open access. pdf format only. Impact factor 1.09. |
| Clinical and Experimental Optometry | Yes | No | Yes | 2 year delaybefore open access. Impact factor 1.03. |
| Indian Journal of Ophthalmology | Yes | Yes | Yes | Gives hit counts on website. Impact factor 0.99 (Projected). |
| International Journal of Ophthalmology | Yes | Yes | Yes | From China. Articles published in both English and Chinese. |
| Digital Journal of Ophthalmology | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Community Eye Health Journal | Yes | Yes | Yes | Educational articles on the developing world. Not peer-reviewed original research. |
| Middle East African Journal of Ophthalmology | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Oman Journal of Ophthalmology | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Journal of Ophthalmic and Vision Research | Yes | Yes | Yes | English. Iran. Peer-reviewed original research. |
| Bulletin of the Belgian Society of Ophthalmology | Yes | No | Yes? | English or French. pdf format. |
| Arquivos Brasileiros de Oftalmologia | Yes | No | Yes | English or Portuguese |
| Nepalese Journal of Ophthalmology | Yes | No | Yes | |
| Not In Medline: | ||||
| Journal of Optometry | No | No | Yes | English. Spain. |
| Internet Journal of Ophthalmology and Visual Science | No | No | Yes | U.S. Internet Scientific Publications. |
| Journal of Academic Ophthalmology | No | No | Yes | Does have peer-reviewed original research on resident training, policies, etc. |
| Journal of Behavioral Optometry | No | No | Yes | Peer-reviewed original research.Looks legitimate. |
| The South African Optometrist | No | No | Yes | Peer-reviewed original research. |
| Journal of Ophthalmic Photography | No | No | Yes | pdf downloads. Peer-reviewed original research. |
| Optometric Education | No | No | Yes | U.S. Assoc Schools and Colleges Optometry.Peer-reviewed original research. |
| Optometry and Vision Development | No | No | Yes | College of Optometrists and Vision Development.Peer-reviewed original research. Vision therapy and rehabilitation |
| Online Journals of Ophthalmology | No | No | Yes | English or German. Peer-reviewed original research. |
| Saudi Journal of Ophthalmology | No | No | Yes | English. Peer-reviewed original research. |
| Iranian Journal of Ophthalmology | No | No | Yes | English. Peer-reviewed original research. |
| GMS Ophthalmology Cases | No | No | Yes | Launched Sep 2011. Published by “German Medical Science”, the portal of the Assoc of Scientific Medical Societies. |
| Pakistan Journal of Ophthalmology | No | No | Yes | |
| NO PEER-REVIEWED ORIGINAL RESEARCH. | ||||
| Review of Ophthalmology | No | No | Yes | news/reviews |
| Ophthalmology Times | No | No | Yes | news/reviews. |
| Eye World | No | No | Yes | news/reviews. Am Soc Cat Refract Surg. |
| Ocular Surgery News | No | No | Yes | news/reviews. |
| Cataract and Refractive Surgery Today | No | No | Yes | news/reviews. |
| Refractive Eyecare | No | No | Yes | news/reviews. |
| Ophthalmology Management | No | No | Yes | news/reviews. |
| Review of Optometry | No | No | Yes | news/reviews. |
| Optometric Management | No | No | Yes | news/reviews. |
| Contact Lens Spectrum | No | No | Yes | news/reviews |
| Optometry Today | No | No | Yes | news/reviews |
| Primary Care Optometry News | No | No | Yes | news/reviews. |
| Eyecare Business | No | No | Yes | news/reviews |
| Baltic Eye | No | No | Yes | Mostly news/reviews. Some research. |
| ***AUTHOR PAYS*** | ||||
| PLoS One | Yes | Yes | No | Impact factor 4.35! |
| Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science | Yes | No | No | 1 year delay before open access. Impact factor 3.466 in 2010. |
| Journal of Vision | Yes | No | No, $85/page | U.S., ARVO. Impact factor 3.02. |
| British Journal of Ophthalmology | Yes | Yes | No. $2200 to make article open access. | Impact Factor 2.92. |
| Graefe’s Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology | Yes | No. | No. Must pay to unlock. | Impact Factor 2.10. Springer. |
| Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics | Yes. | No. | No. Hybrid Journal: Open access costs $3000 for first article, $2000 for subsequent. | Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Journal ofthe Association of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Impact Factor 1.609 in 2010. |
| BMC Ophthalmology | Yes | Yes | No | Author gets hit counts. Impact factor 1.38 in 2011. |
| Ophthalmologica | Yes | No | No. Hybrid Journal: Open access costs $3000 for first article, $2000 for subsequent. | Published by Karger. Impact factor 1.303. |
| Ophthalmic Research | Yes | No | No. Hybrid Journal: Open access costs “CHF 3,000 (Swiss Francs)”=about $2600 USD today. | Published by Karger. Impact factor 1.29. |
| Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics | Yes. | No. | No. Hybrid Journal. Costs $3000 for open access. | Impact factor 1.259 in 2010. |
| Journal of Ophthalmic Inflammation and Infection | Yes. | Yes. | No. $1600. | |
| Journal of Ocular Biology Diseases and Informatics | Yes | Yes | Presumably unlocking article carries an author fee. Website unclear. | |
| Case Reports in Ophthalmology | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Clinical Ophthalmology (Auckland, NZ) | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Journal of Ophthalmology | Yes | Yes | No | U.S., Hindawi Publishing. |
| Korean Journal of Ophthalmology | Yes | Yes | No? Unclear to me from their website. | |
| Open Ophthalmology Journal | Yes | Yes | No | U.S., Bentham. |
| Seminars in Ophthalmology | Yes | No | No. Must pay to unlock. Web site doesn’t list price. | InformaHealthcare is publisher. |
| Strabismus | Yes | No. | No. Must pay to unlock. Web site doesn’t list price. | InformaHealthcare is publisher. |
| Visual Neuroscience | Yes | No | No. Hybrid journal–costs $2700 for open access. They do allow you to post on your own website for free. | Cambridge University press is publisher. |
| International Ophthalmology | Yes | No | No. Must pay to unlock. | Springer. |
| Not In Medline: | ||||
| Internet Journal of Ophthalmology and Visual Science | No | No | No. $225 charge to author if accepted. Lower than most other journals. | |
| World Journal of Ophthalmology | No. | No. | No. $600 US. | Chinese publisher, but international editorial board. |
| Digital Journal of Ophthalmology | No | No | ?? | |
| Clinical Optometry | No | No | No | Dovepress |
| Eye and Brain | No | No | No | Dovepress |
| Journal of Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology | No | No | No | U.S. Omics Publishing Group. |
| Ophthalmology and Eye Diseases | No | No | No | New Zealand, Libertas Academia |
| Eye Reports | No | No | No | Brand new, as of March 14, 2011. |
| ISRN Ophthalmology | No | No | No, $500 per article. | Hindawi publishing. |
| Case Reports in Ophthalmological Medicine | No | No | No, $300 per case report. | Hindawi publishing. |
| ***SPANISH JOURNALS:**** | ||||
| Archivos de la Sociedad Espanola de Oftalmologia | Yes | No | Yes | Spanish-only. |
| Revista Mexicana de Oftalmologia | No | No | Yes | Spanish-only. |
| Revista Cubana de Oftalmologia | No | No | Yes | Spanish-only. |
| Annals de Oftalmologia | No | No | Yes | Spanish-only. |
| Archivos de la Sociedad Canaria de Oftalmologia | No | No | Yes | Spanish-only. |
| Boletin de la Sociedad Oftalmologica de Madrid | No | No | Yes | Spanish-only. |
| Oftalmologia Clinica y Experimental | No | No | Yes. | Spanish-only. From Argentina. |
| Gaceta de Optometria | No | No | Yes | Spanish-only. |
| Oftalmologica Santa Lucia | No | No | Yes | Spanish-only. |
| ***FRENCH JOURNALS:**** | Also see: Bulletin Societe Belge Ophthalmologia in English/bilingual section. | |||
| Journal Francais d’Ophtalmologie | Yes | No | Yes | French-only. 2 year delay before open access. |
| ***PORTUGUESE JOURNALS:*** | Also see: Arquivos Brasileiros de Oftalmologiain English/bilingual section. | |||
| Revista Brasileira de Oftalmologia | No | No | No | Portuguese-only. |
| ***GERMAN JOURNALS:*** | Also see: Online Journals of Ophthalmologyin English/bilingual section. | |||
| Euro Focus Net-News | No | No | Yes | German-only. News/Reviews. No peer-reviewed original research. |
| ***OTHER LANGUAGES:*** | ||||
| Turkish Journal ofOphthalmology | No | No | Yes | Turkish-only. Peer-reviewed original research. |
| Bina Journal of Ophthalmology | No | No | Yes | Farsi only. Iran. pdf only. |
Some journals, such as BMC Ophthalmology, permit institutional memberships. So if your university has a membership, submission would be discounted. If your vision-related paper overlaps with another field, you may also consider publishing in that field, as well (e.g. a paper on diabetic retinopathy might be publishable in a diabetes journal or a public health journal). You can find these journals by looking at the website “Directory of Open Access Journals,” pubmedcentral, or, if you’ve really got time on your hands, searching through all the journal titles in pubmed.org. Good luck! Notes/News: May 6, 2011. The Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology used to be open access pdf, with free author submission. However, it now looks like they are going to non-open access for full-text downloads outside of Canada in Sep 2011. So I have removed them from the above list. If you have any information on this, put it in the comment box below. July 3, 2011. ISRN Ophthalmololgy (see link in table above) is newly launching from Hindawi publishing. As a new journal, they are not charging author submission fees. I assume this will eventually change. July 11, 2011. I added the Journal of Ophthalmic Inflammation and Infection, which has been publishing since 2010. July 20, 2011. Journal of Ophthalmology running special issue on “Challenging cataracts, including pediatric cataracts” with deadline for article submission of Aug 15, 2011. September, 19, 2011.The Open Journal of Ophthalmology islooking for Editorial Board members to serve initial one-year terms (three-years for editor-in-chief).Send your questions or application (including yourresearch areasandresume) to ojoph@scirp.org. October 20, 2011. GMS Ophthalmology Cases is a new journal. See the table above. October 31, 2011. Case Reports in OphthalmologicalMedicine is a new journal. See the table above. November 21, 2011. The special issue “Chronic Migraine,”will be published in Headache Research and Treatment in July 2012. Deadline for submission: January 13th, 2012.December 5, 2011. The Journal of Ophthalmology is doing aspecial issue on eye trauma. (Disclosure: I am the lead Guest Editor.) The deadline for submission is March 16, 2012, with papers to be published in August of 2012. We are looking for papers addressing advances as well as clinical controversies. In addition to the topics listed in the call for papers (nonaccidental trauma in children (How do we really know if these hemorrhages are nonaccidental?), hyphema in sickle cell (Are the current guidelines based on solid evidence?), OCT in trauma, intravitreal antibiotics with posterior segment foreign bodies, when to give up on NLP eyes, what steps are truly needed and proven to reduce the risk of sympathetic ophthalmia, etc.) we are also interested in orbital fractures (Will strabismus usually get better without orbital surgery, or should fractures be repaired promptly?), chemical eye injury, traumatic optic neuropathy, and other eye trauma subjects.December 16, 2011. W. Daniel Stamer will be taking on the role of J Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics in Jan 2012. April 11, 2012. The Journal of Ophthalmic and Vision Research is now in Medline and in Pubmedcentral.Eye (London) is now in Pubmedcentral.Pakistan Journal of Ophthalmology added to table.ISRN Ophthalmology and Case Reports in Ophthalmological Medicine are now charging for publication. September 1, 2012. International Journal of Ophthalmology is a journal from China, published in both Chinese and English, which is in Medline and Pubmedcentral. Also added the Internet Journal of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, which charges $225–less than most journals. April 5, 2013: Digital Journal of Ophthalmology now in pubmedcentral. Does not have publication charges. [The above table may have mistakes. If you spot any mistakes,put a comment below or email me. Christopher Leffler.]
