Message from the editor

Aims and scope of documenta ophthalmologica: updated for 2023

Documenta Ophthalmologica, the official journal of the International Society for Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision (ISCEV), reflects the expertise and interests of the ISCEV membership. Since 1985 when we adopted Documenta Ophthalmologica as our official journal, the scope has been formally defined as content that “promotes the understanding and application of clinical electrophysiology of vision”. Clinical electrophysiology of vision is clearly the niche occupied by ISCEV; however, our underlying goal: to improve knowledge of the neurophysiology and pathophysiology of vision, is not restricted to the application of specific clinical electrophysiologic techniques (electroretinography, electro-oculography and visual evoked potentials). The Editorial Board of Documenta Ophthalmologica, in consultation with the Board of ISCEV, has re-defined the scope of the journal to reflect scientific aims rather than specific techniques.

The updated statement of the scope of Documenta Ophthalmologica posted on the journal homepage1 is as follows:

The aim of Documenta Ophthalmologica is to promote the understanding of the clinical physiology and pathophysiology of the retina and visual pathways. The scope of the journal encompasses the understanding and evaluation of visual function in the retina and/or central nervous system in humans and animals in health and in disease. Documenta Ophthalmologica will publish reviews, original research articles, technical notes, brief reports, and case studies that focus on clinical and preclinical evaluations of vision.

Our previous interpretation of the scope of the journal limited publications to those that reported a clinical electrodiagnostic test. With the revised scope, submissions for regular issues of Documenta Ophthalmologica may now include those using relevant psychophysical evaluations, such as full-field stimulus threshold (FST) testing, or physiological evaluations such as pupillography or reflectometry. As always, special issues have topics and scope specified by invited guest editors; these have never used the scope defined for regular journal submissions.

The instructions to authors have also been revised to reflect the updated scope of the journal. In addition to a number of minor clarifications, we have made the following minor changes:

1. The upper limit for the length of abstracts is now 300 words. The reason for this change is that our longer abstracts (up to 350 words) were often truncated by search engines.

2. We have a new category of submission: Brief Reports. These have the same length, number of references, etc., as the existing category of Technical Report but include a broader range of topics that may not be technical in nature. An excellent example in this issue is the Brief Report by Grinton and colleagues on the impact of COVID-19 referrals for clinical electrophysiological testing.

3. We have increased the upper limit of the word count to 1,500 for all three categories of short submissions: Case Reports, Technical Notes and Brief Reports. The previous 1,000-word limit was challenging; editorial exceptions for more complex content had become very common. The extended word limit will allow authors greater flexibility; we continue to aim for clear and concise submissions.

Of course, this issue contains only manuscripts submitted under our previous aims, scope and author instructions. As submissions from 2023, readers will see a modest broadening of the scope of the journal. Your feedback is welcome at any time. We plan to assess the impact of these changes formally in 2024.

A clear, balanced scope is critical to a modern scientific journal; too broad and the expertise becomes diluted—too narrow and the journal becomes an echo chamber for its own editors, reviewers and readers and fails to engage the wider medical and scientific community. I hope we have achieved a balance. Please let your colleagues know and consider the expanded scope of Documenta Ophthalmologica for your high-quality research.

Daphne L. McCulloch

Professor

Editor-in-Chief