Letter to our readers

Abstract

Dear Readers, We would like to announce that Asian Journal of Ophthalmology (Asian JO) is now a fully online, open-access journal, without the registration requirements for readers. Although Asian JO is not listed on MEDLINE’S PubMed yet, it is indexed in Scopus and Google Scholar. Articles can be found either through those services or through our extensive archive. Asian JO was the official journal of the Southeast Asian Glaucoma Interest Group (SEAGIG). It was initially published in 1998 and, at that time, was one of the few journals in Asia for authors to publish in. Asian JO is now an international journal serving authors and readers around the world with a publishing team in three continents. The first publisher of Asian JO was Scientific Communications, based in Hong Kong, which later relocated to New Zealand. When the publisher retired, it became inactive. Fortunately, Professor Paul Chew along with his team at National University of Singapore managed to keep it afloat until Kugler Publications of the Netherlands became its official publisher. Paul asked me to join him in the role as Chief Editor as he needed to devote more time to develop his inventions, which include the micropulse transcleral laser therapy for glaucoma and the Paul Glaucoma Implant shunt. I was introduced to Asian JO when I asked Paul for advice on which journal to publish an article on the Ong Eye Speculum for glaucoma surgery. Asian JO promotes the publication of novel ideas and surgical techniques. Brief reports and case reports can convey clinical gems that will improve the management of ophthalmology patients. Some journals reject papers describing innovative ideas because they may not conform to the standard research presentation format, but we believe this is a crucial part of the process of scientific discovery. We have also re-established our role as the official journal of Asia-Pacific Glaucoma Society. For this reason, the next issue of Asian JO will be dedicated to abstracts for the Asia-Pacific Glaucoma Congress (APGC), to be held in Kuala Lumpur on August 14-16, 2020. Hence, Kugler Publications and Asian JO will be present at this conference, and we hope to meet readers and authors to discuss how we can improve the journal. With kind regards,Dr. Keith OngChief Editor