C L I N I C A L A N D E X P E R I M E N T A L

OPTOMETRY

EDITORIAL

Our journal-before and beyond

Clinical and Experimental Optometry is a mir- ror, a record and an expression of optom- etry in Australia. It enables academics and practitioners in optometry and other health professions to share their research, their clinical findings, their reviews and opinions with optometrists in Australia and overseas. Ourjournal is an important part of our profession and has come a long way to achieve its present status.

But whence has it come and whither does it go?

It began as the Optometrist of New South Wales in 1913 and was renamed The Com- monwealth Optometrist in 1919. Within a decade, it became The Australian Journal of Optometry.

A review of the 1960 volume of the Australian Journal of Optometry, which was published as 12 monthly issues, reveals that there were about 56 published papers and several smaller comments and news items. Twenty-one papers were written by optometrists practising in Australia, 12 from New South Wales, including three from J Lloyd Hewett, the associate editor and later editor for 20 years, and seven from South Australia, of which six were written by 0 Ashley Williams. Four papers came from academics at the only school of optometrywith more than one full-time staff member and an embryonic research program. Barry Cole had just commenced as the only full-time staff member at the Vic- torian College of Optometry, which was then responsible for the undergraduate optom- etry course.

To fill 12 monthly issues of the Austral- ian Journal of Optometry, the editor, Dr WG

Kett, carefully selected and reprinted interesting papers from optometric jour- nals from around the world and particu- larly from the United Kingdom and the United States of America. In 1960, 29 papers (52 per cent) were reprinted with permission from overseas publishers.

In 1995, Clinical and Experimental Op- tometry, as it was renamed in 1986, pub- lished 35 papers. All were original manu- scripts, carefully reviewed by at least two referees before acceptance. The majority were research reports and came from the three schools of optometry in Australia, particularly those at the Queensland Uni- versity of Technology and The University of Melbourne. Practitioners continue to be an important source of research informa- tion, although the number of contributors is very small compared with the number of registered optometrists in this country. Our journal would be greatly improved if there was more support from more of the talented practitioners among our ranks.

Instead of ‘borrowing’ published ma- terial from overseas, the journal now re- ceives numerous, but never enough, manuscripts from overseas authors. In 1995, these included two from New Zea- land and one from each of the United States of America, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia. The overseas contribution is small (14 per cent) but hopefully it will increase in the future. With the rapid development of optometry in Asia and Africa, Clinical and Experimental Optometry has the oppor- tunity to contribute to their development. Further research reports from Saudi Ara- bia and Nigeria will be published in

Clinical and Experimental Optometry this year. We welcome both the manuscripts and the interest from the optometrists in these countries.

In 1960, Clinical and Experimental Op- tometry published one paper from an al- lied health professional, a pharmacist. With the easing of the regulations limit- ing optometry-ophthalmology interac- tion, and the advent of collaborative ventures involving photorefractive keratectomy and co-management, there is the opportunity for serious and meaning- ful cooperation.

Clinical and Experimental Optometry has received manuscripts from our ophthal- mological colleagues. Although we have had ophthalmologists as collaborating authors from overseas, the Letter to the Editor from an Australian ophthalmologist, published in this issue, is the first of what we hope will be regular contributions from our eye care colleagues here in Australia.

However, with the significant increases in the number of optometrists and aca- demics in Australia, the number of papers published in Clinical and Experimental Op- tometry by Australian authors has increased onlyslightlyfrom 21 in 1960 to 30 in 1995. While the contributions from overseas optometrists and from ophthalmologists are very welcome, Clinical and Experimm- tal Optometry is an organ and an expres- sion ofAustralian optometry. It is onlywith increased support from academics and practitioners that the journal can make a worthwhile contribution to our profes- sion.

H Barry Collin

Clinical and Experimental Optometry 79.2 March-April 1996

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