 Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology The official journal of the Canadian Ophthalmological Society |
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Volume 37, no.7, December 2002 |
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| Editorial Back to the future In 1966, when the COS decided to create a quarterly journal format to replace the annual Transactions, there were concerns that there might already be too many ophthalmologic journals and that ophthalmologists would not want more to read. However, in the words of Dr. Howard Reed in that first editorial in 1966, “communications will reach members and subscribers sooner than was previously possible. There will be room not only for the papers presented at the annual conventions but for other contributions from authors both within and outside Canada.”1 The goals of the Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology at that time were first, to convince readers that there was a place for the Journal, and second, to create a more efficient format to present papers from both Canadian and international authors. The goals of the Journal today are still basically the same. The CJO’s main mission is and always has been to bring Canadian scientific information to the rest of the world as well as to attract the best of the international ophthalmology community. Ophthalmology has evolved a great deal since 1966. One notable change is the amount of new technology for diagnosis and treatment of ocular conditions as well as the speed with which this new information is incorporated into our everyday practices. The result of this is tremendous pressure on scientific journals to make this information readily available and to disseminate it to both Canadian and international ophthalmologists. At a recent CJO Editorial Board meeting, the Board discussed the possibility of increasing CJO issues to 100 pages each. As we all know, the world is a far smaller place than it was in 1966. With the Internet, email, facsimile machines and cellular telephones and with the recent advances in telemedicine, the potential for quickly transmitting information is at a level never even considered possible just a few years ago and not even dreamed of in 1966. Telemedicine, for example, has until now been used primarily as a diagnostic tool in medicine. I would like to see the same technology used by the Journal to speed up the process of disseminating scientific information. Although we cannot predict the future, it is reasonable to expect that 10 years from now the editorial of the CJO will not be in a printed format but, rather, will be transmitted by some new form of technology. In summary, there are many challenges ahead, and the Journal should be prepared in advance to face them. Season’s greetings. Miguel N. Burnier, Jr., MD, PhD Editor-in-Chief Reference 1. Reed H. Editorial. Can J Ophthalmol 1966;1:6. |
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