ISSN

2413-3183 (PRINT)
2410-1516 (ONLINE)

Focus and scope

The African Vision and Eye Health (AVEH) journal publishes original peer-reviewed papers of scientific and clinical research in optometry, ophthalmology, vision science and other related fields. Literature Reviews, Technological, Research or Short Notes and Case Reports (of interesting or unusual vision and ocular problems) are also included. Book Reviews, Matters Arising and Letters to the Editor are welcomed. Regular columns by invited authorities in specific fields are sometimes offered.

Historic data

The African Vision Research Institute (AVRI) is proud to announce the launch of the African Vision and Eye Health (AVEH) journal formerly The South African Optometrist. This is a joint venture of the African Vision Research Institute, South African Optometric Association and the African Council of Ophthalmology. It will be the only Journal of its kind that is accredited by the Department of Higher Education and Training of South Africa as a peer-reviewed subsidy-accredited Journal. The new name of the Journal more accurately reflects the nature of the published research and acknowledgement must go to the South African Optometric Association (SAOA) and the African Ophthalmology Council (AOC) for their cooperation in the rebranding process. The administration of the Journal has been streamlined to ensure the very latest in publishing and peer-review systems and technology through the appointment of AOSIS publishers. AOSIS has an established record in health care academic publications whose mission is the dissemination of knowledge on the African continent and beyond. This makes them the publisher of choice for AVEH journal. Through their online platform, peer-review systems managed by the Chief Editors and reviewed through a select panel of international experts, in their respective fields, will ensure scholarly publications of the highest level of academic excellence.

• 'The collaboration between Optometry and Ophthalmology to build a high quality journal for Africa will enhance research on the continent and ultimately ensure the evidence base for service delivery and policy development in eye care.  AVRI salutes the African Council of Opthalmology and the South African Optometric Association for their visionary leadership by supporting this initiative and AVRI is proud to be part of this initiative.' (Prof. Kovin Naidoo AVRI CEO)
• 'As it celebrates its landmark 90th year, the South African Optometric Association is proud to join hands with the African Vision Research Institute and the African Council of Ophthalmology. For many years, the SA Optometrist, journal of the SAOA, has brought world class research and clinical articles to SAOA members and readers across the world. As the name suggests, this agreement will expand that offering by including all eyecare professionals in both the public and private sectors in Africa and will ultimately contribute to the standard of care we provide to our patients.' (Dr Nina Kriel SAOA President)
• 'As a part of a greater vision to build alliances for Eye Healthcare in Africa comes the African Vision and Eye Health Journal. A collaborative effort between the African Ophthalmology Council, The South African Optometric Association and The African Vision Research Instituite. This Journal gives great opportunities to all eye health workers to share research outcomes as well as management skills for the gain of all' (Dr Kunle Hassan, African Ophthalmology Council)

Publication frequency

The journal publishes at least one issue each year. Articles are published online when ready for publication and then printed in an end-of-year compilation. Additional issues may be published for special events (e.g. conferences) and when special themes are addressed.

Types of articles published

Read full details on the submissions guidelines page.

Open access

This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access. Learn more about the journal copyright, licensing and publishing rights.

Review process

The journal has a double-blinded peer review process. Manuscripts are initially examined by editorial staff and are sent by the Editor-in-Chief to two expert independent reviewers, either directly or by a Section Editor. Read our full peer review process.

Marketing

AOSIS has a number of ways in which we promote publications. Learn more here.

Membership

AOSIS is a member and/or subscribes to the standards and code of practices of several leading industry organisations. This includes the Directory of Open Access Journals, Ithenticate, Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, CrossRef, Portico and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Learn more here.

All articles published in the journal are included in:

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• EBSCO Host
• Embase
• GALE, CENGAGE Learning
• Hinari
• Google Scholar
• ProQuest
• Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers, Level 1
• SCOPUS
• Web of Science Other Coverage, Emerging Sources Citation Index, ESCI

We are working closely with relevant indexing services to ensure that articles published in the journal will be available in their databases when appropriate.

The full text of the journal articles is deposited in the following archives to guarantee long-term preservation:

• AOSIS Library
• Portico
• SA ePublications, Sabinet
• South African Government Libraries

AOSIS is also a participant in the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) initiative. LOCKSS will enable any library to maintain their own archive of content from AOSIS and other publishers, with minimal technical effort and using cheaply available hardware. The URL to the LOCKSS Publisher Manifest for the journal is, https://avehjournal.org/index.php/aveh/gateway/lockss. Please inform us if you are using our manifest as we would like to add your name to the list above.

A journal's Impact Factor was originally designed in 1963 as a tool for libraries to compare journals, and identify the most popular ones to subscribe to. It was never intended to measure the quality of journals, and definitely not the quality of individual articles.

The Impact Factor is a journal-level measurement reflecting the yearly average number of citations of recent articles published in that journal. It is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field; journals with higher Impact Factors are often deemed to be more important than those with lower ones. Therefore, the more often articles in the journal are cited, the higher its Impact Factor.

The Impact Factor is highly discipline-dependent due to the speed with which articles get cited in each field and the related citation practices. The percentage of total citations occurring in the first two years after publication varies highly amongst disciplines. Accordingly, one cannot compare journals across disciplines based on their relative Impact Factors.

We provide several citation-based measurements for each of our journals, if available. We caution our authors, readers and researchers that they should assess the quality of the content of individual articles, and not judge the quality of articles by the reputation of the journal in which they are published.