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The Editorial Process

1. A manuscript will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to Oman Journal of Ophthalmology (OJO) alone at that point in time and has not been published anywhere, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere.​
   
2. The authors must authorize one amongst them to correspond with the Journal for all matters related to the manuscript and provide all appropriate contact information for this author.
3. All manuscripts received are duly acknowledged. On submission, editors review all submitted manuscripts initially for suitability for formal review. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws, or lack of a significant message are rejected before proceeding for formal peer-review. Manuscripts that are unlikely to be of interest to OJO readers are also liable to be rejected at this stage itself.
   
4. Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication in OJO are sent to two or more expert reviewers. During submission, the contributor is requested to provide names of two or three qualified reviewers who have had experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but this is not mandatory. The reviewers should not be affiliated with the same institutes as the contributor/s. However, the selection of these reviewers is at the sole discretion of the editor. The journal follows a masked review process, wherein the authors are unaware of the reviewers' identity and vice versa. Every manuscript is also assigned to a member of the editorial team, who based on the comments from the reviewers takes a final decision on the manuscript. The comments and suggestions (acceptance/ rejection/ amendments in manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author. If required, the author is requested to provide a point by point response to reviewers' comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. This process is repeated till reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript.
5. Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format.
6. Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within two days. It may not be possible to incorporate corrections received after that period.

The whole process of submission of the manuscript to final decision and sending and receiving proofs is completed online. To achieve faster and greater dissemination of knowledge and information, the journal publishes articles online as 'Ahead of Print' immediately on acceptance.

​​Types of Manuscripts and Word Limits:

***PLEASE NOTE: OMAN JOURNAL OF OPHTHALMOLOGY HAS RECENTLY RECLASSIFIED THE MANUSCRIPT TYPES AND REVISED THE WORD LIMITS AND THE INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS.  PLEASE KINDLY READ THE DESCRIPTIONS BELOW CAREFULLY PRIOR TO SUBMISSION. SUBMITTED MANUSCRIPTS THAT DO NOT FOLLOW THE JOURNAL INSTRUCTIONS WILL BE REJECTED. ***

1. Editorials / Editorial Commentary: These are by invitation only and should be between 1500-2000 words. References no more than 10. 
2. Review article: These include critical assessments of literature. The limit of text is up to 5000 words. References to be no more than 25 and a total of 5 figures and/or tables. Include the method (literature search) in the Introduction section. 
3. Original article: The Journal seeks papers reporting original research on intervention, screening and diagnostic tests, outcomes, cost effectiveness analyses, meta-analyses, and surveys with high response rate. Original articles must follow the IMRaD structure and contain the following elements – Introduction, Material&Methods, Results and Discussion. Authors may choose to provide a summarizing Conclusion paragraph after the Discussion. The Methods section must contain information about the specific study design, time period of the research, statement about ethics clearance, and informed consent. The limit of the text is up to 5000 words. References to be no more than 25 and a total of 5 figures and/or tables. 
4. Case Reports and Case Series: This category includes reports that add new information to existing knowledge about an indifvidual (report) or a group of patients (no more than 5) respectively. The author must make it clear what the manuscript adds to the field and include an up-to-date review of all previous cases. The articles should be with unstructured abstract up to 200 words, main text up to 3000 words,  10 references, and no more than 3 figures and/or tables. (Case series with more than 5 patients should be submitted as an original article).  
5. Clinical Images: Interesting and rare cases can be submitted. They should contain outstanding learning points for the readers such as a rare finding that has not been previously well-documented and has relevance in practice. Submissions should consist of 4-5 images of unusual or striking examples of clinical entities, laboratory/radiological studies, or therapeutic procedures that become self-evident on inspection of the illustrations. Please refer to “Image" section for requirements for image submission. PowerPoint illustrations will not be accepted. Legends should be 40 words or less for each image. A short description (without any sub-sections) not exceeding 1000 words and 5 references should accompany the images. No abstract is required. 
6. Clinical Practice: Submissions describe new instruments / surgical techniques / clinical procedures. Manuscripts should not exceed 500 words, 3 images, 5 references. No abstract is required.
7. Clinical Quiz: Submissions present a brief description, not exceeding 150 words of an interesting case, taking care not to disclose the diagnosis. Figures (maximum 3) to illustrate findings are recommended. The legends to figures should likewise not disclose the diagnosis. This is followed by 3-4 questions, answers to the questions and a brief description of the case (not exceeding 250 words and 3 references). No abstract is required.

Letter to the Editor: Submission should be short, decisive observations describing a clinical or laboratory observation that adds to the scientific knowledge of the condition. Letters concerning matters arising in recent articles should be submitted within 6 months of the article's publication.The limit is up to 500 words and 5 references. They should start with "To the Editor" and should not be divided into sub-sections.

Authorship Criteria:

1. 1. Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions. All three of the following conditions must be met: (i) Conception and design / acquisition of data / analysis and interpretation of data. (ii) Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content. (iii) Final approval of the version to be published.
1. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship.
2. General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship.
3. The order of naming the contributors, once submitted cannot be changed without written consent of all the contributors.
2. For a study conducted in a single institute the number of contributors should not exceed six.​

Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests

All authors of must disclose any and all conflicts of interest they may have with publication of the manuscript or an institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented. Authors should also disclose conflict of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript​.

Submission of Manuscripts:​

All manuscripts must be submitted on-line through the website https://review.jow.medknow.com/ojo. First time users will have to register at this site. Registration is free but mandatory. Registered authors can keep track of their articles after logging into the site using their user name and password. Authors do not have to pay for submission, processing or publication of articles. If you experience any problems, please contact the editorial office by e-mail at [email protected]/[email protected]

Preparation of Manuscripts:

Submitted manuscripts that are not as per the “Instructions to Authors" would be returned to the authors for technical correction, before they undergo editorial/ peer-review.
Use text/rtf/doc files. Do not zip the files. Do not submit as PDF file. Do not incorporate images in the file. Maximum file size allowed is 4MB. Submit the manuscript in the following order. 

1. First / Title Page: This page (page 1) should include
1. title (no more than 20 words)
2. name and affiliation of each author
3. running title of 50 characters or less that must not contain the authors' names.
4. type of manuscript (original article, case report, review article, clinical practice, letter to editor, clinical images, etc.)
5. date and place of the meeting if the paper was presented orally
6. total number of pages, word counts for abstract, and for the text (excluding the references), and total number of images and tables must also be mentioned in this page.
7. acknowledgements (if any)
8. name, telephone number, email address and mailing address of the author to whom correspondence or requests for reprints should be directed
2. Blinded Manuscript/Article file: The main text of the manuscript beginning from the Abstract, Key Words. This file must not contain any reference to the authors' names or the institution to which the authors are affiliated with or at which the study was done. Any information that may reveal the authors identity (for example, Contributors Forms, Acknowledgements etc.) must be included in the First/Title Page/Cover Letter. If authors wish to retain some identifying detail due to its relevance to the content of the manuscript, they may contact the editorial office after peer review. The editorial office can make a decision about its inclusion in the manuscript. 
3. Abstract. Abstracts should be constructed under the following headings:

• Original Articles: structured abstract - Background (the rationale for the study), Methods (how the study was done), Results (the main findings), and Conclusions (a discussion of the results) within 400 words.
• Review articles: an unstructured abstract within 200 words.
• Brief Communication: an unstructured abstract within 200 words.
• Clinical Images, Clinical Practice, Letters: abstract not required.

       4. Text: The text of original articles should be divided into sections with the headings: Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion. For case reports/case series, divide into sections  with headings: Introduction, Case report(s), and Discussion.

o   Use double spacing throughout all portions of the manuscript— including the title page, abstract, text, acknowledgments, references, individual tables, and legends.

o   Use font size 12, Times New Roman / Arial font, color black.

o   Number pages consecutively, beginning with the title page, in the upper right hand corner.

o   Each page of the manuscript must include continuous line numbers in the margin.

o   The language should be either American or British English uniformly throughout the manuscript.

o   Ethics: For original articles, please include a statement confirming that your study was approved by an ethics committee as the first sentence of the Methods section. Do not include the ethics approval code or ethics committee title if they contain any reference to the institution(s) you are affilaited with. These may be included in the First Page/Title Page document only. Provide information regarding mode of obtaining informed consent from human subjects (written or oral).

o   Symbols and Abbreviations: Internationally accepted units, symbols, and abbreviations, including those of the Système international d'unités (SI), must be used. On first appearance in both abstract and text, place abbreviations and acronyms in parenthesis following the term in full.

o   Names of drugs: Use the official (generic) name throughout; trade (proprietary) names may be placed in parenthesis the first time the drug is mentioned, if necessary.

o   Numbers: Numerals from 1 to 10 are spelt out. Numerals at the beginning of the sentence are also spelt out. Numerical equivalents must precede all percentages – eg: of 100 patients 30 (30%) had visual field changes.

o   Statistics: Whenever possible quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Authors should report losses to observation (such as, dropouts from a clinical trial). When data are summarized in the Results section, specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Avoid non-technical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as 'random' (which implies a randomizing device), 'normal', 'significant', 'correlations', and 'sample'. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. Specify the computer software used. Use upper italics (P 0.048). For all P values include the exact value and not less than 0.05 or 0.001. Mean differences in continuous variables, proportions in categorical variables and relative risks including odds ratios and hazard ratios should be accompanied by their confidence intervals.

5.      Acknowledgment: Acknowledgments may be listed in the title page only.

o   Granting and sponsoring agencies must be clearly acknowledged. Any source of funding must be mentioned here.

o   All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgments section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. People who have aided the author's work in any other important way may also be thanked in this section.

6.      References: Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. Multiple citations in support of a single statement should be avoided.

o   References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first
mentioned in the text (not in alphabetic order).

o   Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals within square
brackets in superscript, after the punctuaton marks.

o   References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with
the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure.

o   Use the style of the examples below, which are based on the formats used by the NLM in
Index Medicus. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. Use complete name of the journal for non-indexed journals.

o   Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as
"unpublished observations" with written permission from the source.

·        Avoid citing a "personal communication" unless it provides essential information not
available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text. For scientific articles, contributors should obtain written permission and confirmation of accuracy from the source of a personal communication.
Articles in Journals

·        Standard journal article: Al-Mahrouqi HH, Ganesh A, Al-Rawas A, Khetan V, Al-Zuhaibi S. Chronic myelogenous leukemia in a child following treatment for bilateral retinoblastoma. Oman J Ophthalmol 2021;14:187-9.

·        If more than 6 authors, list the first six contributors followed by 'et al.'

·        Volume with supplement: Shen HM, Zhang QF. Risk assessment of nickel carcinogenicity and occupational lung cancer. Environ Health Perspect 1994; 102 Suppl 1:275-82.

·        Issue with supplement: Payne DK, Sullivan MD, Massie MJ. Women's psychological reactions to breast cancer. Semin Oncol 1996; 23(1, Suppl 2):89-97.

·        Books and Other Monographs:

o  Personal author(s): Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996.

o  Editor(s), compiler(s) as author: Norman IJ, Redfern SJ, editors. Mental health care for elderly people. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1996.

o  Chapter in a book: Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1995. pp. 465-78.

·      Electronic Sources as reference:

o   Journal article on the Internet
Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs [serial on the Internet]. 2002 Jun [cited 2002 Aug 12];102(6):[about 3 p.]. Available from: http://www.nursingworld.org/AJN/2002/june/Wawatch.htm. Accessed on (date).

o   Monograph on the Internet
Foley KM, Gelband H, editors. Improving palliative care for cancer [monograph on the Internet]. Washington: National Academy Press; 2001 [cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309074029/html/. Accessed on (date).

o   Homepage/Web site
Cancer-Pain.org [homepage on the Internet]. New York: Association of Cancer Online Resources, Inc.; c2000-01 [updated 2002 May 16; cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.cancer-pain.org/. Accessed on (date).

o   Part of a homepage/Web site
American Medical Association [homepage on the Internet]. Chicago: The Association; c1995-2002 [updated 2001 Aug 23; cited 2002 Aug 12]. AMA Office of Group Practice Liaison; [about 2 screens]. Available from: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/1736.html. Accessed on (date).

7.Legends to Figures and Tables: Legends for figures and tables (maximum 40 words, excluding credit line) should be included at the end of the manuscript/article file.

1. Captions should briefly explain the figures / tables without the use of abbreviations and
   should be understandable without reference to the text.
2. Using double spacing, with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations.
3. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations,
   identify and explain each one in the legend.

Explain the internal scale (magnification) and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.

Cover Letter:

All submissions must be accompanied by a cover letter. Please download the template for title page/cover letter provided. The cover letter must include the following:

• Mention under what category the manuscript is being submitted: Original Article (mention the specific study design), Review Article,Case Report, Letter to Editor, etc.
• Include a statement to the editor that the paper being submitted has not been published, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere.
• Include a statement that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors, that the requirements for authorship as stated earlier in this document have been met, and that each author believes that the manuscript represents honest work.
• The author must declare that the manuscript, to the best of the author's knowledge, does not infringe upon any copyright or property right of any third party.

     The Cover letter and First/Title page should be the submitted as one document - Cover Letter/First page file

Images:

1. Figures should be provided as stand alone files and should not be embedded in text file. 
2. Acceptable graphic files include TIFF or JPEG formats. Graphs can be submitted in the original program files. Minimum resolution is 300 dpi or 1800 x 1600 pixels in TIFF format. Each image should be less than 1024 kb (1 MB) in size. Size of the image can be reduced by decreasing the actual height and width of the images (keep up to 1240 x 800 pixels or 5-6 inches
3. Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text.
4. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background.
5. Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends for illustrations not on the illustrations themselves.
6. When graphs, scatter-grams or histograms are submitted the numerical data on which they are based should also be supplied.
7. Identifying information, including patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be present in images unless the information is essential for scientific purposes. If any identifiable images are used, the patient (or parent or guardian) should give written informed consent for publication.
8. If a figure has been published elsewhere, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. A credit line should appear in the legend for such figures.
9. The Journal reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an acceptable size
10. Do not send graphs or diagrams as free hand drawings.