These Guidelines for Authors have been developed to make it as easy as possible for authors to successfully complete the peer review process. Please follow these guidelines exactly.
Optometry & Vision Development, an official publication of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development has an international circulation of more than 2000, including the membership of COVD, optometry students and residents. These are distributed quarterly in the United States and various foreign countries. OVD is provided to libraries, schools and colleges of optometry, as well as, others who may request copies and is available online to members of COVD. Issues more than 6 months old are available online to the public free of charge.
These instructions apply to all manuscripts and are in accordance with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (Uniform Requirements).1,2
Email original manuscripts to the editor. Attach jpegs (3MB or less in size) of original figures/photographs. These should be emailed to the editor. The author should receive an acknowledgement of the manuscripts being received within 48 hours. If you do not, please re-email the manuscript or call the editor (312-949-7282 (office) or 773-368-8521 (cell)). If you do not have access to email, send four copies of the original manuscript with four sets of original figures (glossies or laser prints are best). Submission of these original photographs (color or black-and-white) and laser prints allows the best reproduction of the figure or illustration. Slides may be sent (but are discouraged), but because of the magnification required in reproduction, much of the sharpness and clarity of images is likely to be lost. Use standard-sized paper and double-spacing throughout, including references. No photographs or figures can be returned to the author.
All manuscript inquiries, proposals and submissions not emailed should be sent to Dominick M. Maino, OD, MEd, Editor, OVD, Illinois College of Optometry, 3241 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Il. 60616. Phone: 312-949-7282
Email editor.
One author should act as correspondent and on submission of the manuscript should provide his/her address, phone and fax numbers, and e-mail address. Manuscripts should have no more than six authors. Each author must be willing to take public responsibility for the paper. Data collection does not in itself justify authorship. Credit for authorship must also include: (1) conception or design, analysis and interpretation of data, or both; (2) drafting (or revising) paper for critically important intellectual content; and (3) final approval of version to be published. OVD may require authors to justify assignment of authorship.
All authors must disclose upon submission the existence of any financial arrangement with a company whose products figure prominently in the manuscript or with any competitor company. For articles in which frequent references are made to name-brand devices, medications, or products-whether any of the authors has such an affiliation or not, a disclaimer should be submitted for clarification and published at the end of the article.
Consideration for publication is based upon assurance the manuscript (in whole or in part) is not being considered by any other publication nor has it been previously published. Authors who have submitted an article for review automatically have transferred copyright to OVD and COVD when it is accepted for publication in the journal. Should permission be desired by authors, translators, or future publisher(s) to reprint or copy all or portions of an article published by OVD (including the use of figures or tables), a formal written request must be submitted to the Executive Director by e-mail. Emailing the editor is also acceptable.
Manuscripts are acknowledged upon receipt; rejected manuscripts are returned within 6-12 weeks. Papers are peer-reviewed by two or more content experts, who serve as referees. Referees’ identities are kept confidential. The peer review cycle takes approximately 2-4 months. Every effort is made to publish manuscripts within 12-24 months of final acceptance.
The title page should contain only the manuscript title, name(s) of Author(s), degree(s), and suffixes such as F.A.A.O. and F.C.O.V.D.. Professional or institutional affiliations of authors should also be provided. The title page should list the contact information for the corresponding author, including the address, phone and fax numbers and e-mail address. (The following should be placed at the bottom of your article: Correspondence regarding this article can be emailed to [your email address goes here] or sent to [your address goes here]. All statements are the authors’ personal opinion and may not reflect the opinions of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development, Optometry & Vision Development or any institution or organization to which they may be affiliated. Permission to use reprints for educational purposes must be obtained from the editor. Copyright 2007 College of Optometrists in Vision Development
The abstract should be no longer than 300 words in length consisting of four basic sections: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions, which should briefly describe, respectively, the problem or topic addressed; how the study was conducted; the most important results; and what can be concluded from the results.
For Case Reports, substitute Case Report(s) for Methods and Results, and succinctly describe the case(s). (i.e. Background, Case Report, Conclusions)
Editorials require no abstracts, but a brief executive summary is encouraged.
Include three to eight Keywords (or short phrases) at the end of the abstract. Keywords should make the article easy to find electronically.
An appropriate number of photographs, tables, figures and illustrations are encouraged. Authors should consult the CBE Style Manual for further information on preparation of tables, figures, and other illustrative material.3 All should go on separate pages at the end of the paper. DO NOT embed tables, figures or illustrative material within the body of the paper. If you are using a table, figure or illustration from another source a signed permission to do so must accompany the submission of the paper.
All photographs of identifiable individuals require photograph release forms signed by the person/s in the picture and sent to the editor before the paper can be published. All photographs should be sent as separate files in JPG format no larger than 3 MB. DO NOT embed photographs within the body of the paper.
Except for units of measurement, abbreviations are discouraged. The first time abbreviations or acronyms are used, they should be spelled out.
Use generic names in referring to drugs. Use proprietary names only to differentiate between drug forms, or if a specific product was used in a study or associated with an adverse drug reaction. Instruments, devices, or other products may be referred to by their proprietary names. Provide the name and location (city/state or country) of the manufacturer (domestic or foreign) and set in parentheses following the first mention of the proprietary name.
Authors should express all measurements in conventional units.
Use MSWord “Insert”, “Reference”, “Footnote”, “Endnotes” options for inserting references in the manuscript. Use numbers starting with the number “1” and place all references at the end of the paper. OVD uses the Vancouver style from Uniform Requirements throughout the manuscript. (Go to http://www.icmje.org and http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html for more information about references)
Always list three to six authors and then add “et al.” if more than 6 authors are on the paper.
Basic examples of the Vancouver style are provided here:
Book citation
Schepens CL, Trempe CL,Takahashi M. Atlas of vitreous biomicroscopy. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1999:83-105.
Chapter in book
Schlange D, Maino D. Clinical behavioral objectives: assessment techniques for special populations. In Maino D (ed) Diagnosis and Management of Special Populations Mosby-Yearbook, Inc., St. Louis, MO. 1995:151-88.
Journal citation
Pang Y, Maino D, Zhang G, Lu F. Myopia: Can its progress be controlled? Optom Vis Dev 2006:37(2):75-79.
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
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/.
References must be numbered consecutively as cited in the paper. References to personal communication, unpublished information, and papers either “in preparation” or “submitted for publication” are discouraged. A reference may be cited as “in press” only if it has been accepted for publication.
Accepted manuscripts are returned to authors for revisions and copy-editing changes. Authors must be able to take public responsibility for all statements in their paper, including those changes made by the copy editor and authorized by corresponding author. Revised manuscripts must be returned to the editor in electronic form. The revised copy should have the word “revised (put date)” as part of the file name. PC or Macintosh word-processing software is acceptable (MS Word preferred).
Before publication, the corresponding author will receive page proofs for final review. These may be faxed to the corresponding author or e-mailed (as a PDF file) to those who have Adobe Acrobat Reader. If necessary, they may be overnighted. Corrections must be returned/communicated to the Publisher of OVD within 72 hours.
Reprints and/or PDFs of articles maybe available upon request.
- International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. N Engl J Med 1997;336(4): 309-15.
- Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. International Committee of Medical Journal E d i t o r s. JAMA 1997;277(11):927- 34 .
- Style Manual Committee, Council of Biology Editors. Scientific style and format: the CBE manual for authors, editors, and publishers, 6th ed., revised and expanded. Prepared by the CBE Style Manual Committee, Bethesda, Maryland: Council of Biology Editors, 1994.