Brief History
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The journal Arquivos Brasileiros de Oftalmologia (ABO) started its activities in 1938. The founder and first editor was Dr. Waldemar Rangel Belfort Mattos. ABO has been published continuously since then. On September 29, 2000, ABO was transferred to the Brazilian Council of Ophthalmology. The purpose of the journal is to disseminate original research, clinical cases of scientific interest, and continuous medical updates in ophthalmology, ocular health, prevention of blindness, and visual sciences. |
Open Science Compliance
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ABO follows the Open Science Diamond model (no fees for authors or readers). ABO editorial board studies ways to implement Open Science practices and, in view of this, the corresponding author must send the Open Science Compliance Form with the submission files, as a way of understanding their position on this way of publishing. The form template can be found on the File Upload page in ScholarOne Manuscripts. |
Publication Ethics
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All research must be approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the institution where the research was conducted. The ethical principles must be in accordance with the legal framework of the country where the research was carried out and with the Declaration of Helsinki in its latest version. ABO adopts the guidelines of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). |
Focus and Scope
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The focus of ABO is to publish original articles, reports, and reviews that provide insights into the understanding of the physiology and issues related to vision. The scope ranges from anatomy through the molecular biology of structures related to normal vision to diseases that affect eye and visual health, from in vitro models to experimental, translational, and clinical studies, as well as aspects of epidemiology, prevention of blindness, signs and symptoms, complementary tests, therapeutic, pharmacological, and surgical approaches. Additionally, it covers the well-being and functional rehabilitation of new diseases or new approaches to ocular or visual system diseases. |
Digital Preservation
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This journal follows the standards defined in the Digital Preservation Policy of the SciELO Program. |
Indexing Sources
Bibliographic Sheet
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Web sites and Social Media
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Web site: aboonline.org.br |
Preprints
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ABO accepts articles that are already available as preprints. This condition, as well as the repository, must be mentioned at the time of submission. |
Peer review process
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The evaluation process involves a preliminary analysis of the manuscript to ensure that the submission meets the journal’s requirements. Subsequently, specialized editors evaluate whether the article meets ABO’s scope and focus, and from there, anonymous volunteer reviewers are selected. |
Open data
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ABO offers authors the possibility to keep data open and recommends the SciELO data repository. Other repositories are equally accepted. This policy refers to “the sharing of data, codes, methods, and other materials used and resulting from research that usually underlie the texts of articles published by journals.” |
Fee Collection
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ABO is a Diamond Open Access journal. It does not charge fees for submission, proofreading, editing, color figures, or publication of articles. Financial sustainability is managed by the Brazilian Council of Ophthalmology (Conselho Brasileiro de Oftalmologia - CBO) and adheres to the SciELO Declaration on Financial Sustainability. |
Policy on Ethics and Misconduct, Erratum, and Retraction
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ABO’s ethical issues shall be addressed by the editorial board, and the decisions shall be communicated to the Board of Directors. Decisions will follow SciELO’s Good Practices policies: |
Conflict of Interest Policy
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ABO’s conflict of interest policies follow the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). The conflict of interest may be personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial in nature. Conflicts of interest can occur when authors, reviewers, or editors have interests that may influence the preparation or evaluation of manuscripts. When submitting the manuscript, authors are responsible for acknowledging and disclosing financial or other conflicts that may have influenced the work. If there is even a potential conflict of interest, the author(s) must inform it in a specific document signed and attached on the submission platform. For more information see Disclosure of Financial and Nonfinancial Relationships and Activities, and Conflicts of Interest. |
Adoption of similarity-checking software
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ABO uses similarity- and automated text generation-checking software that uses artificial intelligence. All submitted manuscripts are checked, and it is up to the editorial board to decide whether the similarity compromises scientific integrity and to notify the authors about it. Cases of misconduct in publication will be judged according to the criteria and recommendations of the COPE. |
Sex and Gender Issues
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The ABO editorial team and the authors who publish in the journal must always follow the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines. SAGER is a set of guidelines for reporting sex and gender information in study design, data analysis, results, and interpretation of findings. In addition, ABO observes the policy of gender equality in the formation of its editorial board. |
Ethics Committee
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The authors should send a Letter of approval by the Human or Animal Research Ethics Committee of the organization where the study was conducted, or the IRB approval. Studies conducted in Brazil must provide the number of the CAAE - Certificate of Presentation for Ethical Consideration. If the Ethics Committee approval does not apply to the study, the corresponding author should send a report stating that the evaluation of the project by the committee is not necessary. For Eye Images, if the image includes identifiable information about a patient, the authors must obtain written informed consent from the patient or their legal guardian. |
Copyright
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Authors of articles published in ABO retain the copyright of their works by licensing them under the Creative Commons Attribution BY license, which allows articles to be reused and distributed without restriction, as long as the original work is correctly cited. |
Intellectual Property and Terms of Use
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Site responsibility: There are no rights reserved by the ABO portal. Author’s responsibility: ABO encourages authors to self-archive their accepted manuscripts by publishing them on personal blogs, institutional repositories, and scholarly social media, as well as posting them on their personal social media, provided the full citation of the version on the journal’s website is included. The license adopted by ABO is CC-BY. All journal content and articles published in ABO are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution license, except where otherwise specified. |
Sponsors and Funding Agencies
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Brazilian Council of Ophthalmology - Conselho Brasileiro de Oftalmologia (CBO). |
Editor-in-Chief
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Associate or Section Editor(s)
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National Editorial Board
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International Editorial Board
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Director of Photography
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Social Media Board of Directors
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Technical Team
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Editorial Secretary
Technical publishing
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Only articles sent in English will be reviewed. Manuscripts are categorized into the following types based on the methodology used: Clinical studies Descriptive or analytical studies involving humans or evaluating the literature relevant to humans. Epidemiological studies Analytical studies involving results from human populations. Laboratory experimental studies Descriptive or analytical studies involving animal models or other biological, physical, or chemical techniques. Theoretical studies Descriptive studies involving the description and theoretical analysis of new hypotheses based on the knowledge available in the literature. Theoretical results must add new information to the literature. |
Accepted Document Types
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Manuscripts submitted to ABO should fit into one of the aforementioned categories according to their format. The maximum number of words, figures, tables and references for each type of manuscript are provided in parentheses at the end of the description for each type. The word count of the manuscript includes the text from the beginning of the introduction up to the end of the discussion. Therefore, the following items are not included in the word count: title page, abstract, references, acknowledgments, tables, figures, and legends. Editorials Editorials are contributed by invitation and should be related to topics of current interest, preferentially related to articles published in the same issue of ABO (title, maximum of 1,000 words, 2 figures or tables, and 10 references). Original Articles Original Articles present complete experiments with results that have never been published before (title, structured abstract, maximum of 3,000 words, 8 figures or tables, and 30 references). The evaluation of the manuscripts is based on the following priorities: 1. New and relevant information based on a study that uses appropriate methodology. 2. Repetition of information available in the literature, not previously confirmed locally, based on a study that uses appropriate methodology. 3. Repetition of information available in the literature and previously confirmed locally, based on a study that uses appropriate methodology. * Manuscripts that contain speculative conclusions unsubstantiated by the results or are based on a study with inappropriate methodology will not be accepted. Letters to the Editor Letters to the editor are considered for publication if they contain comments related to manuscripts previously published in ABO or, exceptionally, the results of original studies with content insufficient to be submitted as original article. These letters should present new information or a new interpretation of existing information. When the content of a letter refers to an article previously published in ABO, such an article should be mentioned in the first paragraph of the letter and included in its reference list. In these cases, letters will be linked to the article, and the authors of the article will have their right of reply guaranteed in the same issue. Congratulation letters will not be published (title, maximum of 700 words, 2 figures or tables, and 5 references). Review Articles Review articles should follow the editorial guidelines and are accepted by invitation only by the editor. Suggestions of topics for review articles should be sent directly to the editor. However, manuscripts cannot be submitted without an invitation (title, unstructured abstract, maximum of 4,000 words, 8 figures or tables, and 100 references). Eye Images These include typical images in ophthalmology demonstrating clinical signs, surgeries, microscopy, ultrasonography, optical coherence computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, followed by an explanatory text (maximum of 150 words and 5 references). The image can be either a single picture or a composite figure of up to 4 related images. Images should be of high quality, with good resolution and clarity. If the image includes identifiable information about a patient, authors must obtain written informed consent from the patient or their legal guardian. |
Authors’ Contributions
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The Author Contributions Form shall be inserted in the text, indicating full name of each author in all items that they contributed, using the template below and inserting it filled out at the end of the manuscript before the References (only one filled form for all authors. It is not necessary to insert one for each author). AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS:
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Manuscript Preparation
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Manuscripts should only be submitted online using the appropriate interface of ABO. The following guidelines were based on the format suggested by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and published as Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. Only the manuscripts complying with these guidelines will be considered for review. All authors are required to link their ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) record to their ScholarOne account (how to associate your ORCID). The text should be sent as a digital file. Only .doc or .docx files are accepted. The text should be typed double-spaced, in 12-point font. The pages should be numbered in Arabic numerals, and each section should start on a new page. The manuscript should be structured as follows: Title page, Abstract and Keywords, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments (if any), Author Contributions Form and References. |
Article Submission Format
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1. Title Page. This page should contain the following: a) title (no more than 135 characters with spaces); b) running title to be used as a page heading (no more than 60 characters with spaces); c) authors’ names as they should appear in print; d) each author’s affiliation* (city, state, country and, if applicable, department, school, and university); e) corresponding author’s name, address, phone number, and e-mail; f) sources of financial support (if any); g) project number and institution responsible for the ethical approval, or the Research Ethics Committee; h) statement of conflicts of interests of all authors; and I) clinical trial registration number on a public trial registry. * Professional or academic degrees and job position will not be published. 2. Approval of the Institutional Review Board. On the title page, all retrospective, cross-sectional, or prospective studies involving primary data collection or clinical and surgical reports should include the project number and name of the institutional IRB that approved the study. Studies involving humans should be compliant with the Declaration of Helsinki, whereas studies involving animals should be in accordance with the principles suggested by the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. 3. Statement of conflicts of interest. The title page should contain the statement of conflicts of interest of all authors (even if there is no conflict of interest). For more information about potential conflicts of interest, refer to the World Association of Medical Editors: Conflict of interest in peer-reviewed medical journals. 4. Clinical Trials. All clinical trials shall include on the title page the registration number from an international registry that allows free access to trial information (e.g., U.S. National Institutes of Health, Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number –ISRCTN, University Hospital Medical Information Network Clinical Trials Registry –UMIN CTR, Netherlands Trial Register, and Registro Brasileiro de Ensaios Clínicos – ReBEC). 5. Abstract and Keywords. Structured abstracts (Objective, Methods, Results, and Conclusions) should have no more than 300 words, whereas unstructured abstracts should have no more than 150 words. After the abstract, five keywords in English listed by the National Library of Medicine (MeSH - Medical Subject Headings) are provided. 6. Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. In the text, citations should be presented as superscript Arabic numerals in parentheses (Vancouver Style). The names of the authors should not be mentioned in the text. 7. Acknowledgments. This section should include the collaboration of people, groups, or institutions that deserve to be acknowledged but do not meet the criteria for authorship. Statisticians and medical editors may meet the criteria for authorship and thus should be acknowledged as authors. When they do not meet the criteria for authorship, they should be mentioned in this section. Writers who are not identified in the manuscript cannot be accepted as authors; therefore, professional writers should be mentioned in this section. 8. Author Contributions. In this section, the authors must provide the contribution of each author to the manuscript. Use initials to refer for each author name to: conceptualization of the manuscript and development of the methodology, data collection and curation, data analysis, data interpretation, funding acquisition and resources and project administration, supervision, writing the original draft of the manuscript, and writing–review and editing. All authors read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. 9. References. Citations (references) of authors in the text should be in Vancouver Style, numbered sequentially as they are cited and identified using superscript Arabic numerals. References should be in accordance with the format suggested by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). 10. Abbreviations and Acronyms. Abbreviations and acronyms should be preceded by the spelled-out abbreviation on the first mention in the text and in the legends of tables and figures (even if they have been previously mentioned in the text). Titles and abstracts should not contain abbreviations and acronyms. 11. Units of Measurement. Values of physical quantities should be used in accordance with the standards of the International System of Units. 12. Language. Texts should be clear to be considered appropriate for publication in a scientific journal. Use short sentences, written in a direct and active voice. Foreign words should be in italics. Therapeutic agents should be mentioned by their generic names with the following information in parentheses: trade name, manufacturer’s name, city, state, and country of origin. All instruments or apparatus should be mentioned including their trade name, manufacturer’s name, city, state, and country of origin. The superscript symbol of trademark ® or ™ should be used in all names of instruments or trade names of drugs. Whenever there are doubts about the style, terminology, units of measurement, and related issues, refer to the AMA Manual of Style 10th edition. 13. Original Documents. Corresponding authors should keep the original documents and the letter of approval from the Research Ethics Committee for studies involving humans or animals, consent form signed by all patients, statement of agreement with the full content of the study signed by all authors, statement of conflict of interest of all authors, and records of the data collected for the study results. 14. Corrections and Retractions. Errors may be noted in published manuscripts that require the publication of a correction. However, some errors pointed out by any reader may invalidate the results or the authorship of a manuscript. If substantial doubt arises about the honesty or integrity of a submitted manuscript, it is the editor's responsibility to exclude the possibility of fraud. In these situations, the editor will inform the institutions involved and the funding agencies about the suspicion and wait for their final decision. If there is confirmation of a fraudulent publication in ABO, the editor will act in compliance with the protocols suggested by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). |
Checklist
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Before submitting the manuscript, authors should ensure that all the following items are adhered to:
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Digital Assets
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Tables and Figures should be sent as supplementary documents, separately from the main file. They must be mentioned in the text. Tables Tables should be numbered sequentially using Arabic numerals in the order they are mentioned in the text. All tables should have a title and a heading for all columns. Their format should be simple, with no vertical lines or color in the background. All abbreviations (even if previously defined in the text) and statistical tests should be explained below the table. When the table is extracted from another study, provide the bibliographical source of the table. Do not include tables in the main document of the manuscript; they should be uploaded as supplementary documents in DOC or DOCX format. Figures (graphs, photos, illustrations, and charts) Figures should be numbered sequentially using Arabic numerals in the order they are mentioned in the text. The figures will be published by ABO at no cost to the authors. Graphs should be in shades of gray on a white background and without three-dimensional or depth effects. Instead of using pie charts, data should be included in tables or described in the text. Photos and illustrations should have a minimum resolution of 300 DPI for the size of the publication (about 2,500 x 3,300 pixels for a full page). Image quality is considered in the evaluation of the manuscript. The main document should contain all figure legends, typed double-spaced and numbered using Arabic numerals. Do not embed figures in the main text. They should be uploaded as supplementary documents in JPG or TIF format. |
Citations and References
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Citations (references) of authors in the text should be numbered sequentially as they are cited and identified using superscript Arabic numerals (Vancouver Style). References should be in accordance with the format suggested by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), based on the examples below. The titles of the journals should be abbreviated according to the style provided by the National Library of Medicine. The names of all authors should be cited for references with up to six authors. For studies with seven or more authors, cite only the first six authors followed by et al. Examples of references Journal articles Azad R, Sinha S, Nishant P. Asymmetric diabetic retinopathy. Indian J Ophthalmol. 2021;69(11):3026-34. Books Nakanami CR, Zin A, Belfort Jr. R. Oftalmopediatria. São Paulo: Roca; 2010. Book chapters Kriger FT, Schor P. Anatomia e fisiologia. In: Nakanami CR, Zin A, Belfort Jr. R. Oftalmopediatria. São Paulo: Roca; 2010. p.1-38. Thesis/dissertation Andrade Júnior N. Influência da ceratometria e profundidade de câmara anterior obtidas pela biometria óptica e por sistema Scheimpflug na predição do poder dióptrico de lente intraocular multifocal calculada para emetropia [tese]. São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo, Faculdade de Medicina; 2018. Electronic documents Alimaw YA, Hussen MS, Tefera TK, Yibekal BT. Knowledge about cataract and associated factors among adults in Gondar town, northwest Ethiopia. PLoS One. 2019;14(4):e0215809. [cited 2019 May 18]. Available from: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0215809 Books Tran K, Ryce A. Laser refractive surgery for vision correction: a review of clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. Ottawa(ON): Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health; 2018. [cited 2019 Jan 21]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532537/ Book chapters Adams N, Skelton D, Bailey C, Howel D, Coe D, Lampitt R, et al. Visually impaired Older people’s exercise program for fails prevention (VIOLET): a feasibility study. Southampton (UK): NIHR Journals Library; 2019. (Public Health Research, n.7.4). Chapter 2. Stakeholder involvement in the adaptation of the falls management exercise program: conduct and results of focus groups [cited 2019 Feb 12]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK536869/ Thesis/Dissertation Lima VF de. Comparação da densidade óptica de pigmento macular em pacientes diabéticos e indivíduos normais: avaliação dos principais métodos e associação com a idade [tese]. São Paulo: Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista de Medicina 2013. [cited 2019 May 19]. Available from: http://repositorio.unifesp.br/bitstream/handle/11600/23216/Tese-14375.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |
Supplementary Documents
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As a supplementary document, the corresponding author should send the IRB approval or its report stating that the evaluation of the project by the committee is not necessary. The author cannot decide on the need for evaluation by the Research Ethics Committee. Letter of approval by the Human or Animal Research Ethics Committee of the organization where the study was conducted. Studies conducted in Brazil must provide the number of the CAAE - Certificate of Presentation for Ethical Consideration. For Eye Images, if the image includes identifiable information about a patient, the authors must obtain written informed consent from the patient or their legal guardian. All authors should send the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors: Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest as supplementary documents (one filled form for each author). All authors should send the Open Science Compliance Form as a mandatory document, attached in the “Open Science Compliance Form” field. |
Funding Statement
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Studies that obtained financial support must indicate the name of the institution and the process number on the Title Page, in addition to indicating, on the Author Contributions form, the author(s) responsible for obtaining this support. |
Contact
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ARQUIVOS BRASILEIROS DE OFTALMOLOGIA Official publication of the Brazilian Council of Ophthalmology - Conselho Brasileiro de Oftalmologia (CBO). Rua Casa do Ator, 1.117 - 2nd floor - Zip Code: 04546-004 São Paulo - SP, Brasil TEL: +55 11 3266-4000 E-mail: editorialoffice.abo@cbo.email |