Editorial Policies

Aims & Scope

The journal aims to serve ophthalmologists and researchers from various fields related to vision science worldwide. It is dedicated to advancing global ophthalmology, fostering interdisciplinary innovations in clinical diagnosis and treatment, and promoting the development of precision ophthalmic research. Areas of focus include but are not limited to, artificial intelligence in ophthalmology, multimodal innovative treatments for eye diseases, ophthalmic multi-omics, and the latest advancements in ophthalmology.

Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship Criteria

Eye Science adheres to the authorship criteria established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Each author must meet the criteria for authorship, which the ICMJE recommends as the following 4 criteria:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
3. Final approval of the version to be published;
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that any issues related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Corresponding Author

The corresponding author is responsible for a submission and all communication with the journal. The corresponding author must notify the editors and editorial office, via the submission form, of the following:

• Identify any guest authors, i.e., individuals who do not meet authorship criteria but have made a substantial contribution to the research or writing of the manuscript.
• Confirm that there are no “ghost authors”, i.e., individuals who have made a substantial contribution but do not qualify as an author and have not been disclosed to the editor.
• Submission of ICMJE conflict of interest disclosure form and Copyright Transfer Agreement for all authors; conflict of interest disclosures must also be reported on the manuscript's title page.

Research Group/Writing Committee Authorship

If the research group or writing committee is credited as the author and the chair of the group serves as the corresponding author, this should be indicated on the title page. However, if the corresponding author is not the group chair, a statement from the chair must be submitted, confirming that the group or committee members listed as authors on the title page are correct. The journal encourages transparency regarding authorship to editors, reviewers, and readers.

For initial group papers and subsequent articles, members can be acknowledged either directly in print, by reference to a previous paper, or in online supplemental material. Members should be listed in the byline as follows: "...for the XYZ Research Group" or "...on behalf of the XYZ Group." If group members are listed as authors, they must meet authorship criteria and submit the required forms. If the list of group members is provided only in an online file, those individuals will not be indexed as co-authors.

To ensure transparency, the journal follows these policies regarding research group or writing committee authorship:

• if an individual is authoring on behalf of a group (e.g., a group chair), the byline should appear as follows:

Mei LI, MD for the XYZ Research Group

• For small research groups (10 or fewer members), authorship may be attributed to the group itself or include the names of the writing committee members followed by “and the XYZ Research Group,” provided all members meet authorship criteria. Otherwise, only those who qualify as authors should be listed, with the remaining members acknowledged separately. Example:

Xin AN MD.; Hongmei ZHAO PhD; Hongfei HUANG PhD; and the XYZ Research Group

• For large research groups (more than 10 members), authorship should not be attributed to the group as a whole. Given the size of such groups, it is unlikely that every member has contributed sufficiently to meet the authorship criteria outlined above. Instead, large research groups should follow one of the following formats:
• List the writing committee members as authors, followed by "for the XYZ Research Group."
• Alternatively, use "Writing Committee for the XYZ Research Group*" as the author, with the names of the writing committee members provided at the end of the article, marked with an asterisk.

In either case, all writing committee members must meet authorship criteria and submit the required forms. Example:

Xin AN MD.; Hongmei ZHAO PhD; Hongfei HUANG PhD for the XYZ Research Group

OR

The Writing Committee for Xin AN MD.; Hongmei ZHAO PhD; Hongfei HUANG PhD; and the XYZ Research Group*

OR

The ABC Collaborative Research Group Writing Committee*

To ensure the contributions of the writing committee or research group members are searchable, the submission must include a Word file listing each writing committee or research group member. This file should be uploaded as a “Collaborators” document type. When listed as collaborators, an expandable listing under "Collaborators" should be provided as part of the article record. Expandable authorship is suitable in the following cases: (1) When the byline includes only a group name. (2) When the byline includes a group name along with individual authors who are not members of the collaborative group (e.g., individual author names followed by ", and the XYZ Group," where participating group members are not included in the byline).

For any deviation from these authorship guidelines, authors must contact the editorial office at es@gzzoc.com prior to submission. The Executive Editor-in-Chief and/or Editor-in-Chief will evaluate each case individually in consultation with the corresponding author.

Article Processing Charges

Copyright

Copyright Policy

When submitting their manuscripts, all authors must sign and submit the Copyright Transfer Agreement provided by the journal. Under this agreement, all authors of the submitted article agree to transfer the full copyright in both the entire article and the figures, tables, abstracts and other parts that can be extracted from the article to the sponsor of Eye Science—Sun Yat-sen University. This transfer includes, but is not limited to, the rights of reproduction, distribution, dissemination through information networks, translation, adaptation, compilation, broadcasting, exhibition, etc. The copyright of the article will belong to Sun Yat-sen University, and the editorial office of Eye Science will represent Sun Yat-sen University in exercising the relevant rights.
Click to download the Copyright Transfer Agreement

Rights of Authors

Once an article is published in Eye Science, the authors of the article will have the following rights:

1. The authors may use the article under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, such as reproducing the article and distributing it for non-commercial purposes.
2. They may use the article, in whole or in part, in their own authored monographs or dissertations, provided that Eye Science is cited as the source of the article.
3. They may use the article for classroom teaching purposes, including in slides.
4. They may upload the article to their personal website or blog, provided that Eye Science is cited as the source or they link to the electronic version of the article on the Eye Science website.
5. They may reuse figures or tables from the article, provided that Eye Science is cited as the source.

Author Self-archiving

The journal permits authors to self-archive their articles. Authors may deposit all versions of their article in an institutional or other knowledge repository of their choice. However, it should be clearly indicated in the repository that the article was originally published in Eye Science.

Conflict of Interest

To uphold academic integrity and ensure research transparency, Eye Science strictly adheres to the guidelines on conflict of interest set by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Conflicts of interest include any financial or other interests that could potentially bias the authors' work, affecting the objectivity and credibility of the research.

In accordance with the requirements of ICMJE, all authors are required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest related to their submitted manuscripts. The purpose of this disclosure is to provide readers with information that may help them evaluate factors that could influence the authors' judgment. Conflicts of interest include relationships—whether financial or personal—with any profit or non-profit entities that may be affected by the manuscript's content.

We require all authors to complete and submit the ICMJE Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form during the initial manuscript submission and update the form when necessary. This process can be completed at the time of the first revision of the manuscript, but never later than the acceptance of the manuscript.

Each published article will include a “Conflict of Interest” statement. If no conflicts are disclosed, the statement will indicate that “None of the authors has any conflicts of interest to disclose.” If any conflicts are disclosed, the statement will list all potential conflicts reported by the authors.

Before the manuscript is accepted, the corresponding author must confirm or update the conflict-of-interest statement. This confirmation or update is an essential part of the review process and is the final step before the manuscript is accepted.

For more information about conflicts of interest and to access the disclosure form, please visit the ICMJE website (http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/).

Publication Ethics

Eye Science adheres to the ethical standards established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Authors, editors, and reviewers are expected to fulfill the following responsibilities, in addition to complying with the specific policies and requirements of the journal:

1. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are obligated to ensure that their submissions do not involve state secrets, do not infringe upon intellectual property rights, and to avoid the following forms of academic misconduct:

1) Multiple Submissions

Authors must guarantee that their manuscript is not submitted to multiple journals simultaneously, and that its content has not been published in any other journal or media in any language. Authors must also refrain from submitting the manuscript elsewhere before receiving an official rejection notice from the editorial office of Eye Science.

2) Plagiarism

Authors are responsible for ensuring the originality of their submissions, free from any falsification, deceit, or plagiarism.

To avoid accusations of plagiarism, authors must clearly cite sources for any referenced material. If third-party content is used in the paper, explicit permission must be obtained, and proper credit must be given in accordance with copyright law to avoid infringing upon others' intellectual property rights.

3) Duplicate Publication

Authors must not intentionally submit or publish a previously published paper or represent already published data as original research in a new submission.

4) Fabrication and Falsification

Under no circumstances should authors fabricate, alter, or manipulate original research records, experimental data, images, or other materials. If an article is suspected of containing falsified information, the editorial office reserves the right to request original research data for verification.

Authors must strictly avoid all forms of academic misconduct. If any violation is identified, it will be dealt with seriously: manuscripts found to contain academic misconduct before publication will be immediately rejected; if discovered post-publication, a correction or retraction will be issued to rectify the situation. For severe cases of misconduct, such as multiple submissions within a restricted timeframe, Eye Science will notify peer journals and refuse to accept future submissions from the offending authors.

2. Responsibilities of Editors

1) Editors should handle all submissions in a fair, equitable, and timely manner.

2) Editors are responsible for detecting academic misconduct in all submissions. If any forms of academic misconduct are discovered, the manuscript should be immediately rejected.

3) Editors must adhere to the confidentiality requirements of the journal, keeping the information of reviewers and the research content of authors strictly confidential.

4) To ensure fairness in evaluation, editors should carefully consider any requests by authors to exclude certain reviewers. Regarding peer reviewers recommended by authors, editors should verify the authenticity of their information and decide whether to use the recommended reviewers based on their field of research, expertise, and potential conflicts of interest with the authors.

5) Editors should not interfere with the peer review process to ensure the independence and fairness of reviewers' evaluations.

6) Editors should respect the opinions of reviewers and provide authors with detailed feedback for revisions. If authors have objections, they should be allowed to appeal.

7) Editors are responsible for ensuring the authenticity of each review stage. Editors have the responsibility to keep review materials safe and strictly confidential.

8) Editors should handle all submissions in a timely manner within a reasonable timeframe, ensure that research achievements meeting the journal's requirements and quality standards are published promptly, and strive to shorten the duration between manuscript acceptance and publication.

3. Responsibilities of Reviewers

(1) Reviewers are expected to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the manuscript, maintaining objectivity and fairness, and adhering to professional ethics without pursuing personal gain.

(2) Reviewers should not allow factors such as religion, political views, gender, or geographic location to affect their judgment of the manuscript's academic merit.

(3) Reviewers should withdraw from the review process if they are aware of any potential conflicts of interest with the authors to ensure the impartiality of the review process.

(4) Reviewers are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the review materials and must not disclose any content of the manuscript or review results to others.

(5) Review comments should be based on scientific facts, maintain objectivity, avoid professional bias, and provide constructive suggestions to address weaknesses in the research. 

Human and Animal Rights

For research involving human subjects, we require adherence to the following ethical guidelines:

1. Informed Consent:Informed consent must be obtained from participants in all studies involving human subjects. A clear statement that informed consent has been obtained should be included in the submitted manuscript.
2. Institutional Review Board (IRB) / Ethics Committee Approval:For research involving human subjects, human-derived materials, or human medical records, the manuscript must include a statement confirming that the study has received approval from an IRB or ethics committee. Alternatively, if approval was deemed unnecessary by the IRB/ethics committee, this should also be stated.
3. Declaration of Helsinki:Research must comply with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki, and a statement confirming this adherence should be included in the manuscript.
4. Clinical Trial Registration:For clinical trials, the manuscript must include a statement regarding the trial's registration, along with information on how the registration details can be accessed.

For research involving animal subjects, the following requirements apply:

Animal Care and Use: Any study involving animals must receive approval from the relevant Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), and a statement of approval should be included in the manuscript.

Clinical Trials and Clinical Trial Registration

Data Sharing

Eye Science believes that data sharing is crucial for enhancing research transparency, facilitating the accumulation of scientific knowledge, and validating research results. We encourage and support authors in sharing their research data whenever feasible and appropriate, and we ask that they provide links to access these data.

When submitting a manuscript, authors are required to provide a detailed data-sharing statement form. This statement should specify the following:

• Whether de-identified individual participant data, including a data dictionary, will be shared ("undecided" is not an acceptable answer);
• The specific types of data to be shared;
• Whether additional research materials, such as study protocols or statistical analysis plans, will be provided;
• The timing, duration, and access criteria for shared data (including with whom, for what types of analyses, and by what mechanism).

Data Availability Statement

To promote research transparency, we encourage authors to include a data availability statement in their submission. This may be required by their funding body or institution. If the data are unavailable or unsuitable for public access, authors should provide an explanation during submission, such as data confidentiality.

Data Linking

If authors have deposited their research data in a data repository, they can link their article directly to the dataset.

Data visualization

Declaration of Generative AI in scientific writing

Plagiarism Screening Policy

Our journal strives to maintain academic integrity in publishing. All manuscripts submitted will be screened for plagiarism using the Turnitin plagiarism detection system. The manuscripts will undergo plagiarism screening at the following stages:

• The initial submission of the manuscript
• The final manuscript, after review process

If a manuscript is found to contain plagiarism or self-plagiarism at any stage before publication, it will be immediately rejected.

For articles that have already been published, the following steps will be taken to address plagiarism accusations:

1. The complainant contacts the editorial office of the journal.
2. The complainant specifies the plagiarized sections by clearly referencing both the original and suspected articles.
3. The editorial office conducts an investigation, maintaining communication with the corresponding author(s) of the suspected article.
4. The corresponding author(s) will be asked to provide an explanation.
5. If the author(s) fail to respond within the specified timeframe or provide an unsatisfactory explanation, the article may be permanently retracted.

Appeals and Complaints

To ensure transparency and fairness in handling appeals and complaints, Eye Science has established the following detailed procedures:

1. Submitting an Appeal or Complaint: Authors should submit appeals or complaints via email to the editorial office at es@gzzoc.com. The email should clearly explain the reasons for the appeal or complaint and include any relevant evidence or supporting materials.
2. Clear and Substantial Grounds: Appeals should clearly demonstrate why the journal’s decision was evidently wrong. Valid reasons might include misunderstandings of the review comments, neglect of critical evidence, or procedural errors during the review process.
3. Processing Appeals or Complaints: All appeals and complaints will be handled by the Editor-in-Chief unless there is a conflict of interest. In such cases, aDeputy Editor will handle the matter.
4. Editor-in-Chief's Authority: The Editor-in-Chief holds the final decision-making authority for all complaints and appeals. We understand that authors may be dissatisfied with a manuscript rejection, particularly those rejected before peer review. However, such decisions are typically based on the manuscript not fitting the journal's scope or not meeting our quality standards. Unless new evidence is provided or there is a substantial reason to challenge the initial review, these decisions are unlikely to change during the appeals process.
5. Peer Review Process: For manuscripts that have undergone peer review, the Editor-in-Chief will typically not overturn the review outcome unless the appeal highlights clear errors or bias in the review process.

Eye Science is committed to giving all appeals and complaints fair and thorough consideration to uphold the best interests of both the authors and the journal. We encourage authors to carefully review our guidelines and policies before submitting an appeal and to provide detailed information and arguments to support their case.

Post-publication Corrections and Commentary

Consent for Use of Identifying Material

Open Access Statement

Eye Science is a peer-reviewed, open access journal. From its establishment in 2024, all articles published in the journal are open access works. Upon publication, the full texts of all articles are immediately available on the journal's official website and are permanently and freely accessible to all users.

The journal adopts the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Under this license, users are allowed to copy and distribute the articles published in this journal in any medium or format, provided they comply with the following terms:

When copying and distributing the articles, users must provide appropriate attribution, provide a link to the license, and indicate whether any changes have been made to the original article. Users may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the journal endorses the use. In addition, the articles must not be used for commercial purposes. If the articles are remixed, transformed, or built upon, the modified articles must not be distributed. For more detailed information about this license, please visit:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Advertisement

1. Advertising Approval: All advertisements are subject to approval by the editorial office of the journal. The decision on whether to publish an advertisement is made collectively during the editorial office meetings.
2. Compliance: Advertisements must comply with the Advertising Law and relevant regulations. Advertisers are required to provide business licenses and necessary qualifications. Any advertisement that violates advertising laws or lacks proper documentation will not be published.
3. Independence: Advertisements will be placed on the cover, back cover, or other designated sections of the print journal. They are completely separate from academic content, and no advertisements will appear within the scholarly articles. Moreover, the presence of advertisements will not influence the review, editing, or acceptance of any manuscript submitted to the journal. Advertisers are not allowed to interfere with the publication of academic content.

Manuscript Handling

Review Process

1. Initial Review:All submissions are initially reviewed by the editors to determine whether the manuscript meets the scope and standards of the journal.
2. Peer Review:The journal follows a double anonymous peer review process to ensure fairness. Eligible manuscripts are sent to at least two independent reviewers who assess the scientific quality of the work. Once the reviewers' comments are returned, the editorial office reviews them and organizes feedback for the authors. If revisions are requested, authors should follow the reviewers' and editors' suggestions to revise the manuscript and submit a revised version within the specified timeframe.
3. Final Decision by the Editor-in-Chief:Manuscripts that pass peer review will undergo a final review by the Editor-in-Chief, who will make the final decision on acceptance. The Editor-in-Chief's decision is final.

Review Policy

1. Reviewer Selection:Potential reviewers for a manuscript are typically identified by Editorial Board Members, journal authors, or from our reviewer database. When necessary, reviewers may be selected from scholarly databases such as PubMed or Web of Science. To ensure a convenient and efficient peer review process, reviews are conducted electronically and can be tracked via our journal system (journal website).
2. Conflict of Interest:Editors, editorial board members, and reviewers are not allowed to participate in the review or decision-making process for manuscripts submitted by themselves, their family members, colleagues, or anyone with whom they have a conflict of interest.
3. In-house Submissions:Submissions from the journal's editors, editorial board members, and reviewers are subject to the same review and editorial process as all other submissions. The review and editorial process of these submissions are conducted independently of the involved editors, board members, reviewers, or their research groups.
4. Special Issue Review:The above review process also applies to manuscripts submitted for special issues. Such manuscripts go through the same review and editorial process as regular submissions, with the Editor-in-Chief making the final decision. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for all content in the journal, including special issues. In some cases, the editorial office may invite leading experts in relevant fields to serve as guest editors for the special issue. Their duties include helping solicit manuscripts, organizing peer reviews, and addressing any issues related to the publication of the special issue. The work of guest editors is overseen by the editorial office and the Editor-in-Chief to ensure a fair review process.
5. DoubleAnonymous Peer Review:

In this model, both the reviewer and the author remain anonymous. Some advantages of this model include:

• Author anonymity reduces reviewer bias, such as that related to an author's gender, country of origin, academic status, or previous publication history.
• Articles by prestigious or renowned authors are assessed based on their content rather than their reputation.

For our journal, which employs a double anonymous peer review process, the identities of both reviewers and authors are concealed throughout the review. To support this, authors must ensure their manuscripts are prepared to avoid revealing their identities to reviewers, either directly or indirectly.

Submissions for Double Anonymous Peer Review

The following items must be included in the submission and provided as separate files:

1) Title Page: The title page is kept separate from the manuscript throughout the peer review process and is not shared with reviewers. It should include:

• The manuscript title
• All authors' names and affiliations
• A contact address for the corresponding author, including an email address
• Acknowledgments
• Conflict of interest statement

2) Anonymized Manuscript: Authors must ensure that all identifiable information is removed from the manuscript, including names and institutional affiliations of the authors before submission. In addition to removing author details under the manuscript title, the following steps should be taken to ensure the manuscript is properly anonymized:

• Use the third person when referring to the authors’ previous work
• Make sure that figures and tables do not contain any reference to author affiliations.
• Exclude acknowledgments and any references to funding sources from the manuscript. These details should be included on the title page to inform the editor.
• Choose file names carefully to avoid identifying information.
• Ensure the file properties are anonymized. For Microsoft Office 2007 or later, consider using the Document Inspector Tool prior to submission.
• Take care not to inadvertently include identifying information in any files that will be shared with reviewers. All file types, except the title page, cover letter, and LaTeX source files, are typically included in the version of the manuscript sent to reviewers.

Revision Submission

When revisions are requested, the corresponding author will receive an email containing the revision decision along with comments from reviewers and/or editors. To proceed, login as an author at https://journal.gzzoc.org.cn/ using your username and password. The manuscript will be listed in the author menu under "Submissions Needing Revision".

Carefully review the editor's and reviewers' comments, and revise your files accordingly. Prepare two versions of the revised manuscript: a clean version with all changes accepted and a tracked changes version showing all modifications. Once the revisions are complete, return to https://journal.gzzoc.org.cn/. Under "Submissions Needing Revision", select "Revise Submission" to begin the submission process. Revised manuscripts must be submitted within 60 days.

The following file types must be uploaded to submit a revised article:

• Manuscript File (the clean revised version)
• Revised Manuscript File with Track Changes
• Author Contribution Form
• ICMJE Conflict of Interest Form (one per author)
• Cover Letter
• Response to Reviewers (Point-by-Point response)

Before finalizing your submission, you will have an opportunity to review the completed revised version. Please read and acknowledge the Publication Ethics statement before clicking the "Complete Submission" button.

If you choose to withdraw your paper instead of submitting a revision, please log in to the system and select "Decline to Revise".

Editing & Publishing Process

After one to three rounds of review and revision, the final accepted manuscripts are sent to native English-speaking language editors for complimentary language editing.

• The edited manuscript is passed to the copy editors.
• The copy editors cross-edit the manuscripts and contact the authors with copyediting questions.
• The copyedited manuscript is passed to the typesetting editor.
• The typesetting editor typesets the manuscript with InDesign to produce a PDF.
• The eProof editors contact the authors for proofreading.
• The HTML/XML editors produce HTML and XML electronic versions of the manuscript.
• The manuscript is published in “Articles in Press”.
• The manuscript is officially published in a specific issue of a journal and distributed.