Centennial review of corneal transplantation.

Abstract One hundred years ago, on 7 December 1905, Dr Eduard Zirm performed the world's first successful human corneal transplant. This significant milestone was achieved only after many decades of unsuccessful trial and error; however, it did not lead to relatively 'routine' keratoplasty success for several more decades. The idea of replacing an opaque cornea had been suggested for centuries, and had stimulated theoretical approaches to the problem by many esteemed physicians throughout history.

Ophthalmology and vision science research. Part 1: Understanding and using journal impact factors and citation indices.

In an increasingly "publish or perish" clinical and academic environment, all clinicians and clinician-scientists involved in research must have a firm understanding of the measures commonly used to assess the quality of scientific journals and, by default, those extended to grade individual articles and authors. The publication of research is a vital part of clinical and experimental research, and citation analyses of research publications have increasingly been adopted as a means of assessing the apparent quality of journals and the research published therein. In the first of a series of articles for those embarking on ophthalmic and vision science research, this paper discusses the key features of citation analysis, concentrating on the 2004 Journal Citation Report figures for the field of ophthalmology that include 42 ophthalmology, vision science, physiological optics, and optometry journals.