Editorial

Full text: Welcome to issue 1 of 2012 and a belated Happy New Year to all CLAE readers and BCLA members. The hardest job I had for this issue was to decide which papers to include and which papers to hang on to and save for issue 2 of 2012. At the end of December when I was choosing the content for this issue there were additional 5 papers that could have been included. The final choice came down to various factors; such as first come first served – i.e. which papers had been ready and waiting the longest; secondly which papers had been submitted the earliest; are there similar papers so that it may be beneficial to publish them alongside this paper; and also was the content something which needed to be out there quicker than other papers as it was a current hot topic? But it should be noted that once papers are proofed and deemed ready by authors they are published in the epub version and put online for others to see in their final version. An epub version is given a DOI number (digital object identifier) so that it can be cited by other authors. Apart from being on line the only other difference is that an epub version is essentially waiting to be assigned to a particular issue. So those papers that are being held off for issue 2 of this year are actually already available for you to read (and cite) on line.
In this issue there is a paper related to the cost of different contact lens replacement schedules – this may be a topic that is debated more in the future since as a society we are thinking more ‘green’ and all trying to help by reducing our carbon footprint, whether that be by recycling or using less in the first place. A timely review paper on the management of allergic eye disease may help us to better manage those patients we see in the spring with pollen allergies. We have two papers looking at different aspects in keratoconus patients, another looking at a modified fluoret strip and its application in measuring tear break up time and a review paper on corneal erosions. Another interesting paper comes from Professor Harminder Dua and his team. Professor Dua is the UK Royal College of Ophthalmologists’ president and has been interested in corneal anatomy and physiology for much of his research career. Finally, an unusual case of an ocular injury related to a snake bite. Overall I would say there is enough to sink your ‘fangs’ into!
Finally, it gives me great pleasure in announcing the newest person to join our Editorial Board, Dr Florence Malet. Dr Malet is an Ophthalmologist and since September 2000 she has been at the Bordeaux Hospital in France developing the Contact Lens Unit of in the Ophthalmology University Department. She is ex-president of the French Contact Lens Society and president of the European Contact Lens Society of Ophthalmologists.