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| EDITORIAL |
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| Year : 2022 | Volume
: 10
| Issue : 3 | Page : 99-100 |
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Taking the curtain call – Handing over the baton
Barun K Nayak
Department of Ophthalmology, P. D. Hinduja Hospital and MRC, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
| Date of Submission | 17-Nov-2022 |
| Date of Decision | 18-Nov-2022 |
| Date of Acceptance | 18-Nov-2022 |
| Date of Web Publication | 1-Dec-2022 |
Correspondence Address:
Barun K Nayak
Department of Ophthalmology, P. D. Hinduja Hospital and MRC, Mumbai, Maharashtra
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/2320-3897.362497
How to cite this article:
Nayak BK. Taking the curtain call – Handing over the baton. J Clin Ophthalmol Res 2022;10:99-100 |
As Founder-Editor of Journal of Clinical Ophthalmology and Research (JCOR) I pen my thoughts to you with a heavy heart. I feel a sense of deep attachment to the journal as it is almost like an entity – the journal has taken birth, christened and grown over the past decade to what it is today.
I vividly remember the time when I started to work on the overhauling of the already existing Journal of Maharashtra Ophthalmological Society (JOMOS) but it was not without a reason. JOMOS was struggling in terms of looks, content and its reach outside the state of Maharashtra. It was around April–May 2012 when I started working on the idea of revamping the journal. The process was a tedious one but somebody had to resurrect the pride of our society and I took it upon myself to do it as I was well equipped with all the experience that I had gathered as Editor IJO for 2 terms of 3 years each. How else would I have contributed to my society for all the support they extended to me through my association with them?
The rest of 2012 was spent on the ground work and legal processes which come with launching of a new journal – I say new journal – because it was like giving birth to a new entity all over.[1] At this time I must make a mention of all the members of the then Managing Committee who understood the importance of this makeover. Dr. Anil Kulkarni was always ready with whole-hearted trust and support in the launch of both the journals. The toiling was well worth it because the first issue of the journal was a hit. We announced our arrival by sending the journal not only to our own Maharashtra Ophthalmological Soceity (MOS) members but to the entire fraternity in the country. The response to our launch was extremely positive. Many sent their best wishes and congratulatory messages to MOS for JCOR.
Although over the past decade, JCOR has grown to be a name to reckon with, it was not without sweat and tears. I am proud to share with you all today that the entire responsibility of bearing the burden of finance, which is the most integral part of publishing a journal was solely borne by the Editorial Team. I had personally gone to the extent of contacting each and every company I knew to get them enrolled into advertising in the JCOR. You will agree that it is a huge task to market something academic to corporates but I put to use the good will I had garnered over the years. With the progression of the journals things became easier – but it was only for about 4 –5 years, as after the golden period, the companies found it difficult to support us as it had a limited circulation, compared to other national ophthalmic journals. There were innumerable times when I have personally appealed to members of the Managing Committee at each and every opportunity that I got to use their good office and get us advertisements. Slowly but surely the advertisements in the journal started to dwindle till there came a time when there was not a single advertisement in the journal and yet I kept on my fight to not give up on the star product of our society. However, my dear friends, in all this chaos I saw light just once and that was a helping hand extended to me by our dear friend, Dr. Salil Gadkari, who unfortunately is not amongst us today. It was only Dr. Gadkari who understood my plight and came to my rescue and helped out the journal from coming to a grinding halt. I am making a mention of his name because I am totally indebted to him to acknowledge the problem and get it solved for the benefit and pride of the society.
Furthermore, under the aegis of MOS I took it upon myself to get two Glaucoma Society of India conferences to Mumbai in the year 2011 and 2015, out of which I garnered money which was used to keep JCOR afloat. I conducted innumerable successful Research Methodology Workshops, where many participants came in and through the years, the quantity and quality of articles which were submitted to JCOR improved drastically. Within a couple of years, we had people sending in their articles from all over the country and abroad.
Having given it all that I had, time has now come to hand over the baton to our younger and more energetic members who are very able and wanting to carry the good work to greater heights. I will always be there for guidance and advise to the entire team. It is a very fulfilling task, but it needs lot of hard work and learning of a different kind. One should be up to date on the many new milestones which keep coming … like JCOR a couple of years ago got registered with Directory of Open Access Journal (DOAJ). All these tags help in the journal being seen by one and all on the web world and attracts authors to submit their quality articles to the journal.
I wish the new JCOR team the very best for taking it to newer heights.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Nayak BK. A fledgeling journal. J Clin Ophthalmol Res 2013;1:1.  [Full text] |
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