title: The optometric literature: an editor's perspective.
abstract: I reviewed optometric literature trends and compared them with those of the medical literature. Several journals were surveyed and the published articles classified and counted over 5 or more years. Parallel changes seem to be occurring in the medical and optometric literature, including shorter articles, more authors per paper, and fewer case reports and anecdotal reports. It is impractical and unproductive to attempt to classify a paper as basic science or clinical science because the disciplines overlap. Fads wax and wane over cycles of about 10 years. Clinical research needs more support.
authors.affiliation: School of Optometry, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: W M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Lyle
mesh_terms: D009907:Optometry / Q000639:trends*; D011643:Publishing / Q000639:trends*; D012106:Research; D014481:United States