Arquivos Brasileiros de Oftalmologia (ABO) participated in the 2018 Meeting of the Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), which was the largest meeting on research on vision and ophthalmology. At the ABO booth, attendees from around the world had a chance to learn about the Brazilian journal and even talk to some editors. The event was held at the end of April and beginning of May in Honolulu, HI, USA, with more than 10,000 participants. ABO first participated in an ARVO meeting in Baltimore, MD, USA in 2017, which was conducted with the support of the Brazilian Council of Ophthalmology (Conselho Brasileiro de Oftalmologia, CBO). This was part of a continuing effort toward internationalization adopted by previous editorial boards of ABO^(1-5).

Why were we there? Because it is important to present the essence of ABO to the world ophthalmological community⁽¹⁾. We are a world-class Brazilian scientific journal, without fees for authors, with open access for readers, and are indexed at major scientific platforms for searching and indexing in medical sciences, but ot well known to researchers and ophthalmologists in other countries. ABO has been published without interruption for 80 years. What do we want from the world ophthalmological community? We want them to be involved with our journal, to read the articles published in this journal, and to cite our articles in their lectures and their publications. Moreover, we were there as editors to invite ophthalmologists and researchers from all over the world to submit their best manuscripts, including clinical cases, reviews, and scientific contributions, to be published in ABO.

ARVO 2018 offered a remarkable opportunity to achieve these goals and to continue learning in the field of ophthalmology. We were able to share our scientific achievements, conduct discussions with leaders from different fields and demonstrate the advances in Brazilian ophthalmological science.

Along with 5 days of intensive scientific program, we witnessed the Cogan award given to Prof. Felipe Medeiros. The Cogan award is a high recognition award given every year to a young professor based on his/her achievements in science. The excellent lecture by Prof. Medeiros, explaining his discoveries and technological advances in glaucoma diagnosis, left no doubt about his merited award; to the best of our knowledge, this is the first time the award has been presented to a Brazilian ophthalmologist since decades when the award was initiated. When acknowledging the award, Prof. Medeiros mentioned Prof. Remo Susanna Jr. as a pillar of his brilliant career.

In this 2018 meeting, Prof. Solange Rios Salomão was invited and presented a lecture about ophthalmological research in Brazil. Several young Brazilian young researchers were awarded travel grants based on the quality of their work, among residents and post-graduate students from all over the world.

In summary, ABO was at ARVO 2018 to present a great 80-year-old journal, as Prof. Rubens Belfort Jr. detailed in an editorial here in ABO⁽⁶⁾, ready to meet future challenges in scientific communication and to participate in the most important meeting on ophthalmological research in the world.

REFERENCES

1. Rocha EM. A great season for internationalization of brazilian medical research. Arq Bras Oftalmol. 2011;74(6):391-2.

2. Chamon W. ABO entered ScholarOne system. Arq Bras Oftalmol. 2012;75(4):231-4.

3. Chamon W. The language issue in Brazilian ophthalmological journals. Arq Bras Oftalmol. 2013;76(1):5-8.

4. Bicas HE, Dantas PE, Campos M, Muccioli C, Moral C. [Scientific publishing in Brazil and its growth]. Arq Bras Oftalmol. 2008; 71(3):309.Portuguese.

5. Dantas PE, Campos M, Muccioli C, Bicas HE. [ABOONLINE goes trilingual]. Arq Bras Oftalmol. 2008;71(2):135. Portuguese.

6. Belfort R, Jr. 80 years of Arquivos Brasileiros de Oftalmologia (ABO). Arq Bras Oftalmol. 2018;81(1):0.

Submitted for publication: May 15, 2018.
Accepted for publication: May 22, 2018.

Funding: No specific financial support was available for this study

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest: None of the authors have any potential conflicts of interest to disclose