Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery®

What Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery® does

The Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery® (JCRS) is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal that publishes clinical and experimental research on cataract surgery, refractive surgery, intraocular lenses, corneal procedures, and related ophthalmic topics. Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, the journal operates with a staff of 14 and is co-owned and co-published on behalf of ASCRS (American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery) and ESCRS (European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons). It serves practicing ophthalmologists, refractive surgeons, academic researchers, medical students, and institutional readers through peer-reviewed clinical articles, case studies, outcomes research, and surgical technique reviews.

The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc., through its Lippincott Williams & Wilkins imprint, and is distributed globally via the Ovid medical research platform. Supporting technology includes the Editorial Manager online manuscript submission and peer-review portal, eTOC email alerts, and institutional site-license subscription fulfillment — all operated under Wolters Kluwer's publishing infrastructure. The journal carries an Impact Factor of 3.7, ranks 22 of 98 in the Ophthalmology category and 42 of 312 in Surgery, and operates on a monthly publication cadence (Volume 52, Issue 8 as of August 2026). Leadership consists of two co-Editors-in-Chief (William J. Dupps Jr., MD, PhD, and Thomas Kohnen, MD, PhD, FEBO) and two Associate Editors.

Revenue derives primarily from recurring institutional subscriptions (academic medical centers, university libraries, hospitals), individual subscriptions via shop.lww.com, and manuscript submission/publication fees paid by authors. The journal does not file a standalone P&L, as it operates as a business unit within Wolters Kluwer Health, the U.S. subsidiary of publicly traded Wolters Kluwer N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam: WKL). Its competitive position rests on dual-society endorsement, a decades-deep citation library, and the global institutional reach of the Ovid platform.

Name

Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery®

Legal name

Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

Website

https://jcrsjournal.org

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal publishing clinical research on cataract and refractive surgery, serving ophthalmologists, surgeons, and academic institutions worldwide via Wolters Kluwer's Ovid platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Ophthalmology Medical Journal

NAICS

Periodical Publishers (51312)

SIC

Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Cornea, External Disease & Refractive Surgery (LASIK/PRK) (HLAKAKAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Cataract Surgery Systems & IOLs (Phaco Systems, IOLs, Intraoperative Aberrometry, Viscoelastics) (HLAHAJAH), Refractive Surgery Systems (Excimer/Femtosecond Lasers, Phakic IOL Systems, Wavefront/Guidance) (HLAHAJAG)

Keywords

• Peer-reviewed ophthalmology journals
• Cataract surgery research
• Refractive surgery publications
• Academic medical publishing
• Clinical surgery literature

Headquarters

HQ city

Philadelphia

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Institutional Subscriptions: Academic institutions, medical centers, and libraries subscribe for access to the journal content through the Ovid platform
2. Individual Subscriptions: Individual ophthalmologists, surgeons, and researchers subscribe directly through shop.lww.com
3. Article Publication/Author Fees: Authors pay manuscript submission and publication fees for peer-reviewed articles

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

The Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal (ISSN 0886-3350) that publishes clinical and experimental research on cataract surgery, refractive surgery, intraocular lenses, corneal procedures, and related ophthalmic topics. It is published on behalf of ASCRS and ESCRS by Wolters Kluwer Health through the Ovid® platform, with distribution to academic institutions, medical libraries, and individual ophthalmologists and refractive surgeons worldwide, supplemented by an Editorial Manager manuscript submission system and eTOC Alerts notification service.

Product overview

The Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery is a peer-reviewed medical journal published monthly on the Ovid platform by Wolters Kluwer Health. The journal focuses on publishing peer-reviewed clinical and experimental research on cataract surgery, refractive surgery, and related ophthalmic procedures. The product portfolio consists of the core journal subscription/access service (providing full-text articles, current issue highlights, and latest articles), supplemented by the Editorial Manager platform for manuscript submission and the eTOC Alerts service for subscription notifications. The journal has an Impact Factor of 3.7 and is ranked 22/98 in Ophthalmology and 42/312 in Surgery.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery (monthly peer-reviewed print and digital subscription) A monthly peer-reviewed medical journal (ISSN 0886-3350, online ISSN 1873-4502) publishing clinical and experimental research on cataract surgery, refractive surgery, intraocular lenses, corneal procedures, and related ophthalmic surgical topics. Delivered monthly (12 issues per year) to academic institutions, medical libraries, and individual ophthalmologists and refractive surgeons through the Ovid® research platform and shop.lww.com. Impact Factor 3.7; ranked 22/98 in Ophthalmology and 42/312 in Surgery.
• Institutional and individual journal subscription access (Ovid platform / shop.lww.com) Subscription access to the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery offered through Wolters Kluwer's Ovid platform for institutional enterprise subscribers (academic medical centers, university libraries, hospitals) and through shop.lww.com for individual ophthalmologists and researchers. Provides full-text articles, current issue content, and archive access.
• Editorial Manager manuscript submission and peer review portal Online manuscript submission and peer review management portal for the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery, used by authors to submit manuscripts and by editors to coordinate double-blind peer review for cataract and refractive surgery research.
• eTOC Alerts electronic table-of-contents email service Email alert subscription service that notifies Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery subscribers each time a new monthly issue is published, with links to the latest articles on the Ovid platform.

Quantifiable outcome

• Impact Factor 3.7 demonstrating significant citation and academic influence
• +2 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• ASCRS (American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerASCRS is a professional society that co-owns and co-publishes the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery. The journal serves as the official publication venue for the society, providing peer-reviewed research to members and advancing the society's educational mission in cataract and refractive surgery.
• ESCRS (European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerESCRS is a European professional society that co-owns and co-publishes the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery alongside ASCRS. The journal represents the official publication for both major ophthalmology societies, serving their combined international memberships.
• Wolters Kluwer Health (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins)coreTechnology or IntegrationWolters Kluwer Health, through its Lippincott Williams & Wilkins imprint, serves as the publisher and technology platform provider for the journal. They provide the Ovid research platform infrastructure, publishing technology, and distribution network for delivering journal content to academic and medical institutions worldwide.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves1 record

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• British Journal of Ophthalmology: BMJ's flagship ophthalmology journal and the official journal of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists. Directly comparable to JCRS in mission, peer-reviewed clinical research focus, and global readership, with similar society backing and impact factor tier.
• Eye (Nature Portfolio): Published by Springer Nature, Eye is the official journal of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and a leading peer-reviewed ophthalmology title. Directly comparable to JCRS in publishing model, audience, and editorial positioning within the ophthalmology specialty.
• Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science (IOVS): Official journal of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), focused on experimental and translational vision science. Comparable to JCRS as a high-impact ophthalmology research journal, though more experimental in focus versus JCRS's clinical-surgical orientation.
• JAMA Ophthalmology: Published by the American Medical Association as part of the JAMA Network, JAMA Ophthalmology is a high-impact peer-reviewed ophthalmology journal covering the full specialty. It competes with JCRS for top-tier ophthalmology research submissions and operates on a similar subscription + open access hybrid model.
• Acta Ophthalmologica: Official journal of the European Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology-adjacent Nordic and European ophthalmology societies. A peer-reviewed clinical and experimental ophthalmology journal directly comparable to JCRS in subspecialty depth and Wolters/Wiley-tier distribution.
• Cornea (journal): Wolters Kluwer's peer-reviewed journal dedicated to cornea and external disease, sharing the same publisher and Ovid platform as JCRS. Directly comparable as a high-impact subspecialty ophthalmology journal with overlapping editorial audiences and surgeon readership.
• Ophthalmology (AAO Journal): The flagship journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the most prominent peer-reviewed ophthalmology journal globally. Directly comparable to JCRS as a high-impact specialty medical journal competing for the same ophthalmologist and researcher readership, with similar Wolters Kluwer/Elsevier distribution dynamics.
• Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology: One of the oldest peer-reviewed ophthalmology journals (founded 1854), published by Springer. Directly comparable to JCRS in covering both clinical and experimental ophthalmology research with a long publication history and similar Impact Factor tier.

Broad incumbents

• The Lancet: One of the world's leading general medical journals published by Elsevier, occasionally publishing high-impact ophthalmology research. Comparable to JCRS as a peer-reviewed medical journal brand but operates at vastly broader scope and scale, serving as an aspirational general-medicine benchmark for citation impact.
• New England Journal of Medicine: The highest-impact peer-reviewed medical journal globally, published by Massachusetts Medical Society. Not a direct competitor for specialty manuscripts, but a comparable subscription-based medical publishing model and a reference point for institutional library subscription purchasing decisions that affect all specialty journals including JCRS.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/jcrs

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery®