English, as we at the BJO would be the first to point out, is a perfectly splendid language, but it does have one drawback: roughly six billion people don’t speak it. As a first step in addressing the non-anglophone sector of the ophthalmological world, BJO Online is introducing a new feature: BJO in Translation.

The language barrier has remained surprisingly impervious to advances in the medical journal model. Readers and contributors from around the world still accommodate themselves to the hegemonic languages of the major journals. This was understandable in the pre-digital age, when the printing and distribution costs of the traditional print medical journal precluded the publication of multiple versions in multiple languages. But with the wide adoption of electronic publication over the past decade, such considerations have been obviated. Page limitations …