Don't make the sclera white, don't make the sclera too bright. The diffuse of the sclera should not be too much lighter or brighter than average Caucasian skin. Keep in mind that the eye also has sss so you don't want harsh shading. Make sure the specular isn't too intense, the specular should be pretty subtle or else…
The iris isn't actually concave though, a flat surface or slightly convex works and reduces that issue. But I do agree, that clipping bit is annoying. I think we used to have a setup where we had a sphere for geometry, and two different normals maps. A convex for the diffuse and a concave for the specular. I didn't set the…