Why do most health care professionals read a journal? Why bother to attend a professional meeting? We have so many competing places for our time and viewing. As clinicians we want to connect with the latest information to improve our practice and be more effective. Do you trust what you are reading? When attending a professional meeting or reading a new journal issue, we expect quality information from reputable sources.

Those of us in academia may be very familiar with the e-mail that starts out with something like, "Esteemed Colleague," followed by effusive generic praise for your groundbreaking research. Continuing on to invite you to be the keynote speaker for some yet unknown conference halfway around the world. You may have also been solicited to join the editorial board or submit some of your extraordinary research for some never before seen journal. It's flattering at first and then you read the fine print. You pay. No oversight. No review. No editorial standards. You just pay-a lot. These are called predatory conferences and predatory publications. They are designed to exploit researchers as they appear to be a legitimate means of scientific discourse. They are not to be believed. Predatory journals are fake, for profit-only, publishing. Outrage at these practices has been voiced by others in physical therapy.1

We all face a time crunch. Burke et al2 reported that physical medicine residents quickly scanned through a few journals for useful information, indicating that they did not have time to read as much as they would like. In an older study, Saint et al3 found that while internists had limited time for critical reading, they highly valued peer review and article prescreening by journal editors and stated that these practices should remain an essential component of clinical journals. When you devote some of your valuable time to read journal articles or attend a conference, you want credible evidence to improve clinical care. You expect that the information presented has been subjected to proper vetting and that experts have evaluated the quality of the content and judged it to be beneficial.

I am so proud of the work that has been accomplished by the Journal of Women's Health Physical Therapy (JWHPT) Editorial Board to enhance the quality of our journal and maintain our high editorial standards. Our publisher reports the readership continues to climb in every metric and was read last year in more than 30 countries. To help meet this increased demand, last year we began presenting articles Published Online First so that they can be accessed online before appearing in an issue. Thanks to your support, as well as the JWHPT readers, authors, and reviewers, I am honored to announce that we now will be publishing 4 issues each year.

In this our first of 4 issues for 2019, we begin with a new feature, video abstracts. In brief 3- to 5-minute videos, the primary author speaks directly to you, providing you with insights into the significance and clinical relevance of his or her research. In this issue, you will find 6 thought-provoking articles. Dr Steve Fisher and colleagues inaugurate our video abstracts, discussing their research demonstrating that improvements in urinary incontinence corresponded with significant improvements in fear of falling. Dr Lydia Futch Thurston and associates present results of their survey of physical therapists' views on clinical education in pelvic health. Dr Kelli Brizzolara et al report that cesarean birth did not diminish abdominal muscle thickness during an abdominal drawing in maneuver compared with women who delivered vaginally. In a systematic review, Jennifer Trahan discusses the current evidence for manual therapy intervention dyspareunia in females. Dr Jill Schiff Boissonnault reports survey results on prevalence and risk of inappropriate patient sexual behavior toward physical therapists. Dr Jennifer Kinder presents a case series on patients' perceptions of using telarehabilitation for pelvic health physical therapy. You can find the Section on Women's Health poster and platform abstracts in the journal online.

Why trust what you read? The answer; reputable journals implement the laborious process of peer review to bring you the truth. In the words of Helene Deutsch, the preeminent feminist psychoanalyst, "After all, the ultimate goal of all research is not objectivity, but truth."

-Cynthia M. Chiarello, PT, PhD

Editor-in-Chief

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