I admit it. I'm really late to the party when it comes to the social digital media world. I am trying to learn, though most of the time it feels like everyone is talking in some strange "techspeak" foreign language. Until recently I thought "breadcrumbs" were something you made in a food processor from chunks of stale bread, "a tag" was a running game for children (usually suggested by exhausted parents to tire out their kid), and "putting a pin" in something was how you affix it to your bulletin board. Personally, it would never occur to me that anyone would be interested in a picture of what I had for dinner, the hike I just went on, or the last show I saw. I'm not trying to be snarky, I really just don't get it. A few years back my son even set up a Facebook page for me. It was an epic fail. I posted one thing, the Christmas tree and Rockefeller Center and haven't looked at Facebook since 2015.

Being a journal editor is an adventure and has made me stretch in many wonderful ways-one of which is social media. My publisher has been telling me how important social media is-and I believe her-I just had many more pressing things to do. I decided it was high time that I enter this digital media world, so I asked as many twenty-somethings as I could cajole what to do. After some very patient people tried to explain this new reality, I set out on my own reading tweets. Talk about adventures! I soon found out that this might not have been the best approach to learn how a scholarly journal could benefit from social media. While I did read many "interesting" things, it was overwhelming and I thought there has to be a better way. Back to my roots to see what was said in peer-reviewed journals about social media. I dropped a few terms into PubMed and CINAHL for a literature search on social media and journal publication.

In essence, the structure of peer review produces a time lag between completing research, journal acceptance, and publication. All researchers would like to inform the widest audience about their findings as rapidly as possible. I learned that social media was just another way to communicate about research presented in journals. Research is recognized to have influence when it produces noticeable and quantifiable benefits beyond academia.1 But how does one determine the influence that social media might have on the dissemination of their work? Altmetrics, which literally means alternative metrics to conventional indexing, measures engagement and impact of scientific publication using social media indicators.2 Studies conducted on social media metrics have found that there is a strong positive relationship between Twitter activity and number of citations an article receives.1,3

I am beginning to understand that, with so much information out there, many people are turning to social media to locate what's most relevant for them. Social media is really just a complementary way to traditional indexing and citations to announce new articles and transmit knowledge. I encourage all Journal of Women's Health Physical Therapy (JWHPT) authors and readers to tweet, post, and cite our articles. It is my pleasure to introduce JWHPT's new Digital Media Coordinator, Margaret "Rita" Gillan, PT, DPT, who brings impressive knowledge and skills in this area. I am sure that you will be following her, as she enhances JWHPT social media presence. If social media can help get the word out about all the wonderful research that we publish in support of your clinical work in women's health and pelvic health-I'm all for it. I've been schooled.

Articles in this issue are an interesting array of topics of which 3 involve studying various aspects of stress urinary incontinence (SUI). In a thought-provoking study, Hartigan and colleagues compared hip strength and movement as well as pelvic floor muscle performance in women with and without self-reported SUI. Take a look at their video abstract to hear the authors discuss this work. In a retrospective analysis, Abraham and colleagues examined multidisciplinary interventions for pelvic pain and dyspareunia following vaginal mesh or mesh sling removal. Snyder and colleagues surveyed breastfeeding women to ascertain their physical activity levels and perceived barriers to participating in physical activity. Kolb and associates studied a self-administered surface electrical stimulation devise as an intervention in women with SUI. Guess and colleagues report on a case in which the novel intervention, blood flow restriction, was combined into a more traditional intervention approach for pelvic organ prolapse and SUI. McConville reviews the literature on diagnosis and interventions for diastasis recti in older males.

As you read these thought-provoking articles, keep in mind tweeting is a great way to tell your patients and clients that your practice is informed by scientific evidence.

-Cynthia M. Chiarello, PT, PhD

Editor-in-Chief

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