The Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy Journal (CPTJ) stands at an exciting juncture in its evolution—one defined by a clear commitment to expanding its national and international reach, strengthening scholarly collaboration, and enhancing its academic impact. As the global burden of cardiopulmonary disease continues to rise, too does the need for rigorous, accessible, and clinically meaningful research in our field. CPTJ is actively responding to this need through strategic initiatives that position the journal as a truly global platform for innovation in cardiopulmonary physical therapy. A central priority for CPTJ is to extend its outreach beyond traditional geographic boundaries and engage a broader international audience. This effort is reflected in the increasing diversity of our authors, reviewers, and editorial board members, who now represent a growing number of countries and healthcare systems. Our outreach efforts also include collaborations with international professional organizations and targeted dissemination strategies that ensure published work reaches clinicians, educators, and researchers worldwide. The journal's content continues to reflect a wide range of clinical contexts, promoting knowledge translation across settings and enhancing the relevance of our publications to a global readership. Equally important to CPTJ's mission is the intentional effort to bring together authors, reviewers, and editors into a cohesive and engaged scholarly community. Recognizing the evolving ways in which professionals interact with scientific content, the journal has embraced digital platforms—particularly social media and multimedia dissemination—as key tools for connection and engagement. Through our expanding presence on platforms such as YouTube and other social media channels, CPTJ has created opportunities for dynamic interaction with its audience. Recorded webinars, author interviews, and educational video content have become integral components of our outreach strategy (e.g., Author Spotlight Series, Methodology and Peer Review Webinars, and Special Topic Discussions). In parallel with these outreach and engagement efforts, CPTJ remains steadfast in its commitment to enhancing its scholarly impact and visibility within the scientific community. A major milestone in this journey is the journal's recent submission of its application to the Web of Science Core Collection, a critical step toward obtaining an official Impact Factor. Indexation in leading databases is more than a marker of prestige—it is a mechanism for ensuring that high-quality research reaches the widest possible audience and contributes meaningfully to evidence-based practice. In this issue, we bring you eight wonderful articles: two systematic reviews from our last special issue in respiratory muscle training (RMT), three research reports, two case reports, and one more systematic review. First, Melendez et al1 and Ferraro et al2 complete the special issue in RMT where Melendez et al1 looked into the literature about the association between RMT and blood pressure modulation, while Ferraro et al looked into the literature about different clinical populations and the safe use of RMT.2 Then, from Dr. Mary Beth Brown's Lab, Lanton et al3 studied the prevalence of stress urinary incontinence in women with lymphangioleiomyomatosis. From India, Iyer et al4 studied the relationship between severity of heart failure and kyphosis, chest expansion, muscle strength, and nutrition. The authors found that severity of heart failure was associated with muscle strength and chest expansion, rather than kyphosis and nutrition. In an interesting systematic review, Barta et al5 studied the impact of exercise on the cardiovascular function in Parkinson disease where they confirmed that most of the Parkinson disease population have cardiovascular impairments and these are associated with decreased physical activity, obesity, and metabolic diseases. In another interesting study, Haezebrouck et al6 surveyed 261 professionals who staff the ICUs at a level 1 trauma academic medical center on their perception of the risks versus benefits of early mobilization. The author found that members of the interprofessional team have concerns regarding the risk-to-benefit ratio for various monitoring and interventional devices despite existing research regarding the safety and benefits of early mobilization. Finally, two case studies explored the safety and feasibility of mobility on left atrial veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (Rogers et al7) and strengthening exercise training in a patient with veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation after lung transplantation (Hagiwara et al8). Both cases showed patients improving with the physical therapy interventions. As CPTJ continues to evolve, its mission remains anchored in three guiding principles: global engagement, community building, and academic excellence. By expanding international outreach, leveraging innovative communication platforms, and striving for top-tier indexation, the journal is positioning itself as a leading voice in cardiopulmonary physical therapy.
Alvaro N. Gurovich (Fri,) studied this question.