"Clothes [do not] make the man".

Or, in this case, the woman (apologies to Mark Twain)! Welcome to the New Year. I want to draw your attention to the redesign of PTJ. This new look--which includes cover art on the perception of movement and a crisp layout--is not just a case of the "emperor's new clothes." The fresh design heralds changes to the substance of PTJ. As a result of decisions made at our Editorial Board meeting in November, we will begin rolling out new policies and content over the next several months.

One of the pending changes will require all of us to become more comfortable in our understanding of the standard error of measurement (SEM), minimal detectable change (MDC), and minimal clinically important difference (MCID).

Measurement and PTJ are, of course, old friends. In 1987, APTA appointed the Task Force for the Development of Standards for Tests and Measurements, and Editor in Chief Emeritus Dr Jules Rothstein and Dr John Echternach--with assistance from Eugene Michels, PT, FAPTA--authored the Primer on Measurement: An Introductory Guide to Measurement Issues. The content became the Association's standard for tests and measurements in physical therapist practice. The need for valid and reliable measurements became Rothstein's mantra. Numerous editorials, presentations at conferences around the world, and workshops at annual meetings introduced the concepts of reliability and validity. Authors submitting manuscripts to the Journal were required to include a description of an instrument's measurement properties, including the reliability of its measurements. Authors, professional students, academicians, and clinicians all came to understand the terms "reliability" and "validity" and learned about intraclass correlations. Rothstein's illness, however, prevented him from helping us to understand that reliability was only a means to a much more important end point, and the Primer hasn't been updated since 1993.

PTJ remains very interested in the measurement properties of tools that are used to make diagnoses and measure changes in a patient's status or outcome following intervention. In addition to reliability and validity, however, it is important to know how much change must occur on measurement to ensure that the reported difference is true change rather than measurement error. Many articles describe these measurement properties. Now, PTJ will begin helping authors and readers make use of these descriptors.

Regarding new content: Your response to "The Bottom Line," our clinical summary feature that debuted in August 2006, has been bimodal. It seems that readers have developed a love/hate relationship with The Bottom Line! Some readers say that we are "dumbing down" the research data, whereas others make such comments as, "I can't wait to read the Bottom Line feature; it helps me determine if I should spend the time reading the entire article." Overall, we believe there is benefit to the reader in providing "bottom lines," but we will offer this feature online only to APTA members and subscribers.

Rebecca L Craik, PT, PhD, FAPTA 

Editor in Chief

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