Author Archives: STFM News

MacGyver and Medicine: Get to Know Incoming STFM President Molly Clark, PhD

Posted on March 24, 2026 | Leave a comment

“It’s simply the way my mind works. I’ve always been drawn to thinking through, analyzing, and problem‑solving around things that are hard to understand.”

Molly Clark, PhD

Incoming STFM President Molly Clark, PhD, is a natural-born problem-solver. “I grew up wanting to write mysteries, become an attorney, or work as a spy. Maybe it was all the countless hours spent with my grandparents watching MacGyver, Matlock, or Murder, She Wrote, but something about that world drew me in. By the time I was 13 years old, I knew psychology was the profession for me, and I never wavered from that path.”

When asked what drew her to family medicine, Dr Clark explained, “I always enjoyed partnering with physicians—both as a student working in a health clinic and later as a resident. It was during my own residency I saw firsthand that strategic partnering led to making greater impacts in the field.”

The desire for collaboration in the name of greater impact is what ultimately brought Dr Clark to STFM. “STFM has the magic. The members and the STFM staff are among the most talented, dedicated, and generous people I have ever met. I always leave conferences with more colleagues, more ideas, and more passion.”

In fact, when it comes to the STFM member resources Dr Clark finds herself frequenting most often, she says the greatest benefit of STFM membership lies in accessing the collective wisdom of members themselves. “I think my most utilized STFM resources are my fellow members! Whether I’m reaching out for mentorship through Quick Consult or connecting on the STFM CONNECT platform, being able to tap into the expertise of so many who are doing remarkable work is so valuable.”

“There is a deep, neverending need for compassion and healing in this world,” Dr Clark went on to explain. “Every day I wake up is another opportunity to pay that forward.”

Pay forward she does, in her work as a professor and fellowship director at the University of Mississippi Medical Center Program in Jackson, MS. “I hope medical students and residents know they have a tremendous gift, but with this gift comes remarkable responsibility. So much time as a young person is spent second guessing decisions or waiting to feel ‘ready,’ and assuming everyone else has the answers. The truth is, you know more than you think, and you’re more capable than you give yourself credit for. Take time for discernment, and recognize that when you move forward with confidence, doors begin to open. Everything else—skills, clarity, courage—they tend to grow only after you begin. Challenge yourself to never forget the person in your care is someone’s someone and they are relying on you to hold their care in your hands.”

When asked about her plans for the STFM presidency, Dr Clark’s excitement to continue communal partnering for greater impact is palpable. “This is an incredible time of opportunity for family medicine and the next generation of family medicine educators. I look forward to collaborating with our members to ensure the mission and vision that shaped family medicine remain central as we continue to grow and evolve.”

“There are two pieces of wisdom that have stuck with me through the years,” Dr Clark explained when asked about the energy she brings to the presidency. “The first is the rearview mirror is smaller than the windshield for a reason—let the past inform you, but don’t let it obscure where you’re going. The second is a quote often attributed to Native Americans: ‘When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries, and you rejoice.’ I hope to live a life of service that fulfills that sentiment.”

That desire to lead a life of service paired with her intrinsic, mystery-loving, problem-solving attitude extends beyond her work with the University of Mississippi Medical Center and with STFM. “I love being outdoors, in the country, and on a farm,” Dr Clark said. “I enjoy growing food for my family and learning a variety of skills I consider ‘lost arts.’ Whether it’s sewing, building furniture, or taking on a new DIY project, I’m always learning something new.”

Dr Clark will be sworn in as STFM President during the 2026 STFM Annual Spring Conference in New Orleans, LA. She has previously served as STFM member-at-large and on the Behavioralist and Family Educator Fellowship Steering Committee.

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Posted in STFM News, Education, Leadership, The STFM Annual Spring Conference, interview

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Writing With a Team

Posted on November 18, 2025 | 1 comment
by Sarina Schrager, MD, MS,
Family Medicine Editor-in-Chief

Writing for publication is hard work, especially if you are doing it alone. I find that having a team to write papers with makes the experience easier and more engaging. But, in order to make the process move smoothly, it makes sense to spend a little bit of time at the outset to set some ground rules.

  • Delegation of responsibilities—There are a lot of details to address when writing a paper and I find that is pays off at the end to be clear about who is going to do what at the beginning.  My colleagues and I divide tasks, including being in charge of the reference manager, finding author instructions for potential journals, and delegating one person to be the “corresponding author”. The designated corresponding author will be responsible for sending calendar invites, Zoom meeting information, and reminders throughout the process.
  • Authorship guidelines—You want to avoid any misunderstandings about author order or even who is included in the author list. There are myriad ways to decide who will be the first author and the senior author. It is helpful to talk about this order at the beginning. There may also be decisions about who is going to be an author vs being acknowledged at the end of the paper. I have had situations where one of the co-authors ended up doing much more work than the person who was designated as the first author and the group had a conversation about reordering author lists.
  • Outline of paper—Before starting to write, the group should sit down and develop an outline of what needs to be covered. During this process, different authors may volunteer (or be assigned) different sections. You may elect to use a Google Doc or have people write their sections in Microsoft Word to be forwarded to one designated person to integrate each section into the whole document.
  • References—You may also want to decide how to designate references at this point. Should authors put citations into a comment?  Or at the end?  It is helpful to be clear about this at the beginning. Some people may want to number their references, but this makes integration more challenging, so I usually recommend writing the author’s name and a date in parentheses and just adding the citation somewhere in the document.   It is also helpful to decide at the beginning how you are going to manage references. It can be tricky to integrate several different reference lists from different (or even the same) reference managers. One way to manage this aspect of your paper is to assign someone at the beginning to be in charge of references and have each author forward citations to that person.
  • Deadlines—One thing I love about writing in a group is that everyone is accountable to each other. Unless you are planning to submit to a special issue with a rigid time frame , writing a paper comes with artificial deadlines. But, that said, setting firm deadlines and scheduling regular meetings can keep a project moving forward.
  • Editing—Once each author has written their first draft and the sections have been assembled into one unique document, one author may take the lead in making the paper sound like it has one voice. People write differently and it can be distracting to read a paper that is obviously written by different people. Each author will then want to edit for content and readability using track changes. Ultimately, the corresponding author will accept all track changes and finalize the paper.
  • Post–writing tasks—After you are finished writing the final draft of your paper, someone needs to take the lead and submit the paper to the desired journal. This process, even after reading the author instructions carefully, can take a couple of hours. The corresponding author (often the first author but sometimes the senior author or one of the other contributing authors) will need to upload information about each author, designate suggested reviewers (for some journals), and write a cover letter among other tasks.  Also, it is a great idea to discuss who will take the lead in revising the paper if you get a revision request from the journal and who will be responsible for resubmitting to a different journal if your paper is rejected.
  • Opportunities for mentoring—Writing in a team is an excellent way for more experienced authors to provide support and mentoring to more junior authors. By using clear communication and empowering junior faculty to take ownership of the writing process, mentors can role model a streamlined and effective way to write for publication.

See our recent FM Focus on this topic, “Team Writing Etiquette in Verse”  Team Writing Etiquette in VERSE

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Behind the Curtain: What Really Happens After You Submit a Paper to a Journal

Posted on May 3, 2025 | 2 comments
By Sarina Schrager, MD, MS, 
Family Medicine editor-in-chief

Many people express confusion about the process of submitting a paper to a journal, receiving peer reviews, and ultimately getting published. This post attempts to answer your questions. Editors do not want their activity to be opaque. We want everyone to know what really happens when you submit a paper. The team at Family Medicine may do things a little differently than other journals, but the major steps will be the same.

You hit “submit”, then what? Once you submit your paper into the electronic portal (we use ScholarOne) the paper will be evaluated by our editorial assistant. S/he will determine if your paper conforms to our author instructions (please read before submitting) for formatting and whether you have IRB approval, if needed. The assistant will unsubmit your paper if it is too long, has too many references, or if the references are not in the proper format.

First review by the editor in chief: At Family Medicine, I read each submitted paper carefully before assigning it to an associate editor. I will occasionally reject a paper at this stage if it is not in scope for our journal (ie, we do not publish clinical papers) or if I think it is in the wrong category. For example, papers describing educational studies in one residency or one medical school fit in our Brief Report category, but probably not in Original Research. I will send those papers back to the authors if they are submitted in the Original Research category and ask the author(s) to shorten them. Another common mistake I often see is papers submitted as a narrative essay when they are really a commentary or an editorial. Narratives are personal stories about an experience you have with patient care, teaching, or your career.

Assigning papers to the associate editors: We have a team of fabulous associate editors at
Family Medicine. Papers that are both in scope and of interest our readers go on to the next step. I assign these papers to one of our associate editors who carefully reads the paper again, and either advises me they don’t think the paper is appropriate for our journal, or, more commonly, sends the paper for peer review.

Requesting peer reviewers: We have hundreds of peer reviewers who volunteer their time and expertise to help us publish the best papers we can. The associate editors aim to get 2-3 reviewers to evaluate each paper before sending it back to me with a recommendation. The associate editor sends requests to 4-6 people. Sometimes these invited reviewers don’t respond, and sometimes they respond but decline the invitation. It will occasionally require upwards of 10 invitations to find the 2-3 reviewers needed for a thorough review of each paper. We give all peer reviewers 3 weeks to return the review. Sometimes a
paper will be caught in this step for a few months. Family Medicine designates 4 potential
outcomes for a paper after peer review: accept (it’s very unusual to accept after initial peer review),
minor revision, major revision, and reject.

Revisions: The vast majority of authors will be asked to revise their paper. This is a good thing.
It means that the editorial team believes that the paper will be an important addition to the literature when revised. We expect authors to respond to every reviewer comment and explain how they addressed each comment. After the revised manuscript is submitted, I will review it again and then send back to the associate editor. In some cases, if there were many revisions, the associate editor will send the revision back to the reviewers to assure that all comments were addressed. After those reviews come back, the associate editor indicates an outcome. It is not unusual for a paper to be revised a second (and occasionally a third) time. It is important for authors to remember at this point that these further reviews are designed to improve your paper.

Recommendations for publication: Even great papers can be improved, and this is always the goal of peer review. Our peer reviewers and our associate editors provide feedback to authors to help make
their papers better. A minor revision decision signifies that a paper needs only small changes before it is appropriate to publish. A major revision decision signifies that the peer reviewers and the associate editor like the paper and think it has potential to be a meaningful addition to the scholarly literature, but has some weaknesses. We do not ask people to revise a paper if we do not think it will be interesting to our readers and contribute to the literature. Those papers are denied further review.

Acceptance: Once the associate editor believes that the authors have addressed all revision
requests, they send it to me with a recommendation for publication: Yay! Our production
team has worked hard to decrease the time from acceptance to online publication. You may expect your paper to be published online about 6 weeks after you get your acceptance notice. It will be available on the journal’s ‘Recently Published’ page before being assigned to a monthly issue. As you can see, there are a lot of steps in the process! However, they all aim to support authors through optimizing their paper’s impact.

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