Welcome to the second issue of the Texas Family Medicine Research Journal!
When we set out to create this journal over a year ago, we could not predict the enthusiasm, support and excitement we would encounter from physicians, students, residents, and fellows around Texas. We are proud to have submissions and editorial representations from medical schools across the state, and we continually widen our network every day.
As many of our authors know, maintaining a non-profit organization requires grit, persistence, and funding. Many thanks to the support we have received to start the TFMRJ with grants from Austin Regional Clinic and the Texas Academy of Family Physicians Heart of Texas Chapter. Since the journal is not yet self-sustaining through submission fees or sponsorships, we have relied on these funds to publish our first few issues.
Since our first issue, we have been assigned an International Standard Serial Number by the Library of Congress, officially listing the TFMRJ as a searchable publication. We have also updated our submission guidelines to make them more standardized and consistent with other journals to clarify and streamline the submission process. This incorporates feedback we have received from authors as well as our experienced editorial board members.
One of the simplest but possibly most impactful changes we have made has been to obtain our own domain - now readers and authors can more easily search for the Journal under our acronym (TFMRJ.org) and email our staff directly through this domain. We still have many updates planned for our website, so stay tuned.
While we have made changes and upgrades to our process, there are still many areas where we can improve. We welcome any and all feedback from readers, authors, reviewers, and editors to help make our website and journal as accessible as possible. Our next steps include improving the editing process so that authors and reviewers get more updates about where each manuscript is in the editing process. These updates will make next steps for editing and submission clearer and help meet deadlines for each issue.
In this issue, we are excited to feature a new group of authors publishing areas of research, clinical guidelines and medical narratives, building on the momentum from our first issue in August. Our utmost appreciation goes to our editorial board and reviewers, who have put in hours pouring over manuscripts and providing excellent and constructive critiques.
As we transition to the new year and look forward to the third issue of our journal, we will strive to grow around our core mission of representing both experienced and newer authors in the literature. Thank you for being a part of this effort, and have a wonderful and safe holiday and a prosperous 2026.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Nordhauser, MD,MPH
Editor-in-Chief
Larry Kravitz, MD
Associate Editor-in-Chief