Guest Director's Corner

KICS: KICS Out the Jams



By Michael T. Braun, PhD, Amy Farkas, MD, and Kristina Kaljo, PhD



As the Kern Institute Collaboration for Scholarship (KICS) wraps up its second school year of supporting scholarly output of the Kern Institute and MCW, the authors highlight what they consider the four biggest challenges and invite readers to join the conversation about what’s next. For no reason other than it’s fun, they chose song lyrics to title each challenge...

The essays in this issue of Transformational Times celebrate KICS achievements and highlight practical approaches to common challenges as we support research projects in medical education and, more generally, in education and the social sciences.

In this opening essay, we ask, “What are the biggest opportunities for growth?”

Perspective/Opinion

Arrgh: The “sea sacker” method for addressing reviewer comments

By Michael T. Braun, PhD

In this essay, Dr. Braun details his approach to addressing reviewer comments when revising a manuscript, represented by the memorable CSACR (pronounced "sea sacker") acronym. He also suggests authors not sail alone...

One of the first things I remember my advisor Lyn Van Swol telling me about reviewer comments is that she always gives herself a week after reading them to wallow in misery, to feel all the feelings, to woe that she will never make it, she picked the wrong field, and she doesn't know what she's doing. After that, she reads the comments again, and they don't seem nearly as bad as she initially thought. 

Perspective/Opinion

KICS Journal Club: A safe space to discuss potentially transformational scholarship with the author



By Amy Farkas, MD, MS, and John Yoon, MD

In this essay and Q&A, we look back on the growth and success of the Kern Institute Collaboration for Scholarship (KICS) Medical Education Journal Club, which began in September 2021 to address a perceived need for educators across professional ranks and expertise to collaboratively examine research methodologies and means for educational scholarship...

Not every journal club can tout discussions with authors and access to experts across the country. But the virtual nature of the KICS Journal Club, which meets monthly over Zoom, allows both the author of the paper and participants from within and outside MCW to join the conversation.

Journal Club covers a wide variety of topics from professional identify formation, to EPAs, the Delphi method, survey design, and the writing of position papers. Authors give a brief overview of their paper, then we enjoy discussion with the author and each other. Participation has grown from an average of 14 people a month in our first year to our current average of 26!

We asked Dr. John Yoon, visiting scholar at the Kern Institute and one of the KICS Journal Club's most dedicated attendees, to share his experience...

Perspective/Opinion

What makes an exemplary writing mentor?

By William Henk, Ed.D.

Dr. Henk explores what matters most for effective mentoring of writers seeking publication of their scholarly work. Patience and consideration of a writer’s vulnerability, in tandem with their need for candor, are all a part of it. But there’s much more...

Success in writing for professional publication requires a complex set of skills and dispositions. Those who must publish as a job expectation, especially emerging scholars, can find the process extremely daunting (Dixon, 2001). It’s no wonder.

Oftentimes, their graduate programs provide little to no mentoring in writing for refereed forums (Barrett, Mazerolle, & Nottingham, 2017). These forums utilize a unique textual genre that is difficult to master, and engaging with the journal review process itself carries emotional risks. How so? 

Perspective/Opinion

Qualitative data analysis: So, I’ve talked to people, now what?

By Dr. Lana Minshew, PhD, MEd



Dr. Minshew shares how the Kern Institute Collaboration for Scholarship (KICS) team can assist with qualitative research design and analysis...

If you need support to analyze qualitative data collected for educational research, the KICS group is ready to help, including through a workshop series planned this fall.

Last fall, several individuals and teams in the MCW community requested assistance to analyze qualitative data they had collected or were collecting. So, the KICS team partnered with qualitative experts in the MCW community, as well as other local institutions, to lead a four-part, qualitative analysis workshop. Each session focused on a different part of analysis, from organizing qualitative data, to getting started on coding, diving deeper into analysis, and finally, writing the results. Six teams participating in the inaugural workshop series were assigned a qualitative expert coach to help answer their questions and provide guidance as they navigated analysis.

Perspective/Opinion

Cleaning up after ourselves

By Alexa Wild

Earth Day is one day a year. Climate change impacts us daily. So, as an institution employing and training individuals to “do no harm,” can we foster this same idea for the environment?

Flying to conferences

As I write this, I am 10,000 feet above the ground. Looking out the window, I see clouds softly flowing over the tops of snowy mountains. Extraordinary experiences tend to come at a cost – more than just a financial cost. Air travel is one of them.

As employees of an academic institution, many of us fly for professional, scientific, or academic purposes. If you fly to represent the Medical College of Wisconsin at an academic conference, do you (or your department) also budget to offset your carbon emissions produced while traveling? While in-person conferences serve an important role for collaboration, it’s imperative that we also consider the impact our travel has on the environment.