About Scholar:

      The Scholar program was started in 2015 by physicians tasked with one challenge: Create a system wide change in an academic clinical education setting to engage in self-replicating research endeavors.(1) The method relied on live adult learning workshops designed to demystify and remove the fear of starting research. Participants were aided in identifying and navigating clerical barriers unique to rural, suburban and underserved medical settings. Participants were encouraged to seek projects based on their observations of patients and the issues common to their practices or demographics. This is in contrast to most pedagogical methods of learning that aim to have the participant create projects from personal interest or the interests of their mentor. The results created a surge of pilot and validation studies in efforts to gain proficiency and securing larger research grants by the participants.

      It became clear that there did not exist a journal dedicated entirely to such vital academic and scholarly projects. With the identification of this barrier, Scholar: Pilot and Validation Studies was born.

      This journal is a rare open access journal in that it is a free for authors and readers alike. This was done because many venues starting up research projects do not have extra funds to pay for open access. Additionally, validation projects in general have limited funding opportunities.

1) Peppers, B.P., Varma, P., Kim, Y.M., Hostoffer Jr, R.W. and Rowane, M.P., 2017. Scholar 7: the development of regional community hospitals’ scholastic environment. J Am Osteopath Assoc, 117(10), pp.643-650.

Editorial Staff:

Editor-in-Chief:

Brian P. Peppers, DO, PhD, Morgantown, WV

Associate Editor:

Shan Shan Wu, DO, Cleveland, OH

Editorial Advisory Board:

Mark Terrell, Ed.D, Erie PA

Christopher Keller, PhD, Erie PA

Robert Hostoffer, DO, LhD, MMedEd, Cleveland, OH

Brian P. Peppers, DO, PhD, Morgantown, WV

Harold “Skip” Garner, PhD, Blacksburg, VA

Shan Shan Wu, DO, Cleveland, OH