CLEAR Journal of Professional Regulation, Spring 2026

CLEAR Journal of Professional Regulation, Spring 2026, Volume 36, No. 1

• Abstracts and Updates, by George Gray- In Abstracts and Updates, George Gray surveys recent scholarship across licensure, certification, and regulation. Unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence continues to emerge as a dominant theme, particularly in the context of professional examinations worldwide.
• Legal Beat, by Dale Atkinson- Dale Atkinson examines an antitrust challenge involving national medical licensing examinations and explores how courts evaluate claims of monopolization and restraint of trade within professional regulation. As always, the column offers practical insight into how legal principles intersect with regulatory frameworks.
• Recent CLEAR Quick Poll Results, by Carla Caro- CLEAR’s latest Quick Poll results summarize member experiences related to data protection, privacy pressures, and mechanisms for reporting candidate misconduct, offering a snapshot of current operational realities across jurisdictions.
• Regulation in Practice - Sequential Bias Contamination in Regulatory Investigations: An Overlooked Risk, by Ryan DeLuca- This issue continues our Regulation in Practice section—short, actionable pieces designed to help regulators apply lessons from the field. Featured this issue is an article that examines how interpretive bias can accumulate across multi-stage investigations. The article invites regulators to consider how structural processes, not just individual decision-making, can influence outcomes and procedural fairness. 
• A Framework for Developing Simulation-Based Tests- This feature article, by Cynthia G. Parshall, Ph.D.; Elizabeth Santana, MBA; Kathy Kelly, MA, MS; and Liesel Tavenner, MBA, presents a structured model to guide organizations considering the development of simulation-based assessments, addressing content design, platform selection, scoring approaches, and implementation considerations.
• In-Progress Healthcare Case Study Using the Simulation-Based Test Framework- This companion piece illustrates how this certification organization is applying this framework within a virtual reality environment to assess practical clinical skills. Together, these articles offer both conceptual guidance and practical application for programs exploring performance-based assessment.