Purpose The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) states that “residents should participate in scholarly activity.” However, there is little guidance for effectively integrating scholarly activity into residency. This study was conducted to understand how pediatric residency programs are meeting ACGME requirements and to identify characteristics of successful programs. Methods The authors conducted an on-line cross-sectional survey of all pediatric residency program directors in October 2012, assessing program characteristics, resident participation in scholarly activity, program infrastructure, barriers, and outcomes. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify characteristics of programs in the top quartile for resident scholarly activity participation. Results The response rate was 52.8% (105/199 programs). 78.6% (n=77) of programs required scholarly activity, although definitions were variable. When including only original research, systematic reviews or meta-analyses, and case reports or series with references, resident participation averaged 56% (range 0–100%). Characteristics associated with high participation programs included: 1) a scholarly activity requirement (odds ratio (OR) =5.5, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03–30.0); 2) program director belief that all residents should present work regionally or nationally (OR=4.7, 95% CI 1.5–15.1); and 3) mentorship by >25% of faculty (OR=3.6, CI 1.2–11.4). Only 47.1% (n=41) of program directors were satisfied with resident participation and only 30.7% (n=27) were satisfied with the quality of research training provided. Conclusions The results suggest resident scholarly activity experience is highly variable and suboptimal. Identifying characteristics of successful programs can improve the resident research training experience.