title: Stimulating medical education research in the Netherlands.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Since the 1970s, the Dutch have been active innovators and researchers in the medical education domain. With regards to the quantity of publications in the medical education literature, the Netherlands rank second among countries in Europe and fourth worldwide over the past years, related to the journals with highest impact factors.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We attempted to analyse what made this country so productive by exploring the backgrounds of this success.
  
  
  METHODS
  An updated comparative evaluation was conducted. Nationalities of first and last authors were screened. And an indicator whether supervision is 'exported' or 'imported' was calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The Netherlands still rank high in number of publications and the production increases. In contrast to other countries, the Dutch are 'exporting' their supervision.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The opportunity to start a new, experimental medical school from scratch in Maastricht has undoubtedly contributed significantly to this national productivity. One other factor seems the establishment of the Netherlands Association for Medical Education with its mission to stimulate research and development of education. Annual conferences, Courses on research in medical education, Chairs in medical education qualified to graduate PhD students, and a general open and critical national culture of enquiry may have added to this success.
authors.affiliation: Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. d.jaarsma@amc.nl
authors.forename: Debbie
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jaarsma
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scherpbier
authors.forename: Cees
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Van Der Vleuten
authors.forename: Olle
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ten Cate
mesh_terms: D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D055811:Journal Impact Factor; D009426:Netherlands; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012106:Research