title: Ethnicity in Dutch health research: situating scientific practice.
abstract: A growing body of work is examining the role health research itself plays in the construction of 'ethnicity.' We discuss the results of our investigation as to how the political, social, and institutional dynamics of the context in which health research takes place affect the manner in which knowledge about ethnicity and health is produced.
  
  
  
  Qualitative content analysis of academic publications, interviews with biomedical and health researchers, and participant observation at various conferences and scientific events.
  
  
  
  We identified four aspects related to the context in which Dutch research takes place that we have found relevant to biomedical and health-research practices. Firstly, the 'diversity' and 'inclusion' policies of the major funding institution; secondly, the official Dutch national ethnic registration system; a third factor was the size of the Netherlands and the problem of small sample sizes; and lastly, the need for researchers to use meaningful ethnic categories when publishing in English-language journals.
  
  
  
  Our analysis facilitates the understanding of how specific ethnicities are constructed in this field and provides fruitful insight into the socio-scientific co-production of ethnicity, and specifically into the manner in which common-sense ethnic categories and hierarchies are granted scientific validity through academic publication and, are subsequently, used in clinical guidelines and policy.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Health, Ethics and Society, CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care , Maastricht University , Maastricht , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Alana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Helberg-Proctor
authors.affiliation: a Department of Health, Ethics and Society, CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care , Maastricht University , Maastricht , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Agnes
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meershoek
authors.affiliation: a Department of Health, Ethics and Society, CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care , Maastricht University , Maastricht , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Krumeich
authors.affiliation: a Department of Health, Ethics and Society, CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care , Maastricht University , Maastricht , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Klasien
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Horstman
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005006:Ethnicity; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D009426:Netherlands; D011642:Publications; D012106:Research / Q000191:economics; D012107:Research Design; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D035842:Research Subjects; D012109:Research Support as Topic; D014495:Universities
keywords: Ethnicity; categorization; methodological conventions; race; scientific practice; the Netherlands