Background
Publication of scientific research papers is an important activity of professionals working in Dutch academic medical Hospitals. Quantitative aspects of scientific output are ways to express status and prestige, and serve to rank universities and individual medical scientists.
Partly because of this, the urge and pressure to publish is high and quantitative publication output may seem to be more important than qualitative measures of science.


Methods
In this explorative, cross sectional survey, we created an online website where all of the 1100 medical professors of the 8 Academic medical Centres in the Netherlands were invited to participate. They were asked to fill  4 short questionnaires; a self-made scientific culture questionnaire, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the engagement inventory and demographic data.

Results
425 Professors participated in this survey (response rate 39%). Among responders, 54% believe publication pressure has become too high, 39% think that publication pressure negatively affects the validity of research results and 26% think publication pressure has a ‘sickening effect’ on medical science.
The burn out questionnaire showed that 24% of the medical professors had signs of burn out and showed a significant association between the degree of burn out symptoms and the level of experienced publication pressure. The engagement questionnaire revealed that medical professors were extremely engaged and committed towards their profession.

Conclusion
A substantial proportion of medical professors believe that publication pressure has grown too large and have a cynical view on the validity of medical science.