The Dutch output of publications in physics

Abstract Quantitative data about the output in the various scientific disciplines constitute part of the information necessary to formulate a science policy. The contribution of Dutch research institutes to the total number of publications in the open literature in physics is estimated from the abstract journal Physics Abstracts in 1969 and subsequent years. It varies between 0.9 and 1.4% of the world output. The main Dutch contributors are each year: Universities (~57%), Industry (~23%), and Government Institutions (~15%). The Dutch production (1.4%) in 1974 is compared with the output of Belgium (0.6%), Canada (3.3%), Denmark (0.5%), and Sweden (0.7%). It is argued that Physics Abstracts covers the basic-research journal literature in physics thoroughly and that the total number of abstracts can be used as a measure for the output of the international community of physicists. The Dutch contributions to various subfields of physics are compared with the average, world efforts. It is observed that on the whole the shares of the various subfields in the total Dutch output and the corresponding world figures are strikingly similar.