Authors	Year	Countries	Article type	Topic	Method	Relevance	Quality
Buchbinder SB et al 46	2001	US	Cohort study	Primary care physician, job satisfaction and turnover	Questionnaire survey	Weak: cohort from the US and data from 1987 to 1991	Good
Buciuniene I et al 42	2005	Lithuania	Original research	Healthcare reform and job satisfaction	Self-administrated anonymous questionnaires	Weak: GPs and policy from Lithuania	Average/weak: cross-sectional and statistical analyses simplistic (no regression, only correlations)
Bustinza R et al 34	2009	Canada	Cohort study	Training programme, GP retention in rural area	Used of secondary data and questionnaires	Average: Canada has a similar primary care context but the study was in a rural context	Good
Campos-Outcalt D et al 30	1995	US	Review/quality assessment	Curricula, role models, research support, career choice	Literature search: Medline, PsycINFO, Current Contents, Expanded Academic Index	Average, the article presents three elements influencing career choice, but the article is quite old	Average: the methods are very detailed. Very few articles were included in the results section due to the lack of quality articles fitting their 70 criteria
CfWI51	2014	UK	Review/report	GP workforce	N/A	High	Good: because it gives an overview of the GP workforce in the UK
Chellappah M, Garnham L21	2014	UK	Original research	Medical student attitude towards general practice	Questionnaire design	High	Weak: not generalisable (specific to one college). Measurement scale not used
Crampton PES et al 22	2013	Australia, US, Canada, NZ, South Africa, Japan	Systematic literature review	Undergraduate clinical placements, underserved areas	Database searches, inclusion and exclusion criteria, data extraction, and so on	Weak	High
Dale J et al 43	2015	UK (West Midlands)	Cross-sectional study	Retention of GPs	Online questionnaire with free-text section	High	Good: because it questioned the proposition that general practice is in crisis
Dayan M et al 37	2014	UK	Report	GP workforce crisis	N/A	Good	Average
Doran N et al 47	2016	UK	Mixed-methods research	Why GPs leave the NHS	Online questionnaire with qualitative interviews	High	Good
Evans J et al 52	2000	UK	Cohort study	Medical graduates and flexible/part-time working in medicine	Survey with free-text comment. Reported mainly the qualitative data	Weak: medical graduate in general not only future GPs, also the data come from 1977, 1988, and 1993	Average: used mainly qualitative data coming from the free-text comment. The percentage of comment on flexible and part time is less than 9% for the three cohorts
Feeley TH53	2003	N/A	Narrative literature review	Retention in rural primary care physicians	N/A	Weak	Weak
Geyman JP et al33	2000	US	Study	Educating GPs for rural practice	Comprehensive literature search: Medline, Health STAR databases	Weak, but the recommendations are interesting	Average/weak: little analysis, only looked at programmes
Gibson J et al14	2015	UK	Report, survey	GP work/life survey	Questionnaire	Good	Average: it is a report.
Groenewegen PP et al44	1991	US	Review of the literature	GP, effective workload, job satisfaction	N/A	Good	Average: no method but definition and theorisation is interesting
Halaas GW et al 24	2008	US	Study	Recruitment and retention of rural physicians	Analysed data from a recruitment programme	Good, but the results are linked to the rural context	Average: no hypothesis, nor hypothesis testing, but 37-year trend studied
Harding A et al 2	2015	UK	Cross-sectional study	Teaching and general practice	Review of past national survey and questionnaire survey	Good	Good
Hemphill E et al 61	2007	Australia	Mixed design	GP rural recruitment	Three sources of data collection: GP survey, data collected from a convenient sample of students, and interviews with recruiting agencies	Weak	Average
Humphreys J et al 49	2001	Australia	Critical review	Rural medical workforce retention	Australian and international database: ATSI Health, Consumer service, AusportMed, Family & Society, and so on	Good	Average: issues with method inclusion/exclusion criteria
Illing J et al 25	2003	UK	Review of evidence	Learning in practice (preregistration house officers) and general practice	Literature search: Embrase, Medline, ERIC, FirstSearch, PsycINFO, www.timelit.org.uk, www.educationgp.com	Good	Average: methods inclusion and exclusion criteria not presented
Landry M et al 26	2011	Canada	Original study	Recruitment and retention of doctors and local training (rural)	Short survey	Good but the results are linked to the rural context	Good: methods well presented, the analyses are adequate
Lee DM, Nichols T 27	2014	US, Canada	Case study, review	Physician recruitment and retention, rural and underserved areas	Literature review	Weak: but suggestions for different factors influencing recruitment and retention	Average: the review method is described but the case study choice is not explained
Newton J et al 50	2004	UK (Northern Deanery)	Original study	Job dissatisfaction and early retirement	Qualitative study: interviews, using a purposefully drawn sample from seven sub-groups of responders	Good	Average: small number of interviewees
O’Connor DB et al 45	2000	UK (Liverpool)	Preliminary study	Job strain and blood pressure in general practice	Questionnaire and ambulatory blood pressure procedure	High: relationship between job strain and blood pressure	Good
Petchey R et al 23	1997	UK	Original study	Junior doctors’ perceptions of general practice as a career	Qualitative study: interviews, using an heterogeneous sample	High	Weak: little theoretical. development
Roos M et al 36	2014	Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Norway, Portugal, UK	Original cross-sectional study	Motivation for career choice and job satisfaction: GP trainees and newly qualified GPs	Questionnaire/survey	High	Good
Rosenthal TC 32	2000	US	Review	Rural training tracts	N/A	Weak: but interesting insight	Weak
Schwartz MD et al 28	2005	US	Reflection	Student interest in generalist career	N/A	High	Weak: recommendations without original study, nor based on evidence from various articles
Shadbolt N, Bunker J 20	2009	Australia	Review	Career choice determinants	N/A	High	Weak: no method
Sibbald B et al 39	2003	England	National survey	Job satisfaction and retirement	Survey	High	Good
Stapleton G et al 62	2014	English-speaking countries	Review, ethical criteria	Primary care physicians	Database: Web of Knowledge	Weak	Average: presentation of methods
Van Ham I et al 40	2006	UK, US, Australia	Systematic review	GPs and job satisfaction	Two strategies: database and snowball methods	High	High
Verma P et al 19	2016	UK, US, Canada, Australia, Japan, NZ, Norway, Chile	Systematic review	Strategies to recruit and retain	Literature search: Medline, Embase, and Central, 1974–2013	High	High
Williamson JW et al 31	1993	US	Comparative studies	Primary care, health systems change	N/A	Weak	Weak: no method
Wordsworth S et al 48	2004	UK	Original study	Preferences for general practice jobs	Discrete-choice experiment	Good	Good
Young R, Leese B 29	1999	UK	Discussion paper/review	Recruitment and retention of GPs in the UK	Literature search: Medline, BIDS-EMBASE, IBSS, HELMIS, survey of articles in recent issues of relevant professional journals	High	Average: little theoretical development and evidence

ATSI = Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. CfWI = Centre for Workforce Improvement. ERIC = Education Resources Information Centre. HELMIS = Health Management Information Service. IBSS: = International Bibliography of the Social Sciences.