To analyze the characteristics, keyword clustering and topics of 300 excellent papers in the field of medical education in China from 2017 to 2019, so as to provide suggestions for the development of medical education research.

From August to October in 2021, bibliometric analysis of 300 excellent papers was implemented to construe funding , language, publishing journal and institutions and keywords were clustered.

Among the 300 excellent papers, 63.0 % (189/300) papers were supported by the research fund, English papers accounted for 9.0% (27/300). Chinese Journal of Medical Education published the most papers [27.0%(81/300)] . The largest number of papers were published by Peking University Health Science Center [13.7% (41/300)] and Clinical medicine related departments published over thirty percent of the papers [37.7%(113/300)] . Keywords were clustered into 5 topics including education system, teaching method, evaluation, medical students/doctors and development of teachers.

The number of papers supported by the research fund and the papers published in English need to be increased; the journals that published these papers were convergent. The universities and their clinical medicine departments play an important role in medical education research. Medical education research is gradually moving towards micro and fine direction. Researchers of medical education can focus on digital teaching form, assessment and evaluation system, ability cultivation of medical students and doctors around the six core competencies that residents should have as well as occupational development of faculty so as to continuously promote the development of medical education research in China.

Medical education; Excellent papers; Bibliometrics; Paper characteristics