Analysis Of Systemic Environment And Orientation Strategies Of Medical Publishers

With the rapid development of science and technology, the concept of ethic has been changing continuously. The medical publishers must position themselves appropriately in the market to avoid vicious competition. Due to the lack of comprehensive analysis in previous studies, this research is concerned with the academic and market orientation of medical publishers. The study analyzes the systemic environment of domestic medical publishers. The academic analysis of medical publishers, medical books, authors and the medical sciences is conducted using bibliometric and cluster analysis methods. Market capacity, market competition, pricing, consumers, marketing methods and distribution channels are also analyzed with quantitative methods. Medical publishers are divided into four groups using the sales revenue records, the h index and the citation frequency. Different strategies are devised for the four groups of publishers.The dissertation is divided into six sections. The first section, as the foundation of the study, includes the relevant concepts and research methods.The second section is the analysis of the systemic environment of the medical publisher. The systemic environment of the medical publisher includes management and policy environment, science and technology environment, market and economic environment, humanities and social environment. The analysis indicates that the medical publisher must improve market awareness and satisfy the needs of advancing sciences.The third section is the academic orientation analysis of the medical publishers. The citation quantitative analysis is applied to analyze books quoted by academic journals based on the Chongqing VIPs citation database in the past ten years. The SCI articles of science in the past eleven years are analyzed with quantitative method. The result shows that a high number of authors and books are partnered with a very small number of publishers. Most of these publishers use studies and articles that are similar in subject matters. There is a gap between China, The United States and Japan in the total number of articles cited. These countries lead in the number of papers published in the world.The fourth section is the market orientation analysis of medical publishers. According to the analysis of data on retail sales in the medical market from 1999 to 2007, the result shows that the medical market is an oligopoly market. It is a market of high concentration and high-profit. The sales and variety rise continuously. According to the analysis of 2006 Medical retail market data, the highest sales and the most profitable are the books on Chinese traditional medicine and medical examinations. According to the analysis of medical market from 1999 to 2006, the total publishing order and the gross earnings of medical examinations books have increased at the highest rate. However, the sales amount of single collection of these books has decreased. The sales of internal medicine and surgery books have increased at the lowest rate. Larger publishing companies take the leading position in more than five disciplines, while small companies only in one or two. The number of health institutions has reached 30 million. The number of physicians, surgeons, obstetrics and gynecology doctors and Chinese Traditional medical doctors has reached over 100,000. The Medical publishers lack proper marketing skills. Direct sales channels should be developed. More medical books should be published in digital form.The fifth section is the analysis of the orientation strategies of the medical publishers. The Medical publishers are divided into four groups; revenue, h index, the citation frequency. The larger group of well developed publishers is advised to adopt an international and multi-directional strategy. The group of publishers focusing on certain academic books is advised to adopt a brand strategy. The group of publishers having more powerful marketing methods is advised to use a more discriminating strategy. The group of small and growing publishers is advised to develop a unique feature.The sixth section is the main conclusions and discussion.The innovative contribution of this dissertation is the comprehensive analysis of the medical publishing systemic environment with quantitative methods for the first time. The market competition among medical publishers is analyzed in detail. Some appropriate orientation strategies are analyzed for different types of medical publishers.