Scholarly publishing in Malaysia : a study of marketing environment and influences on readership behaviour

The role of publishing in the development of societies has been crucial, but many still tend to overlook the wider societal impact of publishing and concentrate purely on its direct economic contribution. The aim of this thesis is to draw attention to the wider impact of publishing as an instrument for the betterment of society. In particular the thesis examines the role of marketing in all its aspects in the publishing process at the international, national and industrial level (from inception to completion of publications). The study hopes to shed light on some of the environmental factors which affect publishing in general, publishing in the Malaysian context, and particularly scholarly publishing, which has its own peculiar traits. In order to have a clearer idea of the publishing scenario it is essential first to identify the symptoms; therefore it is important to examine the macro-marketing environment which constitutes the socio-political and commercial envelope in which the publishing industry resides, and then the micro-marketing environment and marketing systems which constitute the local industry level influences and internal company marketing force respectively. Having looked at these aspects of the marketing environment, the research concentrates on the most crucial factor in the success of any business, the buyer. The importance of measuring consumer satisfaction also dictated why the researcher made use of questionnaires for lecturers and students as sources of primary data for this study. Lecturers' roles in marketing books indirectly should not be overlooked by publishers; their unique offering is the special ability to identify and satisfy students' needs, analogous to the role played by doctors in the marketing of pharmaceutical drugs. An investigation is made of consumers' profile (lecturers and students) in order to deduce their reading and buying behaviour, and further in the case of lecturers, writing proficiency. These findings may provide better understanding of the marketing ramifications emanating from the publishing process in general and scholarly publishing in particular. Although libraries are one of the primary customers for scholarly publications, the survey conducted with them was far smaller in scope than those conducted on lecturers and students since they merely act as intermediaries while the latter are the ultimate users of scholarly publications. Scholars and publishers may co-operate happily in the writing and creating of scholarly books, but the publisher faces serious limitations upon his freedom to act purely for the betterment of scholarship. Thus, the focus of this study is how to bridge the gap between dissemination of knowledge through published means and the economics of publishing as a commercial concern. The notion of "social profit" is introduced to help deal with some of the conflicting concerns of scholarly publishers, as well as to argue against the normal argument of "social obligations" put forward by many government publishing agencies and university presses in Malaysia. The study concludes that main factors which determine the present situation of scholarly publishing include the relative infancy of the publishing industry in Malaysia; the small market for publications, in particular scholarly publications; the emphasis on textbook production which has resulted in a dearth of books in other areas; frequent changes of language policy which have damaged publishing programmes in both English and bahasa Melayu; the poor reading habit of the population in general (notwithstanding the high literacy rate); and more distressingly for scholarly publishers, the poor reading habit of students and lecturers; the lack of understanding of the publishing process by people involved in the industry; insufficient numbers of good authors especially those who can write in bahasa Melayu; poor planning and distribution, and above all the absence of reliable and up to date information on the industry. It is hoped that this research will generate interest in this neglected, yet nevertheless important, area which is essential to the development and national well being. An analysis of the marketing environment within the publishing business reveals the problems facing the industry, and suggests that a more appropriate system will be possible only when effective steps are taken to meet the needs of this industry and provide the needed support. This can only be realised by a detailed study to determine the long-term and short-term needs for books and other materials, and the various methods of meeting these needs. It is also important in determining how the industry can be strengthened and expanded to meet future needs. Although government efforts have reflected the awareness of the importance of textbooks in developing and upgrading the standard of education in Malaysia, they have also resulted in some measure in discouraging scholarly publications within the publishing industry. The publishing business in Malaysia deserves greater attention because of the significant position of Malaysia in Asia and ASEAN sub-continent in particular, and the contribution of education to its economic and social development

foRMAtion international curriculum for future Research Managers and Administrators

The Intellectual Output 2 (IO2) is the international curriculum developed within the framework of the foRMAtion project, designed to be tested and accredited by each partner university and targeted to provide an overview of the main RMA tasks and roles for university students. The curriculum is named Research Manager as a profession in the EU ecosystem: concepts, tools and practice and consists of 24 lessons that will be taught over 2 semesters. The lessons are organized into 4 Modules: Module 1: Research Methodology and Design Module 2: Research Funding, Policy and Governance Module 3: Project Integration and Management Module 4: Research Impact and Public Engagement. Based on the partner universities' rules and national accreditation procedures, the curriculum will be accredited with 3 ECTS per semester. It will be available for all students as an elective course, focusing on bachelor students but open to all (when allowed by the rules of the university hosting the course). Through the curriculum, the students will engage with the EU Research and Innovation Ecosystem where they will gather an overview of RMA work at large, including the broad aspects and technical areas, but also by actively participating in real-case activities and developing transferable competencies. The international curriculum was developed in articulation with IO3 (teaching materials) to integrate the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) approach, combining knowledge, skills, and attitudes in the context of RMA's main tasks and roles. This document includes the definition of learning outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and autonomy, plus the detailed content of all 24 curricula units (lessons).publishersversionpublishe

Mortality case note review use for hospital care quality improvement: A methodological, psychological and qualitative investigation

Evaluating hospital care quality using case-note reviews is mandated in the United Kingdom and is endorsed by many high-income countries. This thesis separately addresses both the validity of case-note reviews and the use of case-note reviews for care quality improvement. On case-note reviewing validity, there are moderate-to-high levels of disagreement (variability) between multiple clinician case-note reviewers when evaluating the overall care quality of the same case-note. The sources of this disagreement (variability) are unknown. On case-note review use, the potential factors which affect case-note reviewing in hospitals has not been well-studied in relation to their contribution to hospital care quality improvement. This thesis presents the findings of three original studies and seeks to both identify the sources for this reviewer variability and the organizational factors which influence case-note review’s likely contribution to hospital quality improvement. The introduction discusses the policy context and offers a critique of hospital mortality statistics with the prospective use of case-note reviews as an alternative approach for detecting care quality issues. Chapter 1 involved a systematic review of preventable mortality rates and a characterization of their measurement properties for evaluating care quality and subsequent hospital ranking. Findings concluded that a limitation of studies not accounting for variation between different hospitals, assuming equal variance, in the ranking process. Case-note reviews are presented as a workable alternative, to which this thesis is devoted to investigating. Chapter 2 presents the findings of an original systematic review which identified cognitive biases and heuristics related to case-note review care quality judgements. Cognitive biases and heuristics, sourced from two systematic reviews, are investigated with their plausible influence upon case-note reviewer care quality judgments using clinical scenarios derived using a systematic literature search and informed by a panel consensus. Findings indicate the plausible influence of cognitive biases and heuristics. Chapter 3 investigates the influence of reviewer attitudes; their demographics and patient case-note review characteristics upon case-note reviewer care quality judgements. Selected attitudes did not significantly influence care quality judgements and a significant proportion of care quality judgement variability is unexplained by the included independent variables. Chapter 4 describes case study fieldwork in an acute NHS Trust which explored the organizational processes around case-note review including its embedding, information flow and its perceived quality improvement contribution. We found that case-note reviews were well-embedded, with there being limited information flow from ward-to-board. Chapter 5 is a critical reflection of the research process and the assumptions made in this thesis. Chapter 6 summarizes the thesis, discusses practical implications, and identifies opportunities for future research for quality improvement from case-note reviews