| Background:Scientific novelty search plays an important part in the technology management and assessment in China. With the continuous improvement on standardized management and scientific level, the market-oriented novelty search has been progressively liberalized. Along with the changes in national policies, and adjustment of the novelty search services management system, some problems have arisen in the novelty search works, and affect its sound development. Especially China’s medical and health novelty search services, which took the lead in carrying out "novelty search and consultation" nationwide since the1980s, have encountered problems with the changes of market-opening and management systems. These problems restricted its development.Objectives:This paper systematically reviews the history of the development of China’s Ministry of Health in novelty search services, and investigates the development of the current situation and the comments and suggestions for the future development of32novelty search services in China. It also analyzes the existing main problems of China’s Ministry of Health in novelty search services, discusses the reform strategy for the future, and provides useful recommendations for healthy development of the Ministry of Health in novelty search services.Methods:This paper uses the documentary data method to review China’s novelty search, especially the development history of the Ministry of Health in novelty search services. By using the self-designed "Basic information on the Ministry of Health in novelty search services questionnaire," it investigates the basic information, information resources, personnel organization, and business development of32novelty search services in China and their opinions and suggestions on the reform and development for the future. It also uses Microsoft Excel and SPSS to analyze data. Main Results:1. Uneven distribution of literature resources:because of the lack of money and different policies, prefectures and prefecture-level cities have less literature resources than university libraries, especially in the number of foreign databases. In addition, some novelty search services build their own databases according to their own working conditions; most of them are novelty databases, result databases and paper databases, etc.2. Distribution of the number of novelty personnel and titles:21novelty search service shave156novelty retrievers and43auditors.59%of the full-time novelty retrievers have educational backgrounds related to medicine. Twenty novelty search services have auditors with advanced titles. Overall, the novelty personnel in medicine in China have a reasonable matching structure. Advanced and intermediate professional titles are the main stakeholders in novelty searches. There exists uneven distribution of China’s medical novelty retrievers among agencies.3. Business conditions of novelty searches:The number of novelty searches in2008,2009, and2010were13105,15807, and15615, respectively. There is a big difference between different institutes. The maximum yearly mean of novelty searches is more than4000items, while the minimum is only22. To solve the heavy and concentrated problems of work,20institutes adopted overtime work or employed external and internal staff to complete work on time. Besides conventional novelty search services, each institute has many add-valued services, including index and citation checking services, thesis proposal services, intelligence analysis services and novelty search training, search teaching, subject services, document delivery, etc.4. The objects of medical novelty searches are college teachers, social research staff, medical personnel, business institutions, and students. The services are mainly for their provinces, even the whole country.5. The application of network technology in novelty management:Among these21novelty search services,20have set up their own websites or online pages for advertisement,19have accepted novelty requirements online, five have established novelty information management systems.6. The establishment of novelty search consultancy expert bases and client feedback system:28.6%of the institutes have consultancy expert bases, while57.1%of the institutes have established the client feedback system with low utilization.7. Institution reform:11institutions think their ability to market orientation is merely sufficient,7think they are insufficient. Nine institutions think they should change to non-profit organizations, while5institutions think they only need internal system reform.Conclusions and suggestions:1. Due to the unbalanced literature resources in different institutes, we should integrate the shared resources of each novelty institution under the support of the government. Realizing co-construction and sharing can not only save funds for our country, but also increase utilization of databases and promote the development and effectiveness of medical novelty searches.2. Novelty retrievers need systematic and normative training. As medical novelty retrievers, knowing medicine and related professional knowledge is particularly important. So in order to learn novelty searches, medical novelty institutions have to focus on improving the level of scientific research and intelligence awareness, make use of favorable conditions at work, and carry out intelligence research and information services actively.3. Novelty search services should change mechanisms, establish a national top down network system, and strengthen the novelty services framework system. Government should support novelty searches by policy and operation funds, changing novelty institutions into non-profit organizations. By using incentives to encourage innovation, novelty institutions should adopt competition for posts and recruitment, and make full use of talented people. They should make the best of network technology, establish novelty search consultancy platforms, issue related policies and information, make each institution grasp the work dynamically, enforce the communication between each unit, and coordinate work between novelty institutions, reducing working pressure to guarantee the quality of novelty searches.4. Novelty search services should establish novelty consulting business management systems for the management of each institution and the storage and reuse of novelty reports.5. Novelty search services can set up a practical and effective regulatory mechanism to assess each novelty search service regularly, promote its improvement, guarantee healthy and orderly development of medical novelty searches, and enforce the authority of novelty work. |
