I am trying to track the actual numbers of the top ten medical texts
in obstetrics sold. I am not interested in Gynecology per se. I am
interested in books on the subject of the management of labor and
delivery.
 
I cannot seem to find this information. 
 
I am confident that the #1 seller will be Williams Obstetrics (in the
21st edition, I believe) followed by Danforth's text, Gabbe's, Creasy
and Resnick's,  and possibly a few others.
 
I would like to know what the top ten sellers are in this category. I
would like to know how many units sold in the past year or so. 

---

Request for Question Clarification by adiloren-ga on 14 May 2002 23:30 PDT

are you using the word "texts" generally, to include all books on the
subject, or do you only want the top selling textbooks? 

---

Clarification of Question by barneyrubble-ga on 15 May 2002 06:34 PDT

I am asking about medical texts. The type of texts which obstetricians
would use for reference.
 
I have a list of ninety five obstetrics texts from Amazon. I know they
can be ranked by "bestselling". But I am looking for actual numbers of
sales, if I can.
 
I am trying to track the impact of certain items of research in the
obstetric literature. It would help enormously if there was a way of
providing some semblance of objective information about the sales, or
circulation of such texts.
 
The Brandon Hill lists are considered "authoritative" by librarians in
medical schools. But few outside of medical library science recognize
the import of that list.
 
I would be happy if I could show, for instance, that (I am making this
up simply to offer an example) of 459 medical libraries in the US, all
have at least one copy of Williams Obstetrics, 355 have a copy of
Danforth's Obstetrics, 240 have Gabbe's Obstetrics, etc.
 
I am looking for some objective information so that I can quantify the
impact of specific articles on the obstetrical texts.
 
I am aware of the Science Citation Index which allows one to track the
times an article is cited by other articles.
 
I am looking for objective information for research purposes. 
 
I am not interested in popular literature.  
 
Obstetrical Texts like Williams Obstetrics. 

---

Clarification of Question by barneyrubble-ga on 16 May 2002 08:19 PDT

I WOULD BE WILLING TO PAY $20 IF SOMEONE COULD TELL ME WHERE OR HOW I
MIGHT BE ABLE TO PURCHASE THIS INFORMATION.

Hi, thanks for the interesting question. I am really impressed by the
profound knowledge you have concerning evaluation of scientific value
of texts (mentioning SCI, for instance). It would be a good solution,
indeed, going to the next library providing access to Science Citation
Index. The Science Citation Index can provide data about single
articles:
- how often is an article cited?
- who is citing an article?

The questions you can answer by doing searches in the SCI can't tell
you anything about the value a certain journal has within the
scientific community. For this purpose, you should ask your library
about the latest data from the "Journal Citation Reports" which are
also edited and provided by ISI. You can find a brief description at:
http://www.isinet.com/isi/products/citation/jcr/
"Journal Citation Reports" are taking into account the so called
"Journal Impact Factor". This factor is a quantitative method for
evaluating the impact of scientific journals. The formula for
calculating this impact factor can be found (together with some
explanations) at:
www.isinet.com/isi/hot/essays/journalcitationreports/7.html
Libraries generally observe the Journal Citation Reports closely and
attentively, so you can be sure that the journals
which are considered to have the highest impact factor for a certain
discipline  are subscribed to by most of the libraries covering the
discipline. These journals could be considered as the "best selling"
for their discipline.

Some further interesting articles dealing with the Journal Impact
Factor and its applications:
http://hsc.virginia.edu/hs-library/newsletter/1997/april/tools.html

http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/papers/derunfallchirurg_v101(6)p413y1998english.html

The statements above are relating to journals and journal articles.

For books, it is much more difficult. You could perhaps contact
professional organizations like
APGO: Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics
http://www.apgo.org/home/

And a last hint: The most important books in a certain discipline are
mentioned by experts/insiders only by the author's names. Perhaps, you
have the possibility to find this out in a nearby university library?

Kind regards and I hope that this information will be helpful to you.

romana-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by barneyrubble-ga on 29 May 2002 06:50 PDT

I appreciate the response, but I am still looking for some way to find
some objectively verifiable information about the number sold for each
of the top ten OB texts.

I appreciate the suggestions, but I do not believe this answer is
responsive to the inquiry.

I am aware of the journal impact factor analysis. That does not cover
textbooks.

thanks for the info, nevertheless

---

Clarification of Answer by romana-ga on 29 May 2002 07:21 PDT

Hi,
I'm well aware that my answer didn't provide you the exact result you
are expecting, but it is really difficult. I just tried another search
by employing the words "best sellers" AND "obstetrics". This search
led to a list of best selling books in obstetrics and gynecology which
can be found at:
http://www.harcourt-international.com/gynaecology/bestsellers.cfm
This list provides a brief review and the table of contents for each
book. Unfortunately, the sales numbers are not provided. The fact that
a book has already been published in a 3rd or 4th edition is a
significant sign that it has indeed been very well sold, but it
doesn't give you any exact data.
Another list of "best sellers" in ob-gyn is published at:
http://www.mdtool.com/obgyn.html
If you like, I could still ask my bookseller if he has an idea where
to find the information you would like to get.

Once again, sorry that I couldn't give you the right answer!

romana-ga

You can browse Amazon.com “Obstetrics & Gynecology” section 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/14318/1/002-7402259-1534454?rank=%2Bsalesrank&submit.x=29&submit.y=13

or search Barnes and Noble by keyword “Obstetrics” 
http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=Obstetrics

and rank results in bestselling order.

Both major online bookstores have a mix of popular and professional
medical books and Williams Obstetrics does not lead their Obstetrics
bestselling lists.

Exact number of sold copies seems to be available only thru commercial
information services.

Some other researchers looking for this information on the web have
not had much luck so far. Check out the following request on the
information professionals portal Freepint.co.uk
http://www.freepint.com/bar/read.php?i=17248

An interesting articel about a new book sales tracking system called
Bookscan was published in Washington Post on May 2, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24656-2002May2.html

Quote from the article: "In the last few months, the American version
of Booktrack -- called Bookscan -- has been slowly gathering steam.
When these point-of-sale tallies begin showing what's really selling
in this country, U.S. bestseller lists may never look the same again.
"Once the info is there, it'll necessarily change the way bestseller
lists are reported," predicts Rob Cisco, executive vice president and
general manageer of the VNU retail entertainment and information
group, which runs Bookscan and Booktrack."

Contact info for VNU Retail Entertainment & Information (REI):
http://www.vnu.com/vnu/products_subsidiary.jsp?subsidiary=215,WERK

Hi,
This is a great question and a difficult one.  One of the problems in
tracking sales seems to be that the textbook industry does not have a
parent organization or newsletter that handles this, at least that I
was able to find on-line.
One organization, "The Association of Educational Publishers," is more
concerned with advocacy and legislation than in tracking sales.
http://www.edpress.org/about/index.htm
A very general article on textbook sales appears in a recent
Publisher's Weekly.
http://publishersweekly.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleId=CA217286&display=searchResults
The article includes a  link to the National Association of College
Stores (NACS) and information about purchasing a financial report,
which may provide some additional information.  Unfortunately, the
report is only available for sale, not for free on-line, and the cost
is probably prohibitive ($250 for NACS members).
http://www.nacs.org/public/research/financial.asp
Looking at the question from another angle, you might try to contact
the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics.  They do
not post  such a list on their web site, but may have access to
someone who does. You can reach them in Crofton MD at
djohnson@apgo.org or (410) 451-9560  http://www.apgo.org/about/
Good luck in your search!

Hi BR,

Still no solid numbers to crunch but these are the top sellers at 
www.medsite.com

http://makeashorterlink.com/?V2BD520E

Hope this is helpful,
V

Once you have your list of titles, you can check popularity in terms
of numbers of copies in library locations in North America by using
the subscription-based 'World Cat' database. Most academic and
university libraries have subscriptions to this service.