The present invention discloses a high compact density nickel-cobalt-manganese multi-element lithium ion battery cathode material with dopants and methods of its preparation. A preparation method of this battery cathode material is as follows: (A) preparing a nickel-cobalt-manganese multi-element intermediate with dopants by co-precipitation or chemical synthesis; (B) preparing a mixture by mixing said multi-element intermediate with a lithium salt; (C) pre-treating the said mixture, then adding into it polyvinyl alcohol and mixing uniformly; (D) pressing the resulting material into lumps, calcining the lumps at 800˜950° C., cooling after its removal from the furnace, crushing, passing through a 400 mesh sieve; (E) calcining the resulting power at 700˜800° C., cooling after its removal from the furnace, crushing and sieving to obtain a product. The lithium battery cathode material obtained using the above-described method has the formula LiNixCoyMnzM(1-x-y-z)O2. The cathode material has non-agglomerated single crystal particles. The material has a particle size ranging from 0.6˜30 μm, a compact density of 3.5˜3.7 g/cm3, and an initial discharge capacity of 150˜165 mAh/g, with excellent cycling and safety performance.