Since the Internet and ICTs overall reduce the cost of information/text reproduction, storage and distribution to very close to zero and the content/reviewing/editing is almost all done by volunteer labour, I'm wondering what the value added is of "academic publishers/publishing"... whether for "Handbooks" or journals or...? M -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Alex Kuskis Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2011 11:02 AM To: 'Alan Sondheim'; 'Charles Ess' Cc: 'Air list' Subject: Re: [Air-L] book announcement FWIW, having worked for John Wiley as a Manager of Trade & Professional Books for several years, I'm not the slightest bit surprised by their pricing. Even if it's about the last book publisher still owned by its original founding family rather than a media conglomerate, their only commitment to scholarship is to make money from it.......Alex Alex Kuskis, PhD Adjunct Professor MA Program in Communication & Leadership School of Professional Studies Gonzaga University http://mcluhangalaxy.wordpress.com/about/ -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Alan Sondheim Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2011 8:21 AM To: Charles Ess Cc: Air list Subject: Re: [Air-L] book announcement This sounds excellent, as far as it goes, of course; the problem arises if one tries to get the entire book. There are a lot of open source academic publications online; I'm surprised that Wiley et. al. charges so much, given this. POD is not all that expensive, by the way, as Lulu and other venues show. Thanks, Alan On Wed, 9 Mar 2011, Charles Ess wrote:
well said and to the point - exactly. That said: what is to prevent anyone from contacting an author whose name s/he notices in a table of contents and asking for a copy of a given chapter or article? Without speaking for anyone else - this is a practice I engage in, as both requester and sender. It is also true in my experience that most authors are (generally) happy to respond positively to such requests, most especially under the sorts of circumstances you describe. Obviously, we want our work to be read and critically evaluated - not sequestered. An advantage of this practice, in my experience, is that it sometimes fosters helpful dialogue and creative collaboration between scholars who otherwise will not likely meet. Not an ideal solution, perhaps, but perhaps not also such a bad one?
My two bits - and please keep throwing in yours! - charles
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