I have a few hundred dollars to spend on library materials, related to courses and also to be part of our university library’s permanent collection. Some of the materials are books from university presses, and some of these are available as examination and desk copies for faculty using them in courses.
I am being told – not by library personnel, whom I have not asked – that I should order these books as examination copies for myself, paying the price of an examination copy, and then donate them to the library. Upon reflection I suppose this is technically legal. Is it ethical, though, or am I overscrupulous?
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
I’ve wondered about this myself and have come to the conclusion that I draw the line between university presses and big houses. I worry too much that university presses are clinging on by their fingertips, and they’re doing me an extraordinary favor when they send me a review or desk copy — I just can’t see my way to depriving them of the income they get from library purchases. Big houses operate on an entirely different economic scale — and although others might disagree with me, I tell myself that Sarah Palin’s autobiography is subsidizing my library’s ownership of a new book in my field.
We need university presses BAD. How else can most people dream of getting tenure? So I say we do our fair share and pay retail for those books, at least when we can afford them (Cambridge University Press, I’m looking at you.)
I was gonna go with:
at first, until I read Didion’s comment. I didn’t think about the difference between university presses and big publishing houses. If it’s a struggling outfit I’d pay full price.
That .gif is funny! I agree with Didion but I am going to do it, because it will solve a lot of problems and it will not be convenient to p.o. my administration right now. But I am also going to send them Didion’s comment, and say I will do it this this time but never again.
I may be wrong — for example, I don’t know whether Oxford UP’s in the red or in the black these days — but if I were you, I’d go ahead and assume that all university presses are struggling. Talking with my editor at a comparatively posh-sounding press, it sounds as if everyone’s really pulling in belts these days — it’s not just places that recently survived getting the ax altogether (like Louisiana State UP, for example). I think professors and UPs should team up together to protect all of them, even on small issues like this. The last thing we need is more of them shutting their doors.
I dislike university presses and publishing houses intensely. It just bugs me to no end that I have to invest a lot of hard work into a book that – if published by a UP – will never be read by anybody. They charge insane prices for scholarly books and have now started warning prospective authors that they have to pay thousands of dollars to get published.
I’d much rather prefer to make my scholarship available digitally in open access to anybody. Right now, however, the only motivation for research is that I get a line on my CV. This makes me very frustrated. I hope that with the development of digital media and increasing burdens on UPs and publishing houses, they all go bankrupt and we will be able to make our research freely available to the world.
What we need to question is this insane practice where we are forced to publish with the UPs to get tenure.
Not all do that and it’s new, and it’s part of the defunding of education. Formerly the UPs were there to make things accessible — but with quality control (in contrast to self publishing).
It’s not the press’ fault that departments essentially outsource their tenure decisions to them.
Scholarly books could be all just published digitally at no cost to the presses. Somehow, however, they are not even considering that possibility.
If the UPs are not making any efforts whatsoever to consider my interests, I’ll be damned if I spent 2 seconds considering theirs.
“all university presses are struggling. Talking with my editor at a comparatively posh-sounding press, it sounds as if everyone’s really pulling in belts these days”
-Good. As soon as they all go bust, we can start refashioning the very principles of scholarship. I believe that the value of research should be calculated by how many people find it interesting and useful, not by whether some corrupt jerk at a UP has been bribed by his buddy to publish a book. (A real case I recently have learned about.)
Re above: no cost to presses? Peer review, editing / working with the author, copy editing, design, formatting, promotion, distribution … free?
And to add to Profacero’s list, they also submit your book to prize committees, and talk your book up to other authors, and go to bat for you during the tenure process — I know there are exceptions and that the tenure/publishing dynamic isn’t an ideal situation. In fact, it’s my understanding that UPs hate it that they’ve been put in the middle of young professors and tenure decisions. But look, you’re not going to get tenure unless you write a peer-reviewed book. My own experience with a UP has been terrific — much better than my experience publishing articles in journals, actually. Get tenure, then you can go rogue by publishing online.
Peer review is done for free nowadays. Normally, you are asked to edit yourself or to pay out of pocket for editing and formatting. Promotion and distribution are not needed with digital copies.
“And to add to Profacero’s list, they also submit your book to prize committees, and talk your book up to other authors, and go to bat for you during the tenure process ”
-Whoever these “they”are, I know for a fact they will never do that for me. 🙂
” But look, you’re not going to get tenure unless you write a peer-reviewed book. ”
-Actually, I will. My university does not insist on a book since it understands how hard it is nowadays. We can substitute with a certain number of articles.
“My own experience with a UP has been terrific — much better than my experience publishing articles in journals, actually. ”
-I’m sincerely happy for you. My experience has been “we will not look at your proposal before you provide proof that you will be able to pay x thousand dollars to publish.”
I agree with Didion. But what you are going to do is still more ethical than what I’ve seen in some professors: they order those copydesk books and then re-sell them on Amazon. In other fields (like graphic design), you can resell them for quite some money.
“I believe that the value of research should be calculated by how many people find it interesting and useful”
The peer-reviewed system doesn’t always work great, but how do you propose to implement this without turning it into a popularity contest where it’s the market (who sells/has the most downloads) the one who decides? And digital editions are not free by any means.
I’d honestly much rather the market decided.
Then I think we are not talking about scholarship anymore.
“I’d honestly much rather the market decided.”
This already happens – the number of times you’ve been cited is how it’s done!
“Normally, you are asked to edit yourself or to pay out of pocket for editing and formatting.”
A press that asks you to do this isn’t reputable. I think you should talk to an editor at U of I Press on what their procedure is and how to assess a contract offer.
“we will not look at your proposal before you provide proof that you will be able to pay x thousand dollars to publish.”
… increasingly true but still not true of all.
The real problem is the problem which has always existed — publishing in English on things that are in Spanish. You can have an utterly viable project but if it is too esoteric to sell beyond the Hispanist audience or the fashion audience in English, then you have a problem. And deans do want to see a book published in English, in a US university press; it is possible to combat this but not necessarily easy.
“Peer review is done for free nowadays.”
… not nowadays: in the past, when it was a professional courtesy. Try getting someone famous to do peer review. Try getting them to read a tenure packet for free these days … it is not as easy as it once was, even when they really do want to support the candidate.
““we will not look at your proposal before you provide proof that you will be able to pay x thousand dollars to publish.”
… increasingly true but still not true of all.”
-I guess I’ll have a chance to find out soon. 🙂