To publish and perish: Who are the dinosaurs in scholarly publishing?

Journal of Scholarly Publishing

Volumn 32, Issue 2, 2001, Pages 109-112

  Teute, Fredrika J ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 33646464050     PISSN: 11989742     EISSN: 17101166     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3138/jsp.32.2.102     Document Type: Article

References (26)

1. St Martin's Press publishes 1800 titles a year; the quantity militates against anyone carefully scrutinizing any of them. The fiasco last fall surrounding the recall of J.H. Hatfield's biography of George W. Bush, Fortunate Son, revealed that no one seemed to be minding the store. St Martin's is owned by a huge German media conglomerate, Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, which also owns Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Henry Holt. Another German megalopoly, Bertelsmann, owns Random House, which in turn is an umbrella for many former independent publishers, including
2. Alfred A. Knopf (Frank Bruni, 'Questions about Author Halt Distribution of Book on Bush, ' New York Times [22 October 1999]: Al, A22;
3. Doreen Carvajal, 'Citing Distrust of Author, Publisher Kills Book on Bush, ' New York Times [23 October 1999]: All;
4. Doreen Carvajal, 'Editor Quits Amid Turmoil Surrounding Book on Bush, ' New York Times [27 October 1999]: A22).
5. Lindsay Waters, 'A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Books of the Members of the MLA from Being a Burden to Their Authors, Publishers, or Audiences, ' PMLA115, 3 (2000): 316;
6. Robert Darnton, Three Problems in Search of a Solution, ' AHA Perspectives 37, 2 (February 1999): 2, 18-9
7. Waters, 'A Modest Proposal, 1315-7
8. Ibid., A Modest Proposal
9. Denise K. Magner, 'Academics and Industry Issue Pact to Guide the Evolution of Scholarly Publishing, ' Chronicle of Higher Education (16 June 2000): A16.
10. Although Waters and the group of academics and librarians who were signatories to 'Principles for Emerging Systems of Schol-arly Publishing, ' formulated at a meeting in Tempe, Arizona, in March 2000, respectively endorsed promoting quality as the criterion for evaluation over quantity, each proposed a solution that further undermined the current system. Waters suggested that rather than books as the measure of proficiency in the humanities, reliance should be placed on vvellcrafted articles, published in journals, as a more appropriate vehicle for nuggets of insights that do not merit full book-length treatment. The problem is that the proliferation and cost of journals are what have been breaking the budgets of most libraries. The Tempe group, recognizing this, called for the diversification of acceptable journals and the lowering of standards for peer review, essentially diluting quality control. Both proposals, though, highlight the need for academic gatekeepers to reevaluate and drastically overhaul the rules of tenure.
11. Waters posits that it takes ten years to produce a major book ('A Modest Proposal, ' 316).
12. Waters, 'A Modest Proposal, '315-7
13. Sanford G. Thatcher addressed this question early in the 1990s, claiming that university presses - through editors, editorial boards, and reviewers - maintained a balance of tension between received knowledge and emerging knowledge, as opposed to trade publishers, who were influenced by marketability (The Cutting Edge vs. the Status Quo at University Presses, ' Chronicle of Higher Education [12 August 1992]: A40). I am arguing that university presses over the last decade have lost this balance.
14. Waters puts forth the challenge in 'A Modest Proposal, ' 315.
15. Jennifer K. Ruark, 'Have Book Series Become Too Much of a Good Thing?' Chronicle of Higher Education (28 April 2000): A21
16. Ibid., Chronicle of Higher Education
17. Robert Darnton, 'A Program for Reviving the Monograph, ' Perspectives 37, 3 (March 1999): 2, 25-6,
18. announced the Gutenberg-e awards, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, for turning dissertations in hard-to-publish fields into first-rate electronic monographs that would take advantage of the electronic medium's capacity for innovative formats. The American Historical Association's sponsorship of this pilot program is intended to give the resulting monographs a legitimacy as published scholarship that electronic versions generally lack.
19. 'Scholarly Publishing in the Twenty-First Century.' Roundtable, American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, 7 January 2000;
20. Lisa Guernsey, 'The Library as the Latest Web Venture, ' New York Times (15 June 2000): G1.G12-3.
21. See Guernsey, 'The Library as the Latest Web Venture';
22. Lori Leibovich, 'Choosing Quick Hits Over the Card Catalog, ' New York Times (10 August 2000): El, E6;
23. Catherine Greenman, 'Printed Page Beats PC Screen for Reading, Study Finds, ' ibid., New York Times Ell.
24. See, for instance, Denise K. Magner, 'Seeking a Radical Change in the RoleofPublishing, ' Chronicle of Higher Education (16 June 2000): A16-7;
25. and 'Letters: Suggested Reforms in Scholarly Publishing Are No More Than a Beginning, ' Chronicle of Higher Education (28 July 2000): B3-B12,
26. especially David Henige, who argues for reversing the subordination of publishing and editing principles to the bottom line. He calls for a revival of the professional valuation of editors and holds scholars themselves responsible for the current state of affairs in scholarly communications.