This (Langen post) strikes me as right on the money. Is this a trend? I hope
so. Not all textbooks are bad (for example, I found Ricklef's ECOLOGY to be
an exception), but a friend of mine who teaches geology uses no textbooks at
all. And as research volume explodes, the greatest need is for professors
(any anyone else) to report good "finds" in the literature, for the
literature to be either Open-Access or not read at all to avoid the highway
robbery of the ancient "prestigious" journals.
And, while I fully understand that even on-line journals cannot be published
for nothing, such journals should be as near free as possible to authors. A
recent post about a new Open-Access journal claimed to have among the lowest
fees around at $1,000 per submittal. In my view, peer reviewers should
volunteer and should bounce back poor work after the first, say, three (?)
errors to the authors who could then re-submit. A reasonable fee per
submittal (un-refundable) would both keep the flood in check and provide
partial support for the journal's expenses, requiring only ten submittals to
collect $1,000 (at $100 each) plus donations (post complete financial
records, including any salaries paid, please) might be worth considering--or
an infinite number of variations, including institutional sponsorship.
But above all, stop the trend of thinking of journals as "profit centers."
WT
PS: I think we need a searchable central repository to ease literature
searching, but this kind of sharing also has distinct advantages, especially
helping to find and expose those gems that are buried in the flotsam and
jetsam.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom A. Langen - tlangen" <tlan...@clarkson.edu>
To: <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU>
Sent: Friday, March 08, 2013 7:33 AM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Environmental Science and Sustainabilty texts
Based on my experiences teaching a 'Global Environmental Change' class to
senior undergraduates and graduate students, I would strongly suggest you
consider abandoning the text books, and instead using review papers that
cover the topics treated in your course. Frontiers in Ecology & the
Environment, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Annual Reviews, and the
disciplinary journals have reviews that are more up to date, better written,
and more engaging and thought-provoking than the textbooks. ESA's Issues in
Ecology, and the Network of Conservation Educators & Practioners (NCEP)
curricula are also invaluable. When covering climate change, the IPCC
reports are the best source.
Besides being more current and more interesting, reading reviews from a
diversity of authors and sources will help graduate students develop the
skills of carefully reading and analyzing different styles of academic
papers. Last but not least, it will be FAR LESS EXPENSIVE to provide review
papers (presuming you or your institution have digital access to the papers)
that textbooks.
Tom Langen
Associate Professor
Departments of Biology & Psychology
Clarkson University
Box 5805, Clarkson U., Potsdam NY 13699-5805
Phone: 315 268 7933, Fax: 315 268 7118
www.clarkson.edu/~tlangen
-----Original Message-----
On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 12:18 PM, Leonard Scinto <scin...@fiu.edu> wrote:
Hello All:
I teach a course at the beginning Graduate Level titled "Environmental
Science and Sustainability". The course is designed largely to introduce
first term graduate students with a survey (very wide range) of basic
science behind "Environmental Science" especially as it applies to issues of
sustainability. This course is meant for those students without strong
backgrounds in physical/biological science but that hope to pursue advanced
studies in policy and/or education. I have been using the Miller and
Spoolman "Environmental Science" texts augmented with "light" reading from
the literature. The M&S is fairly basic for grad level and some students
complain that they want more discussion and find the M&S somewhat rote. I
would probably agree - though it is surprising how many people want to enter
deep discussions of supposedly novel ideas to solve environmental problems
without a basic understanding of the physical realities - and would like to
ask for suggestions from the List on other potential texts. I also find M&S
over "politically-correct", often ignoring discussions that are
uncomfortable. I would appreciate hearing ideas/opinions of others that are
in similar situations. Thank You.
Leonard J. Scinto, Ph.D.
Interim Director, Southeast Environmental Research Center and
Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Environment
OE148 - SERC/FIU
Florida International University
11200 SW 8th Street, Miami, FL 33199
Office:305-348-1965
Fax: 305-348-4096
scin...@fiu.edu
-----
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