See this NYT article<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/science/researchers-boycott-elsevier-journal-publisher.html>and sign up here <http://thecostofknowledge.com/>.
*-- Russ Abbott* *_____________________________________________* *** Professor, Computer Science* * California State University, Los Angeles* * Google voice: 747-*999-5105 Google+: https://plus.google.com/114865618166480775623/ * vita: *http://sites.google.com/site/russabbott/ *_____________________________________________* On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 8:39 PM, Nicholas Thompson < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi, everybody, **** > > ** ** > > I have signed perhaps a dozen Publishers Agreements over my life time and > each one was more onerous, self-serving, and stupid than the one before. > My favorite was the publisher who asked me to “hold the Publisher harmless > for anything that might occur as a consequence of the publishing of the > work.” I asked a lawyer if this meant I was liable if a printer got his > hand caught in the press while my book was running and he answered, “Well, > *probably* not.” And then he thought for a moment and said, “Oh, they’ld > never come after you for that!” Early contracts limited my liability to the > income from royalties, and one publisher actually provided authors’ > insurance for a modest premium. But no more. **** > > ** ** > > Well today, I got an author’s contract for a paper I am contributed to an > academic collection that asked me to warrant that the work had been > commissioned by the publisher and was “work for hire”. Now, work for > hire means that one’s surrenders ALL rights to the work including the right > to claim it as one’s own work. It’s the kind of contract you sign when you > write jacket copy for a publisher. ( The publisher in this case was Oxford > University Press, in case any of you are thinking of doing business with > them.) I am a wishy washy fellow, but somehow I could not sign a document > that said that my original work was “work for hire.” Couldn’t do it. **** > > ** ** > > It’s too late for this work. I will have to sign the rights over to my > [young] collaborator, because she desperately needs the paper for her > career. But MAN! It got me to thinking. WHAT ABOUT self publishing. > With, say, Amazon” Does anybody on the list have any experience with Amazon > or other self publishing services that they would like to share? **** > > ** ** > > My Dad was a book publisher, and I grew up with conversations around the > dinner table about “developing authors” and trying to find new authors, and > how a few books might have to be published before a new author caught on. > They published Churchill’s Memoires and Mein Kampf (!) and the Peterson > Field Guides, among many others. Now, it seems, publishers do very > little, and academic publishers, in particular, do nothing but scavenge > off the fetid bits coughed up the publish or perish system. Is is it time > to dump them? I am sure this is a party I am late to. Where do I get > invited. **** > > ** ** > > Nick **** > > ** ** > > Nicholas S. Thompson**** > > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology**** > > Clark University**** > > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/**** > > http://www.cusf.org**** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
