Thanks to Michael Renner for sharing the Chronicle of Higher Ed expose on professors and departments receiving kickback payments for text adoptions (in one case from a publisher that buys adoptions by paying an inflated sum for �reviews�).
Karen Huffman, Jeff Nevid, Don McBurney, and Gene Walker speak for others of us text authors in saying that colleague reviews are an important part of our revision process. I regard the reviews I receive as a gift not only to me, but to the teaching of psychology and its students. Reviews and editing together enable us to author books that, whatever their flaws, are better than any one of us, working alone, could have written. Bear in mind, too, that reviews may sometimes serve a purpose that�s not evident . . . when they serve to balance an opposing review. If you want more on signal detection, and another reviewer wants less, and if the author decides to retain the existing coverage, it may look like your review had no influence, when actually it did get weighed in. The bigger question raised by the Chronicle article is whether there should be any place for kickback payments to induce text adoptions, or whether texts should be sold and selected solely on their merits and appropriateness for one �s students. There�s actually a seeming consensus on this question among teachers of psychology, text authors, and leading publishers, at least as reflected in official statements: >From the APA Monitor, October 1988 (showing this issue keeps resurfacing): �Members of Division 2 (Teaching) have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a policy opposing kickbacks for text selection. The Division 2 policy, approved by 99 percent of those who voted, states that �publishers� offer of monetary considerations for adopting classroom materials should be refused and that members should make every effort to discourage this practice in their departments. The Textbook Authors Association (now the Text and Academic Authors Association) wrote in an undated open letter to all college administrators and professors that: �We recommend that administrators and faculty senates act to prohibit any sales practices involving kickbacks. . . . Kickbacks are sometimes offered by publishers and sometimes solicited by professors. . . . In our opinion, they are unethical and are so potentially detrimental to higher education that they should be banned from every campus. The Association of American Publishers Higher Education Division�s �Statement of Principles for College Publishing� has declared that: �The criteria for textbook selection properly concern only the quality and suitability of the textbook itself and its immediate ancillary materials. . . . College publishers should avoid making any improper inducement to any actual or potential adopter, directly or indirectly, which may be described as a bribe, kickback or excessive commission or free which is contingent on the adoption of their textbooks or their ancillary materials. Unacceptable activities include� cash grants, rebates, equipment contributions or money for such to individuals or departments. Dave Myers www.davidmyers.org --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
