President's
Message Archive
April
2008
Free money! All you have to do is ask
Journals
and academic book publishers have begun shifting the costs of
publishing in the direction of authors. Last spring, a relatively
brief article in the Journal of Neuroscience by one
of our members and her postdoc was accepted contingent on payment
of a fee of $750 to the journal in advance of the publication.
(This charge was in addition to any additional charges for reprints.) I
also recently had an article co-authored with a former student
accepted by the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. We were
offered the opportunity to make this article available through
the open access option of the journal; the charge for that, however,
would be $3,700.
Have you
experienced this shifting of costs to you? TAA can help.
If you have
been a TAA member for more than a year, you are qualified to apply
for a TAA Publication Grant of up to $750. TAA began offering
these grants in September 2007 as way to help academic authors
cover the costs of publishing already accepted journal articles,
or for preparation of artwork or other charts, diagrams or images
to be included in accepted articles or academic books. The requirements
to qualify for these grants are: evidence of acceptance; a copy
of the accepted work; a copy of the charge or estimate of
costs; a letter from someone overseeing the applicant indicating
that the institution has no funds to support the publication or
creation of the artwork; and an affidavit from the applicant stating
that there are no grant funds available to support the publication
project.
TAA offers
these grants as part of its mission to assist academic authors.
The cost of providing these grants comes from funds that TAA receives
through Authors Coalition distributions. TAA receives these funds
based on the Authors Coalition Surveys its members fill out when
they join or renew.
To apply
for a TAA Publication Grant, contact me at (850) 893-6539 or richard.hull@taaonline.net, or
provide evidence of acceptance; a copy of the accepted work;
a copy of the charge or estimate of costs; a letter from
someone overseeing you that indicates that the institution has
no funds to support the publication or creation of the artwork;
and an affidavit from you stating that there are no grant funds
available to support the publication project. and mail it
to TAA at PO Box 76477, St. Petersburg, FL 33734.
Not interested
in a TAA Publication Grant? Here are some other ways that TAA
assists its academic author members:
Teleconferences. Participate
in one or more 60-minute open discussion or presenter-led teleconferences
on various topics (click here).
Mentor-A-Member
Program. TAA's members-only online mentoring directory
allows members to match themselves with veteran academic and textbook
authors (click here).
Discounted
Editing Services. TAA members receive discounts of up
to 20 percent off editing services from select editors (click
here).
TAA Listserv. Questions
about authoring or publishing posted on TAA's members-only listserv
typically generate several helpful responses within a few days.
Post your messages to taa@mail-list.com.
Richard Hull,
TAA Executive Director
March
2008
Expert review makes self-published books respectable
Textbook
and academic authors come to self-publishing for different reasons.
Some own the rights to a book out of print. Some seek editorial
control or a larger financial return. Some cannot find a publisher
to adopt a specific project. I
came to self-publishing by accident when I inherited two local
history books published by my father and several hundred copies
in cardboard copies from the printer.
I convinced
my wife that we should take copies of one of the books with us
on a vacation to Gulf Shores, Alabama. Mobile Bay is the site
of a well-known Civil War battle that was the subject of one of
the books. We took a side trip to Fort Morgan at the mouth of
Mobile Bay, where I showed the little book to the site historian,
asking him if the museum there was interested in selling it. He
examined it and asked how many copies I had with me. "About
ten." He said, "We can sell them all."
My wife and
I later shipped all that we had, redid the book in a second edition,
sold out the first printing of 1,000 copies and had the second
edition reprinted. That little book has inspired a self-published
series that I work on during my unscheduled time.
Anecdotes
like this one abound, but at the top of the scale is the story
of John Saxon, who authored and self-published a series of K-12
math textbooks. In 1980, Saxon was a retired Air Force officer
teaching math at a junior college in Oklahoma. According to a
2001 article in the Washinton Post, he wrote his first
math textbook on his dining room table, used $80,000 from an inheritance
and a second mortgage on his house to publish the book and market
it himself. Twenty years later, his K-12 math series, in which
he authored or co-authored nine books, was in some form of use
by an estimated 25,000 schools, and annual sales of Saxon Publishers
approached $100 million. John Saxon passed away in 1996, and his
company was sold to Harcourt-Achieve in 2004. Though revised and
now published by others, much of the series remains in print today.
In his book
Self-publishing Textbooks and Instructional Materials (Atlantic
Path Publishing, 2004), Frank Silverman, a former president of
TAA, lists a number of academically respectable books that were
initially self-published. In the nonfiction category, they include
Poor Richard's Almanac (Franklin), The Elements of Style
(Strunk and White), Familiar Quotations (Bartlett) and
Roberts' Rules of Order (Roberts). In ther fiction category
are many more books including The Jungle (Sinclair) and
Huckleberry Finn (Twain). In The Self-publishing Manual
(itself self-published), Dan Poynter reminds us that many
well-known non-academic, non-fiction books have also been self-published.
The one perhaps best known to recent college graduates is What
Color is Your Parachute? 2008 (Bolles).
What makes
a self-published book respectable? My answer is expert review
and expert approval. The review can occur prior to publication,
but without expert review, the book will be perceived to be no
more than the product of a vanity press. With expert review and
approval, the book becomes respectable, even if its sales are
few. Review can take many forms, from the formative draft review,
to selection committee review, to newspaper/journal review, to
library acquisitions review. Experts can be defined somewhat differently,
depending on who the user will be. Academic reviewers are often
leading experts in their discipline. On the other hand, ordinary
citizens are on some textbook selection committees, along with
teachers, subject matter specialists, and school administrators.
Tenure and
promotion committees may have difficulty understanding the nuances
of expert review, so my advice especially to a new academic author
is to seek a traditional publisher. Working with an editor and
through the process of review and publication will give you insights
that later can be used for publishing your own work, should for
one reason or another, you wish to take that path. If successful,
self-published works will be sought by traditional publishers
to add to their title lists, and then the question becomes whether
to license your work or to continue to self-publish.
John Wakefield
February
2008
Associate Executive Director's Message:
Keep talking, we're listening
In print
and email surveys that we conducted bettween September 2007 and
January 2008, some TAA members told us they found The Academic
Author to be one of the most valuable member benefits, while
others said it was printed too infrequently.
As a result
of that feedback, we have decided to begin publishing The Academic
Author monthly rather than quarterly, starting this issue
(except in the months of July and August).
This is just
one example of the changes we have made in member communication
and services in the past year, most of which were a result of
member feedback. Here are several more:
• Grants
of up to $750 for publication costs associated with publishing
a scholarly article of book
• Free
mentoring via an online mentoring directory that allows members
to match themselves with veteran academic and textbook authors
• Authoring
advice and insight via a new "How-to" section, more
frequent postings of Q&A's to "Authors Asking",
and essays on writing in the "Writer's Block" section
• An
expanded "Busy TAA People" section, which allows members
to get to know one another through member profiles, and by sharing
their news, as well as links to their personal and professional
website addresses
• A
more active TAA Listerv, TAA's members-only email discussion
list. If you are not receiving postings, please contact me so
that we can make sure that you are subscribed. Post messages
to taa@mail-list.com
I hope that
you will continue to provide us with feedback, both by responding
to surveys, and by contacting us directly at TEXT@tampabay.rr.com
or (727) 563-0020. We're listening.
December
2007
TAA's model of services
Winter brings
with it thoughts of both what we have accomplished in the past
year and what lies ahead for next year. To help me outline what
we have done, and what remains to be done,
I propose a simple two-by-two model. The vertical of the model
would be divided into novice and expert categories and the horizontal
into academic and textbook categories. Four cells result: Novice
academic, expert academic, novice textbook and expert textbook.
These four categores might be used to classify authors, but we
tend to bridge categories. They might better be used to classify
our assistive services.
Novice
academic services
We have done much this year for the first time to support early
career academic authoring. First, we have developed a new category
of membership to acknowledge both the budget constraints of those
new to academy and their trial membership in TAA. Graduate students
and instructors can now join and renew for $15 per year; assistant
professors for $30. Second, Council has expanded its financial
support for workshops that address the needs of new authors focused
on writing scholarly articles and grant proposals. Tara Gray's
workshop on scholarly journal authoring and Ken Henson's workshop
on grant writing can now be offered more often. Third, our annual
conference is committed to including presentations by and/or for
new academic authors. In June, for example, we had an informative
session on how to turn your dissertation into a book. Fourth,
Council in June authorized $7,500 for grants of up to $750 to
defray costs associated with publication of an article in a refereed
journal. These articles might very well have grown out of an idea
explored during a workshop. Fifth, we have revitalized our author
mentoring program to help new academic authors. Sixth, we are
encouraging and supporting the development of learning communities
of authors on university campuses.
It can be
said that 2007 has been "the" year for developing assistive
services for authors who are newly focused on scholarly articles
and grants, and I expect even more ideas now under discussion
to emerge as service initiatives in 2008.
Expert
academic services
What do we have to offer the experienced academic author? First,
TAA now offers the opportunity to join or renew at a rate commensurate
with academic rank ($55 for associate professors, $75 for professors
and $35 for emeriti professors). Second, Council increased support
for Tara Gray's advanced workshop of authoring scholarly articles,
for Robert Ginsberg's workshop on scholarly writing and editing,
and for Elizabeth Boepple's workshop on preparing effectively-written,
camera-ready copy. While novices would profit from these workshops,
the benefits extend to experienced authors who might also be interested
in editing a book or journal or self-publishing. Third, our 2007
conference in Buffalo in June allowed expert academic authors
to present their authoring.editing expertise in an "academic
track". Along with newer academic authors, I enjoyed listening
to an experienced journal editor describe what she looked for
in submissions, providing insight to her audience (including me!).
We plan to continue the "academic track" at our 2008
conference, along with sessions of general interest and those
geared to textbook authors. We shall also be linking out website
to information about scholarly retreats.
Novice
textbook services
Our revised membership categories differentiate between authors
who have less than versus more than $5,000 in royalty income ($30
vs. $75), acknowledging that royalty income tends to increase
with experience as a textbook author. Second, our increased support
for workshops extend to Michael Spiegler's workshop on writing
a textbook, which will be offered at TAA's 2008 conference in
Las Vegas, June 19. This workshop continues the TAA tradition
of offering an introductory seminar t help prospective or new
textbook athors. Third, TAA continued its facilitation of communication
between authors and literary agents and/or attorneys. Agents and
attorneys offered many brief consultations free of charge at the
conference, and they participated in dynamic conference presentations
on contract negotiation with publishers. Fourth, email traffic
throughh the TAA listserv increased substantially, often with
useful advice for new authors regarding coauthors, potential publishers,
contract clauses, royalites, revisions, etc. Fifth, TAA continued
its Texty awards for new ttextbooks that won highly positive reviews
from a set of experienced textbook atuhors. In the year aheaad,
you can expect new supportive servies to emerge for new textbook
authors.
Expert
textbook services
Twenty years ago, TAA was born from the interest of experienced
textbook authors in sharing information about financial issues
and joining an advocacy group, TAA recognized the contribution
of its most senior textbook authors by creating an "emeritus"
textbook author category of membership ($35). TAA also continued
to serve the information and advocacy needs of expert textbook
authors. Executive Director Richard Hull led a "Stomp the
Comp" campaign to reduce the number of complimentary copies
that are entering the used textbook marketplace and undermining
royalties. TAA joined with the Association of American Publishers
to oppose burdensome provisions of a new disclosure law in Oregon;
investigated the potential misclassification of custom copies
by publishers as "abridgements" to reduce their royalty
payments to authors; and financially supported (through a grant)
the defense of copyright in a lawsuit. TAA's foundation (TAAF)
attracted sufficient funds, often from expert textbook authors,
for plnas to be made to launch its own grant program in the near
future. Finally, TAA continued its support for expert testbook
authoring through its McGuffey Longevity Awards presented at the
conferenc this and every year. A highlight of the conference was
listening to these authors share some of the secrets of their
success.
All of these
categories of service are receiving attention from your leadership.
Should you have an ideaaothow TAA could better serve you in the
year ahead, do not hesitate to contact us with it.
John Wakefield
August
2007
Textbook price controversy
Each year
now, news articles appear about the high cost of attending college,
including the cost of college textbooks. Most recently, the Department
of Education's Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance
reported on May 25th that "the marketplace for textbooks
and learning resources is broken." (Click
here for more)
The argument
is that because teachers order the books and students must pay,
"the end consumer has little, if any, direct influence over
price, format or quality of the product." It is questionable
whether or not teachers would want students to have direct influence
over the format or quality of textbooks. (If students were learning
experts, who would need teachers?) But what about price?
The ACSFA
report asumes that students are paying too much for their textbooks
and other learning materials. As our Executive Director Richard
Hull wrote in his reaction to the report, "textbook prices
have been rising at a rate approximately equal to the increase
in room and board, transportation and Consumer Price Index, but
equal to only a fraction of the increase and tuition and fees"
(Click here for more)
This data
comes out of a chart in the ACSFA report. If students are paying
too much for their textbooks, it is not evidenced by this chart.
What seems
to motivate the conclusion that the market is broken is the assumption
that student should pay less for their books and instructional
materials than they historically have. The proposed means to accomplish
this end, in the long run, is government sponsorship of a national
digital marketplace. In other words, the government should step
in and fix things. Hmm. Let's try some of our own solutions first,
and see what we can do to lower the costs of textbooks.
First, letters
to the editor of the local newspaper can be used to promote our
"Stomp the Comp" campaign. Stomping out the resale of
complimentary copies would have the effect of relieving some of
the pressure for publishers to increase wholesale prices. Should
it help, here is a letter that I wrote to my local Alabama newspaper
editor when the "broken market" headline appeared late
this past summer.
August
3, 2007
This
letter is in regard to your July 23rd article about the "broken"
college textbook market. As the article indicated, many who
work in and around colleges are trying to keep textbook costs
down. For their part, textbook authors are conducting a campaign
among college faculty to discourage the sale of complimentary
textbooks (also known as "comp" copies) that are provided
free of charge to them.
These
freebies aren't really free — sales to students must pay
for them. That is a legitimate cost of doing business, but every
year a large number of comp copies find their way into the used
textbook market, decreasing new book sales. Many of these copies
are purchased from faculty by resellers. Under the 1995 Ethics
Law, it is highly unlikely that the Alabama Ethics Commission
would be of the opinion that a complimentary textbook, whether
solicited or unsolicited, could be sold by a faculty member
for personal gain.
My observation
is that the textbook market is not broken. Many instructors
care deeply about how much students pay for their books, but
not all are aware that one way to keep textbook costs down is
to "stomp the comp" by using these copies for reference,
returning them to the publisher, giving them to a colleague,
or donating them to a library.
John
Wakefield
President, Text and Academic Authors Association
The current
"Stomp the Comp" campaign builds on our history of advocating
for ethical practices by faculty and enforcement of campus policies
to keep textbook resellers off college campuses. (See
Stomp the Comp info here)
Second, we
should remain vigilant in response to attempts to dictate how
faculty choose textbooks and course materials. On June 25th, Oregon
State Senate Bill 365 was signed into law. The bill requires publishers
to make textbook prices accessible to faculty, to list textbooks
separately from their ancillaries, and to inform potential adopters
of previous editions. Although the burden of any changes in current
marketing practices will fall on publishers, TAA supported the
Association of American Publishers in their efforts to educate
legislators about some of the more burdensome aspects of the original
bill. (See
AAP's site)
Authors too
want to help keep the costs of textbooks and educational materials
low. At the same time, we want to keep the quality of textbooks
and instructional materials high. These are not incompatible goals,
but achieving them both requires that we all do our part.
John Wakefield
top
of page
June
2007
U.S. textbook selection process needs work
Have you ever
tried to explain our textbook selection process in the United
States? Last month, I replied to an inquiry from a foreign ministry
of education asking me to do just that. I would like to share
with you my answers to four of the questions posed to me:
1) Opinion
of the way our educational system gets instructional material:
The current U.S. textbook development and adoption policy is very
uneven in its results. Because the U.S. Constitution leaves educational
policy to the individual states, not all states use the same policy.
In 20 of the 50 states, statewide "textbook adoption"
committees composed of educators and community representatives
decide which textbooks can be used by all school districts. In
the other 30 states, local district or local school committees
choose the textbooks that they will use. Local decisions are often
thought to be better because they are closer to the classroom,
but there is no evidence that this is so. Until now, neither state
nor local committees have evaluated them based on the assessment
of student learning. They evaluate them based on whether or not
textbook content matches state or local curriculum guides. The
failure to focus on textbook effectiveness research means that
adoption decisions do not systemically lead to improved student
learning through increasingly effective textbooks.
2) Intended
changes in the near future: There is a movement to highlight
research on textbook effectiveness. Current reforms in education
are being guided by a national law passed in 2001 called "No
Child Left Behind." This law has the ambitious goal of leading
all students to achieve at or above their school grade level (or
"proficiency") in reading and mathematics by 2013. Included
in this law is the requirement that schools use "scientifically
based research" strategies in the classroom and for professional
development of staff. A scientifically based research study is
required to be large, quantitative and controlled. The U.S. Department
of Education has established the "What Works Clearinghouse"
(www.w-w-c.org)
to idenitfy educational programs or products (including textbooks)
that have been evaluated by research of this kind. Because the
law covers only reading and mathematics, only research on programs
and products in these subject areas is included, and only a few
of those studies have been done. Nevertheless, this web site represents
a frist attempt to focus on effectiveness reserach as a criterion
for textbook adoption. Whether the decisions of state and local
adoption committees are beginning to reflect these research results
is not known.
3) How
long are these resources used? Textbook adoption decisions
are made in each state for each subject area every six or seven
years, usually one year after curricula are revised. Not all subjects
come up for textbook adoption each year. They are staggered so
that if mathematics textbooks come up in 2007, language textbooks
may come up in 2008. Mathematics texts would not come up for adoption
again until 2013 (or 2014, in states on a seven-year cycle). The
effect of staggering different subjects in different states is
to make a continuous market in which to introduce new editions.
Consequently, publication cycles (also known as revision cycles)
are somewhat shorter than adoption cycles. New editions of existing
textbooks come out every four years or so. With revision cycles
two or three years shorter than adoption cycles, no child in the
USA uses a textbook with content more than 10 years old at any
time.
4) Are
these materials used everywhere in the USA, and if not, what is
the difference? The textbook industry in the USA is large
($4.3 billion) and led by four multinational publishers who print
books that compete with one another (sometimes in the same publishing
house). Consequently, adotpion committees haev considerable choice
abotu which books to recommend for purchase.
There is great
overlap in curricula between different states and districts, but
different committees deciding on textbooks for the same subject
choose different textbooks for different reasons. As a result,
the same materials are not used everywhere. Reasons for different
choices should be related to different curricula from state to
state and district to district, but this relationship is not always
the reason for objecting to a particular book. Much is written
about other reasons. (www.edexcellence.net/institute/publications/publication.cfm?id=335)
What I found
somewhat troubling was that I could not recommend our textbook
adoption process as a model for other nations. I could only note,
with some hope, that a mechanism was being developed to improve
the process through long-needed research on textbook effectiveness.
When "No Child Left Behind" is revised, as it surely
will be, what will happen to the nascent support for textbook
research? All I can say is "stay tuned."
John Wakefield
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of page
March
2007
Reflections on 20 years
"An organization
of textbook authors was formed in the spring of 1987." Thus
rather modestly began our first newsletter, the TAA Report,
20 years ago. The first issue, as well as all subsequent issues,
can today be accessed by members through our archive.
That first year, only two issues were put out to describe the
formation and direction of the infant association, but they provide
some insight into both the origins and development of TAA.
The first
steps of what was then called Textbook Authors Association were
uncertain. "We are newly formed and growing," the lead
article in the first issue stated. "The direction in which
the organization goes will be determined by the membership."
Early topics of interest that emerged were the distribution and
resale of complimentary copies of textbooks, the purchase price
of textbooks, contractual relations with textbook publishers,
and enforcement of copyright laws. By the second issue, new members
had already responded by suggesting another topic of interest
— the used textbook market. Early interests were essentially
financial.
Membership
grew. "Getting a new organization off the ground is rather
like moving a large rock," said Mike Keedy, Emeritus Professor
of Mathematics at Purdue and first TAA Executive Director. "At
first it seems as though you can't budge it, and then it moves
with a surge." To keep the rock rolling, Keedy and his assistants
minimized expenses by operating TAA out of his home in Orange
Springs, Florida and politically engaged a proposed tax reform
that would have tied authoring expense deductions to royalties.
He garnered support from New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan,
who sided with Keedy in a letter published in the second issue
of the TAA Report. The proposal, which Moynihan called
"absurd," was never enacted by Congress. Chalk one up
for TAA, the new kid on the block willing to fight for textbook
authors' financial interests.
Norma Hood
was on the staff of TAA from the beginning. When Mike Keedy stepped
down as Executive Director in 1992, she moved from Office Manager
to Acting Executive Director. Growth had peaked, and money to
support author initiatives was often scarce. Due to financial
constraints, a search for a replacement for Mike Keedy was never
undertaken. During this time, the office ran out of a trailer
on Norma's property, and she referred member questions that she
could not answer to the officers and Council members for reply.
Tragically, she died from lung cancer in 1995. With the approval
of Council, the Norma L. Hood Award was established in her honor
and memory. Each year it is given in recognition of the efforts
of a member who, because they are away from the limelight, doesn't
receive the recognition they deserve.
By 1993, identity
issues had not resulted in a crisis, but they led to a reformation
of our mission and our name to Text and Academic Authors Association
(sometimes informally shortened to "Text and Academic Authors"
to accord with the TAA acronym). The change in name reflected
an expansion of the mission to support different kinds of professional
writing by educators. By 1994, TAA was offering workshops on how
to write journal articles, how to develop a book proposal, how
to negotiate a contract, and how to self-publish, among other
topics. Interests had clearly broadened beyond the financial to
include writing and publishing. The newsletter was renamed the
Academic Author to reflect the broadened mission of the
Association.
In 1995, Ron
Pynn, Professor of Political Science and Public Administration
at the University of North Dakota, became Executive Director of
TAA. Ron was a charter member of TAA. He had served as Assistant
Vice President for Academic Affairs at UND, and twice he served
as TAA's President (1992-93, 1996-97). He carefully mentored us
through our transformational period. When our treasury was almost
empty, and a candidate for treasurer did not step forward, he
asked me to run. Over the next few years, the leadership and headquarters
cut some expenses and deferred others (including Ron's salary)
until revenue from membership dues picked up and other sources
of revenue could be found. As an authors' association, we sought
and received funding from the International Federation of Reproduction
Rights Organizations, known as IFFRO. By 2002, the combined sources
of revenue put us on a financial foundation that continues to
allow us to offer many services today.
In my opinion,
the year 2005 marked the end of our transitional period. When
Ron let it be known that he was going to step down as Executive
Director, a national search was undertaken for his replacement.
In June 2005 Richard T. Hull, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy
at SUNY — Buffalo was selected as the new Executive Director.
Richard brought with him several ideas that have since been implemented
by our staff. We now offer a developmental sequence of workshops;
communicate with our membership through multiple channels; provide
annual awards for outstanding authors through an efficiently run
competition; and with special thanks to Kim Pawlak, our new Associate
Director, we have planned an outstanding conference in June. In
the last two years, our staff has taken our workshops, member
communication, awards, and annual meetings to a new level. We
have entered our adulthood as an association.
Happy 20th
TAA!
John Wakefield
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of page
December
2006
Grant writing is a learnable skill
Every once
in a while you read a book that affects you in a profound but
unanticipated way. About five years ago, I was reading Howard
Gardner's To Open Minds (1989) for clues about creativity.
The book contains many autobiographical passages, including one
about his early career after he had written a textbook. An opportunity
arose to write a grant. He took it. After some success with this
and other grants, he concluded that grant writing is a learnable
skill. A little over two years ago, I began a new position in
the Office of Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
that required me to write grants. I had not written any external
grant proposals before, but Gardner's conclusion gave me hope
that grant writing is a learnable skill.
My first
test came within a month, when a request for proposals was received
for a program I knew could meet a critical need of my institution
and the community in which I live. The proposal was due in six
weeks, so I did the sensible thing and hired a successful program
director to write the grant with me. We worked together long distance,
but the program director did all the analysis and writing. As
the proposal was built, I watched and did the work of an apprentice.
Six months
later, the proposal came back with a score of 91/100. I was pleased
but puzzled. Proposals in this competition that received less
than 99 did not receive funding. This experience was a costly
way to begin learning how to write grants, but I graduated from
my apprenticeship to become the writer on the rest of my grants.
In brief, these are the lessons I learned from applying for Federal
grants as my principle academic activity over the past two years:
Lesson
1: Get to know people in the life of your grant application.
If possible, become a reviewer for the agency from which you are
seeking a grant. As a reviewer, you get to know what is expected
by other reviewers; furthermore, reviewers get to know you. You
will not be eligible to enter the competition that you review,
of course, but the more people you get to know in the world of
your grant, the better. You never know who will review your next
grant!
Lesson
2: Work with your program officer. The Federal program officer
for your grant competition can be very helpful in providing you
with models of successful proposals and with technical advice.
These program officers will talk with you over the phone and are
available at Federally-sponsored technical workshops. Attend the
workshop closest to you, and use it to network.
Lesson
3: Be collaborative. Work with others at your institution
or in your community, and prudently develop relationships with
faculty at other institutions. You don't want to give your ideas
away, but the Federal Government likes to maximize coverage. Spreading
grant money around is both the economical and the politically
smart thing for the Government to do when a very limited number
of awards are made.
Lesson
4: Be persistent. You probably won't get a large grant the
first time around. Be ready to try three times. The first time,
the reviewers are just trying to figure out where you are coming
from—whoever heard of where you are, or of the needs of your
institution or community—and the second time around, your
proposal may not have climbed high enough on the list to make
it a top priority for funding. If it does receive funding the
second time around, you are fortunate.
Grant writing
has much in common with other forms of academic writing. Proposals
include a description of the need for a project and at least one
carefully designed and described activity. They are submitted
to peers for evaluation, and they often are revised and may even
be re-revised for submission. Consequently, the transition to
grant writing did not require me to develop a completely new set
of academic authoring skills.
The first
year, my grants brought in only $189,000. My second year, I was
either the grant writer or the recipient of Federal grants valued
at over $1,000,000. Currently, proposals of which I was the author
have resulted in grants that are funding seven new faculty and
staff jobs at my institution and 76 multi-year scholarships for
students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Grant writing
by an academic author does not always result in the reward of
a publication or of income. Although articles and salaries do
come out of grant activities, I do not believe prestige or money
is the fundamental reward. For me, the fundamental reward is the
satisfaction of seeing a needed project come to life or a needed
program become populated with students and faculty.
Hope confirmed.
Grant writing is a learnable skill.
John Wakefield
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September
2006
Textbooks vs. inquiry: A false dichotomy
At a professional
meeting recently, a simmering debate came to a rolling boil between
a British defender of textbooks and an American advocate of inquiry.
I thought that the debate had been settled years ago, after the
inquiry movement in education, led by Jerome Bruner, failed to
engage the great diversity of ability found in heterogeneous American
classrooms. The outcomes of this experiment in the 1960s contributed
to the development of the "back to basics" movement to restore
the goal of knowledge acquisition for most classes. Inquiry was
largely relegated to gifted education. The debate has re-emerged,
however, with the development of technology that can facilitate
inquiry. Why do students need a textbook when they can electronically
build their own collective understanding as a community of learners,
working with primary source materials and authentic tasks?
Ambitious
projects have been undertaken at several research universities
over the last decade to demonstrate the power of electronic learning
communities in primary, secondary, and higher education. The outcome
is often measured not by test scores but is assessed as the product
of a project. These outcomes (such as creative performances or
digital portfolios) are impressive. We should not set them in
opposition, however, to learning developed through textbooks and
often measured through tests. Test scores are outcomes of learning,
too, and sometimes they are important. What an inquiry-oriented
program in science education at the University of Iowa recommended
was that student projects supplement textbook-based learning rather
than supplant it.
Authors,
publishers and media specialists are increasingly adopting this
recommendation. Multimedia-based portfolios can include a mixture
of paintings, drawings, and photos to develop and illustrate understandings
originating with the text and classroom discussion. The next step—digital
portfolios—allows students to create text with hypertext
linkages between webpages. Digital portfolios extend learning
to web-based media. Students can be taught to create such products
to supplement their text-based learning.
These products,
however, lack evidence of some parameters of learning that are
often considered important by society. These parameters include
breadth of understanding and development of domain-specific cognitive
skills. Breadth of understanding has traditionally been developed
through use of a textbook that is comprehensive and organized
in a way that is conducive to learning the subject. History, for
example, might be organized with a cause/effect or narrative structure,
while science might be organized with a problem/solution structure.
Domain-specific cognitive skills are often developed through use
of text-based exercises. Students can be instructed in the use
of textual apparatus to complete these exercises, or they can
be supplied in the teacher's guide or through another ancillary.
Parameters of learning such as these are considered to be important
enough by society to assess locally, nationally, and internationally.
Textbooks
can also be useful as points of departure for inquiry. Their comprehensiveness
served me as a teacher when launching student-selected projects.
A list of thought-provoking topics, which I reviewed in class,
was keyed to textbook chapters, which contained background information.
Even the shortcomings of textbooks can serve teachers and students
as points of departure. An editor of a teacher education text
I wrote once required me to use a picture that portrayed children
conducting an experiment, with two girls watching a boy do the
scientific manipulations. The caption that I wrote for the picture
was "If you observed this scene, what slight change might you
suggest in the teacher's practices to develop a more equitable
form of teaching? How would you measure the effect of this change
on attitudes toward science?" It may not have been a brilliant
way to deal with an editorial error, but it used an opportunity
to develop thinking on the basis of what was in the text, as opposed
to a disconnected exercise. Critical thinking can involve thinking
critically about the text. Perhaps a student who thinks critically
about her or his textbook will one day become the author of a
new and better text!
What projects
leave out of learning is what makes a textbook necessary. In the
end, textbooks remain an indispensable tool for learning, given
the goals our society has set for education. Equally indispensable,
many would argue, are projects that allow students to develop deeper
understandings of selected topics. No conflict is necessary here
when we realize that textbook-based learning and inquiry-based learning
can not only coexist, but they can form a symbiotic relationship.
They can serve each other, as well as the individual and his or
her society.
John Wakefield
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June
2006
Textbook research benefits students
As president
of TAA, I participated in the International Seminar on Textbooks
in Santiago, Chile, April 19 to 21. The seminar was organized
by the Chilean Ministry of Education, and scholars attended from
around the world, often through support of their embassies. A
grant from the U.S. Department of State allowed me to present
two papers as president of TAA, but they were reports rather than
research papers. Textbook researchers are active in Norway, Australia,
and other countries, but while listening to several research-based
presentations, none of which came from the United States, I had
to ask myself, "Why not US?"
I mentioned
to my audience at the last session of the conference that they
had heard no research on texbooks from the United States because,
regrettably, US universities do not fund textbook research. The
data that I was providing about textbook usage was from two studies
conducted by the U.S. Department of Education. This explanation
was sufficient to introduce the topic of my presentation (textbook
usage in U.S. history), but again, it let me to wonder "why
not us?"
Probably my
own experience seeking a small, internal grant to evaluate a textbook
draft is a good point of departure for an analysis of the problem.
Some years ago, I wanted to administer a standardized test in
the college subject and class for which I was writing a textbook,
and I went before the university research committee with a request
for funding to pay for the test and make revisions in the draft.
My request was politely denied because in general, textbooks were
not viewed as "a legitimate subject of research" by
some of my peers. I protested, and presented an appeal to the
committee in person, with a printout of over 100 articles and
papers listed by ERIC as textbook research. My appeal was denied.
Textbooks might be a subject of legitimate research, it was conceded,
but universities should not financially support it. Perhaps, I
was told, I could apply to the publisher for funds to support
my project, since the publisher and I would be the primary beneficiaries.
Really? What
happened to the students? I dropped the issue, just as others
have probably done when faced with a consensus opposed to a proposal.
Today, the situation is unchanged in the United States. I believe
that the real reason that universities do not fund textbook research
has to do with the question: "To whose advantage is it?"
The assumption that textbook research only benefits publishers
and authors is a false one, however, because it also benefits
students and society. We should not shy away from this moral question;
we should embrace it and explore it more thoroughly than those
who are opposed to funding textbook research. Funded textbook
research is not done here in the United States, but if we look
around us, we'll see that it is being done elsewhere, because
other countries have recognized that quality textbooks benefit
students and society, not just publishers and authors.
As president
of TAA, my plan is to respond in two ways. One is to help us
become more aware of textbook research. Beginning this fall, I
plan to review books for The Academic Author that offer
research-based suggestions for textbook development. My plan is
to begin with a U.S. book (with a U.K. publisher), Textbooks
for Learning, by Chambliss and Calfee, a review copy of which
sits on my desk. This 1998 book proposed significant reforms to
the textbook development process at least in part based on what
educational psychologists have discovered about how children learn.
I also want to review international perspectives on textbook research.
Norway and Australia appear to be particularly advanced in their
efforts to influence textbook quality through research that aims
not at a particular book but at discovering how textbooks are
actually used in the social context of the classroom.
The other
way I plan to respond is to open communication with researchers,
both here and abroad. The seminar in Chile put me in contact with
the leadership of the International Association for Research on
Textbooks and Educational Media (IARTEM). I want to learn more
about how research is structured and funded in countries where
it is growing and developing. I was invited by their president
to attend their next conference, which is to be held in Norway
in August, 2007. Finally, I met textbook scholars from around
the world and exchanged contact information.
If you know
of a relatively recent book about textbooks that is at least in
part research-based, and if you would like to review it or have
it reviewed in The Academic Author, let me know about it.
If as a nation, we leave textbooks virtually unexamined, we cannot
expect them to progress much, despite the food intentions of authors
and publishers. We shall leave the future to those would deny
support to textbook research simply because "publishers should
pay for that." We are the ones who need to ask the moral
question, cui bono? To whose advantage is laying all of
the financial burden for research on the publisher? Government
needs to fund its share, or the practice will probably not advantage
the students and teachers for whom we write, or the schools and
societies for which we write, and we will have lost the high ground.
John Wakefield
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March
2006
Members Services on the Increase
In my last
column, I looked ahead to our annual convention on July 7-8 at
the Grosvenor Hotel in Orlando; in this column, I want to look
back over Council efforts in the last six months to increase member
services. What I find is encouraging.
Our most visible
service to our members is in the area of information.
Bi-monthly
e-mail News Alerts and this newsletter come to you regularly,
but have you looked at the TAA web site and noticed how it has
improved over the last six months? Not only does it display current
news items and links to services, but it now offers you a chance
to "blog" as a member, or simply read the postings of
others. The TAA web site has become a forum for text and academic
authors to discuss issues, or to simply to meet and talk.
Another service
is our workshop line-up. TAA's most successful workshop is Tara
Gray's "Publish and Flourish," which has brought many
of you into the association as new members. Executive Director
Richard Hull is assiduously creating a series of workshops to
help you to develop in other ways as an author. One of the challenges
he is exploring is how to deliver developmental workshops so that
you can select from an array of possibilities and then experience
a workshop in the comfort of your own home or office. You might
want to read Richard's blog about podcasting, accessible through
the TAA web site here.
The TAA Council also approved a doubling of the honorarium for
workshop presenters (to $1,000) both to reward our veteran workshop
leaders and to attract new proposals for this series. Stay tuned.
A completely
new service to members is financial. The Council in January approved
a set of criteria to be considered in loaning money to members
to assist them in their efforts to protect their copyrights.
Basically,
the Council empowered TAA to make small loans to authors who need
financial assistance in this way. Loan applications will be screened,
and the load amounts will be limited to $15,000, but that amount
is sufficient to offer temporary, material aid to a member who
often is an academic who does not have deep pockets to protect
intellectual property rights. For the first time, TAA is putting
some money behind its advocacy of authors' rights, but it will
offer this assistance in the form of a loan to assure that insofar
as possible, this service will continue to be available, and with
time and success, can grow.
If you have
an idea for a new service that you would like TAA to initiate,
please enter into a dialog with us, your leadership. We are listening
to you, and we are working for you. If I cannot respond to your
question or idea, I will try to get it quickly to someone in TAA
who can. Recently, we had a case of a reseller on a university
campus who was soliciting instructor annotated copies as well
as other comp copies.
TAA has a
history of author assistance that now spans a generation. As we
go forward, and as we both expand and deepen our member services,
we also intend to develop and preserve an historic understanding
of author needs. If you have not taken a look at the electronic
archive of this newsletter on the members-only portion of this
web site, you might want to do so. Click
here to sign-in to the Members-Only area. (If you need to,
email our Office Manager, Janet Tucker, at TEXT@tampabay.rr.com
for sign-in instructions. (There you will find a generation of
information, advice, and discussion about authoring issues by
like-minded professionals.
Taking a look
back can sometimes be just as useful as taking a look forward
to guide us in our actions.
John Wakefield
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December
2005
A tip for authors: Think ahead to July
A "tip,"
according to the American Heritage Dictionary,
is "advance or inside information given as a guide to action."
The best tip I have for members of TAA this winter is to think
ahead to the TAA Convention July 7-8, 2006. Here's some advance
information, given as a guide to action:
First, the
leadership of TAA has carefully considered the venue for the convention.
We have decided on a change. The Executive Committee is making
plans to hold the 2006 TAA Convention in Orlando, Florida rather
than New Orleans, a decision prompted by Hurricane Katrina's effect
on the city. As this issue goes to press, negotiations are going
on with everal hotels in Orlando with room rates at $99/night.
More details and information for registration is available here.
Second, a
call for presentation proposals from the convention chair, Chris
Harris, will go out to the membership in January. The convention
will continue to focus on both individual and panel presentations
that match the special interests of text and academic authors.
If you have an idea for a presentation, I urge you to contact
Chris at crharris@mtsu.edu.
Third, I urge
you to consider organizing a panel or making an individual presentation.
The best tip I can give you for writing a presentation proposal
is that topics of interest to TAA members range widely. TAA members
are interested in writing journal articles, grant proposals, textbooks,
and/or text ancillaries. Members write as individual authors and
co-authors, for free publication, for royalties and for hire.
They are interested in "nuts and bolts" information
about new writing tools and techniques, but they are also interested
in royalty rates and publishing contracts. Topics of interest
to both authors and publishers, such as discussion of textbook
sales or pricing and copyright issues, are almost always featured
at the convention.
For example,
this year, I look forward to learning more about the Google Print
Library project from people in the know. Since I last wrote this
column, lawsuits have been filed against Google, Inc. by publishers,
authors, and an authors' organization, while Google has with or
without permission, recommended digital copying of works under
copyright. In my last column, I argued for negotiation of the
issues with all parties represented at the table. That resolution
seems out of the picture for the time being. What are the prospects
for the lawsuits? What are the implications for author rights
going forward? These questions need to be explored, even if the
lawsuits remain unresolved in the immediate future.
What all of
the topics of interest to our membership have in common is their
focus on "advance or inside information." Some of this
information may come from a mentor who is him- or herself a senior
author or experienced editor. Some may come from a literary agent
or legal counsel. Some of the information can be gained from the
experience of peers.
Whatever the
source of the "inside" information, it often takes the
form of personal knowledge and is embedded in a story. More formal
academic presentations (such as ones presenting market research
or the results of author surveys) are welcome too, and papers
will be considered for publication on the TAA web site.
This July
will mark TAA's 19th annual convention. It will be my 10th convention,
all but one since 1996. I have always gone away with information
that later proved to be valuable in guiding my actions as a developing
author and professional.
I invite you
to join me in Orlando as we share our stories and learn from each
other about text and academic authoring. Now is the time to think
ahead to July.
John Wakefield
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September
2005
TAA to Google: Let negotiations begin
Google Inc.
has contracted with five research libraries to digitize their
entire collection of books so that users of Google's search engine
can locate information and learn where it can be found and/or
purchased. Google is supposed to receive increased advertising
revenue, publishers of books in print are supposed to receive
income from increased sales, and authors are supposed to receive
increased royalties. But there's one giant problem
with Google's plan: The company has not requested permission from
copyright holders to digitally scan (or copy) their works for
the project.
Opposition
to the Google Print Library Project has come from the largest
copyright holders: publishers. The Association of Learned and
Professional Society Publishers, the Association of American University
Presses, and the Association of American Publishers have all now
publicly expressed their opposition to the Project in its current
form.
Publishers
invited Google Inc. to discuss the issue of copyright.
Google's response
was to postpone the digital scanning of copyrighted works until
November to give publishers the opportunity to opt-out of the
project. Publishers maintain that this is not a solution, but
instead pose a new problem: they should not have to opt-out to
protect their works from being copied.
TAA is standing
alongside publishers on this issue. Last year, the U.S. Copyright
Office registered 661,469 claims to copyright. Many of the registrants
were not publishers but authors, photographers, illustrators,
and other artists. Anyone who has sought permissions knows how
difficult (and expensive) the process can be of contacting each
copyright owner for permission to use material from their work.
Google is
seeking to circumvent this process by claiming that its copying
falls within fair use. It is clear that the company can't afford
to ask permission of anyone because the gigantic scope of their
Library Project makes it impractical and unaffordable to ask permission
of everyone.
At this time,
it is not clear whether the outcome of the issue will be litigation,
negotiation, or legislation. Litigation seems to excite some reporters,
but in reality, lawsuits are expensive and often take years to
resolve. Further, recent court decisions on intellectual property
issues do not favor the shallow-pocketed inventor or artist as
they often did in the past. Legislation as an alternative implies
updating copyright law to account for new technology. Works may
need to be protected from unlicensed copying when copying is an
intermediary stage un a process rather than an end product. Legislation
may seem more desirable than litigation, but education the public
is also expensive and takes a long time. Negotiation, which is
the approach favored by the publishers and ourselves, begins with
communication.
We have very
recently been contacted by Google and look forward to developing
a conversation that at least in part can be made public. In the
dialog, we hope to examine whether or not making a digital copy
of an entire work without permission and/or compensation is fair
to the copyright owner. Under Google's interpretation of copyright
law, why couldn't anyone make a digital copy of an entire work
for any use other than direct sale? At what point does such unconstrained
copying undermine the sale of the work to libraries? To researchers?
To other individuals? What is the effect of such copying on copyright
law?
This last
question may cause us greatest pause. To uphold copyright law,
and to protect our rights as copyright owners, unconstrained digital
scanning of works in copyright may have to end. There are limits
to what we can agree to in negotiaion, but let the negotiations
begin.
John Wakefield
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July
2005
The widening horizons of TAA
Greetings
from Las Vegas, where we have just held one of our best conventions
ever. Our sessions were well attended, and panelists and individual
speakers provided a "rich text" experience for all.
Let me be the first to invite you to our next convention. It is
scheduled for June 7-8. 2006 in New Orleans.
From having
attended nine TAA conventions, I can say that our convention this
yeat reflected a wider scope of author interests than ever before.
For example, we included, for the first time, a joint session
with a workshop on academic writing, and discussions of grant
writing and product licensing. Historically, TAA has focused tightly
on textbook authoring and publishing. Textbook authoring remains
a target of professional activity for many of our members, but
what I saw at the convention was a widening of our horizons as
an association of authors.
More than
in the past, authors are joining TAA who have an interest in publishing
journal articles and writing research grant proposals. Our Council
has followed this development. Tara Gray's workshops on "Publish
and Flourish: Become a Prolific Scholar" are extremely popular,
and demand for them is growing. The Council has responded with
several initiatives, including increasing the budget to provide
more academically-oriented workshops.
What can the
membership expect in the future? First, TAA wil continue its commitment
to meet the developmental needs of textbook authors. In one of
our workshops, we offer to develop textbook authoring skills.
We also assist developing and established textbook authors by
providing services that link authors with publishers, legal counselors,
royalty auditors, and mentors. At our conventions, we recognize
and reward excellence in textbook authoring at both el-hi and
college levels. Perhaps the most important service for all of
our members who are textbook authors is informing them —
through News Alerts, The Academic Author, the Web site
and the convention — of developments in the textbook publishing
industry. What is developing in TAA, however, is a wider arena
of interest. Our newest members are often developing first as
academic authors. Their accomplishments are documented on the
Authors Coalition Survey that we administer each year to our membership.
Having myself been a faculty member in a college of education
for 24 years, and now with the administrative duty of assisting
faculty members university-wide in the promotion process, I can
well understand the needs of junior faculty in higher education.
As TAA's membership broadens, so does the obligation of TAA to
help meet a broader range of authoring needs.
Consequently,
a second commitment is emerging — one that addresses the
needs of our newest members. This commitment is to address the
developmental needs of academic authors. One implication of this
commitment is a closer look at academic authoring, and what junior
faculty in colleges and universities need to be successful at
it. This commitment was reflected in our convention program this
year, but it needs to deepen in response to the needs of this
segment of our membership.
Let me give
you an example. Having just finished writing two Federal grant
proposals, documenting them, and submitting them for review (receiving
a rejection of the one, and a qualified approval of the other),
I am well aware that grant writing has many similarities to writing
for publication. It also has some differences, but for the principal
investigator, it is unquestionably a form of academic authoring.
Why have we not recognized this before?
The answer
is simple — our membership has not until now required the
leadership to do so. Grant writing is a common way for junior
faculty to develop support for their scholarship, so your leadership
will be searching for ways to develop the grant writing skills
of TAA members.
It is important
to understand that a widening of horizons for TAA does not imply
diminished services for textbook authors. I don't know of anyone
who complains that a wide-screen television diminishes the picture.
The picture that you will see develop of our association in the
next few years will be enhanced by new ideas that come from our
membership, or new Council, the new officers, and our new executive
director, to provide a more complete array of services for text
and academic authors.
Having been
closely associated with our retiring director, Ron Pynn, I know
for a fact that TAA would not be the growing and developing association
it is today, if it were not for him. Thank you, Ron. Have been
a member on the search committee for a new executive driector,I
am very excited about the experience and skills brought to TAA
by Richard Hull.. I am looking forward to my two years as president,
to our common committment to serve the association's membership,
and to continue the development of TAA. I hope that you will feel
free to contact us, and to share with us your ideas.
John Wakefield
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March
2005
Create a written policy on academic plagiarism
In recent
columns, I have emphasized the importance of keeping current and
proactive about authoring issues such as used books, textbook
pricing, and copyright and fair use. As authors, we also need
to be aware of the potential of plagiarism.
According
to the Oxford English Dictionary, the origins of the word plagiarism
derive from the Latin word plagiarius, which means "one who abducts
the child or slave of another." Contemporary use of the term has
come to refer to a broad range of actions that center on the use
of another's work without proper acknowledgment.
The predominant
issues are what constitutes plagiarism, who has the right to accuse,
who adjudicates the issues, and what is the punishment. And, if
one is found to have been falsely accused, how is the tarnish
of the accusation removed?
There is the
potential for plagiarism in both academic and textbook writing.
In this column, I'll explore a few recent instances of academic
plagiarism; in the next issue, I'll delve into the textbook side.
In the world
of scholarly research and publishing, accusations of plagiarism
present thorny issues. David Glenn, in a recent Chronicle of Higher
Education article, "Judge or Judge Not?," (December 17, 2004,
Vol. 51, Issue 17, p. A16) outlines several possible courses of
action that need to be considered when academic plagiarism is
at issue. The university or college has a responsibility to investigate
accusations of plagiarism by its faculty. Professional associations
and societies have a role to play in handling claims of plagiarism
for academic writing in their discipline.
Implementing
the above recommendations is a treacherous road to travel. Consider
the following cases:
From the
Associated Press, January 7, 2005, Boston. A professional
organization's investigation of plagiarism claims against Rev.
William Meissner found the Boston College theology professor failed
to adequately credit passages lifted from another person's book.
The yearlong review by the ethics committee of the Boston Psychoanalytic
Society concluded Meissner committed a 'serious breach of professional
and scholarly standards' and 'excessively paraphrased' the work
of Earnest Wallwork.
Through a
Boston College spokesperson, Meissner maintained the allegations
were "baseless" and the college referred to Meissner as "one of
the nation's most respected experts on psychoanalytic theory."
The college plans to convene a committee of senior faculty to
review the allegations and make a recommendation to a college
dean.
From the
Times Record, "Axed Instructor Allowed to Amend Suit."
Diana Payne, a former accounting instructor at the University
of Arkansas, Fort Smith, was accused by two faculty members of
committing "plagiarism for a work she submitted for promotion."
A five-person ad hoc committee heard evidence at a four-day hearing
and found there was adequate cause for Payne's dismissal, '"but
an academic penalty of less than dismissal would be appropriate."
UAFS Chancellor Joel Stubblefield exercised his authority to overrule
the committee and fired Payne, citing as reasons that the university
cannot uphold policies on academic honesty if faculty do not model
professional integrity, that Payne's conduct brought discredit
and dishonor to the faculty and the university, and that not dismissing
Payne would set a precedent that would effectively prevent the
university from punishing faculty or staff for plagiarism and
call into question the university's ability to punish students
for plagiarism. Payne, who had previously filed a civil rights
lawsuit against the university, was allowed to amend that lawsuit
to include a wrongful termination allegation.
TAA recommends
that universities and professional organizations or societies
have a written policy on academic plagiarism. The policy should
identify the conditions that constitute plagiarism, the adjudication
process, the penalty, and an appeal mechanism. Academic authors
need to be aware of the policies governing plagiarism in their
field.
Mike Sullivan
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December
2004
Stand up for copyright and fair use
As creators
of intellectual property, text and academic authors need to raise
their individual and collective awareness of what constitutes
a legal reproduction of copyrighted material. We must be vigilant
to safeguard creator rights and be unyielding in their defense.
Noble statements! But hard to implement.
Let's look at some of the facts.
Copyright
law gives the copyright holder exclusive rights to reproduce,
distribute, make derivative works, and publicy display or perform
the work. This exclusive right is limited by Section 107
of the law, the so-called "fair use statute": "...the
fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction
in copies... for purposes such as teaching (including multiple
copies for classroom use, scholarship, or research, is not an
infringement of copyright.) In determining whether the use made
of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to
consider shall include..."
The four factors:
1) purpose and character, 2) nature, 3) amount and substantiality,
and 4) effect, became the foundation for two important court decisions:
the Kinko's case in 1991 and the Texaco case in 1995. The Kinko's
case involved coursepacks sold to students that consisted of copies
of chapters of books. The court held that Kinko's infringed on
copyright, citing:
1. Purpose The copying was for commercial, not educational,
purpose.
2. Nature Most of the copied works were factual (from history,
etc.), a factor that weighed in favor of fair use.
3. Amount The copying, consisting of between 5% and 25%
of the full book, was excessive.
4. Effect The coursepacks competed with the potential sale
of the original book as assigned reading. (2)
These four
factors also formed the basis for the court ruling against Texaco,
Inc., a case involving the copying of journal articles. It is
clear that Congress wanted a flexible doctrine on fair use as
the law provides no guidelines with regard to the scope of fair
use or its meaning in certain situations. For classroom use, the
Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Author's League
of America (the parent association for the Authors Guild and Dramatists
Guild) issued a set of guidelines for copying books and periodicals.
It provides,
in part, for:
I. A single copy for a teacher's use of one chapter of a book
or one article or one short story or one chart, graph, or diagram
from a book.
II. Multiple copies for classroom use (one copy per student) that
meets certain tests for brevity, spontaneity, and cumulative effect.
1. Brevity You can copy a complete poem if it is <250
words; You can copy a complete article if it is <2500 words;
You can copy one graph, chart per book.
2. Spontaneity The decision to copy is so close to the
time it will be used in class that obtaining permission in time
is impossible.
While the
guidelines are not law, they provide some answer to the scope
of fair use, albeit an answer from publishers and authors.
Other constituencies
see the issue differently.
A consortium
of California State University (CSU), State University of New
York (SUNY), and City University of New York (CUNY) have identified
copying and intellectual property as central issues affecting
the future of higher education. They write: "A series of
court rulings threatens the application of fair use to such common
pursuits as photocopying for research, teaching, learning, scholarship,
and even quoting from historical manuscripts...More materials
are farther from the reach of faculty, librarians, and students,
and the availability of those materials increasingly will be subject
to a license fee."
No doubt the
potential for the payment of a license fee was central to their
position.
Last September,
four U.S. library associations, including the American Library
Association, expressed concern about "a number of trends
that have combined to limit access to knowledge" and endorsed
a call for change in the agenda of the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO) saying "We urge WIPO to affirmatively
seek to balance the rights of creators with the rights of users".
And the general
public believes that anything on the airwaves or on the Internet
should be able to be freely accessed and copied for personal use.
Why are intangible
assets such as knowledge and creative expression treated differently
than tangible assets such as a car or a TV? And how do we change
this perception?
We want society
to have simple and reasonable access to scientific and literary
works. But we must keep separate the principle of 'free flow of
information' from the idea of 'flow of free information'. Books
and journals cost money to produce and generate income to creators.
Creators must gain just rewards from their efforts or there will
be no intellectual property created. Respect for copyright encourages
creativity.
So, you and
I need to be proactive. When issues involving intellectual property
are being discussed, we need to educate and foster a respect for
copyright and the rights of creators, a respect that stimulates
and rewards creativity.
Mike Sullivan
top
of page
September
2004
Workshops
a priority with TAA
The most popular
service offered by TAA is its workshops. Seven to 10 workshops
are given each year that reach approximately 300 faculty throughout
the country. As we begin the 2004-05 academic year, this is a
good time to schedule a workshop on your campus. What a wonderful
faculty development experience for faculty to have one or more
TAA workshops on your campus.
TAA has eight
workshops led by individuals with national reputations and great
experience in presenting workshops to faculty. All of the workshops
are suitable for junior faculty as well as experienced writers.
Here is a brief overview of the eight TAA workshops.
1) Scholarship,
Tenure, and Promotion. This workshop looks at common problems
with the faculty rewards system and how faculty can better document
their work, including teaching effectiveness. The workshop is
led by Robert Diamond, former Research Professor and Director
of the Institute for Change in Higher Education at Syracuse University.
2) Software
Tools for Authors. This workshop helps authors save time with
software tools that define the rhetorical context of a document.
This workshop is lead by Joe Moxley, Professor of English at the
University of South Florida and author of 11 books and more than
50 articles.
3) Publish
and Flourish: Write Well and Revise Rapidly. This workshop
shows participants simple, specific steps to take to write well
and revise rapidly, writing as little as 15 to 30 minutes daily.
This is TAA's most sought after workshop. It is provided by Tara
Gray who heads the Teaching Academy at New Mexico State University.
She has given this workshop to more than 1,000 faculty.
4) Successful
Academic Journal Writing. An editor of an academic journal
shares insights on academic publishing, what kind of articles
get published and how the peer review process works. Either Gerald
Stone or Jay Black lead this workshop. Both were faculty members,
journal editors, and prolific academic authors.
5) Authoring
a Text or Professional Book. Taking an idea through the entire
publishing process, this workshop provides information on all
aspects of authoring so people can make informed choices about
undertaking a writing project. As the author of four texts, I
lead this workshop.
6) Self
Publishing. Advances in technology and software make self
publishing easier than ever before. Learn what it takes to publish
your own book and to make it respectable. This workshop is provided
by John Wakefield, Assistant Vice President at University of North
Alabama and a self publisher of source books on the American Civil
War.
7) Writing
a Book Proposal. This workshop helps authors match their book
idea with the right publisher. The workshop includes a survey
of what acquisition editors look for in book proposals. I also
present this workshop.
8) Negotiating
a Contract. A workshop outlining book contract clauses and
what can and cannot be negotiated in the contract. Also provided
is strategy and favorable language for authors in helping them
negotiate a more favorable contract. This workshop is led by authoring
attorneys Michael Lennie or Stephen Gillen, both of whom have
considerable experienced in publishing law and in representing
authors.
Click
here for more detailed information on these workshops, including
workshop outlines and presenter biographies. Why not ask your
provost or f | 
