Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: October 15, 2021

What are you questioning today? What are you trying to learn? How are you continuing to improve your understanding of your discipline, your writing process, or current publishing opportunities? Helen Keller once said, “A well-educated mind will always have more questions than answers.” So, what questions are unanswered for you?

In this week’s collection of articles from around the web, we have found things to consider when starting a PhD, techniques for writing field notes, and the effect of games and simulations on higher education. We’ve also discovered methods for recognizing the value of individuals in peer review, pre-requisite knowledge before approaching a printer, a summary of traditional publishing practices, and new opportunities for publishing through F1000’s open research platform.

Continue to educate your mind so that through your work you can educate others. Take the answers you have and use them to look for new questions worth answering. And, above all, happy writing!

Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: October 15, 2021 Read More

Finding your sweet spot

Where is the best place to write? In some people’s mind, they will find an idyllic location. Quiet. All your resources and materials at your fingertips. Maybe a good view. Or a great one; a mountain view or the ocean. No phones. No email. No meetings or interruptions. No needy kids or pets. This place likely exists, but only in the movies.

Back in the real world, mere mortals must wrestle with the reality of the day-to-day challenges.

Finding your sweet spot Read More

10/20 TAA Webinar on how publishers evaluate book proposals and query letters

The Query Letter and Book Proposal are the go-to means of communicating an author’s ideas to prospective publishers. But how do publishers assess Book Proposals? When they read a Query Letter, how do they evaluate the idea, the author, and the market?

Join Publishing Consultant John Bond on Wednesday, October 20 at 2 p.m. ET for a one-hour webinar, “How Do Publishers Evaluate Book Proposals and Query Letters”, as he examines these common author documents and then uses a publisher’s magnifying glass to look at them through their eyes.

10/20 TAA Webinar on how publishers evaluate book proposals and query letters Read More

Are you caught in relentless tides of dissertation revisions?

If you’re in the throes of writing your dissertation and have submitted your drafts to your chair and committee, you may have experienced a version of their seemingly endless rounds of revisions. Granted, they may drive you crazy, but—please believe me—you can to handle the revisions so they don’t erode your confidence (even more), deepen your depression, and thoroughly destroy your sanity.

A chair or committee’s insistence on ceaseless revisions generally stem from one of two main motivations. The revisions reflect less-than-healthy motivations for some professors who are perfectionist, vindictive, petty, and competitive.

Are you caught in relentless tides of dissertation revisions? Read More

Pearson files copyright infringement lawsuit against Chegg, Inc.

On September 13, in what will have a potentially serious impact on the academic publishing industry, specifically as it relates to online supplemental materials and study guides, Pearson Education filed a lawsuit against Chegg, Inc. for copyright infringement [Pearson sues former partner Chegg for copyright infringement (insidehighered.com)]. This suit [complaint.pdf (oandzlaw.com)] stems from the use of end of chapter and other materials from Pearson Education (one of the big three textbook publishers) textbooks as part of the Chegg Study website.

Pearson files copyright infringement lawsuit against Chegg, Inc. Read More