During his 2019 TAA Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference presentation, “Why I Chose to Publish OER, What I Learned, and Do I Have Regrets”, with Jeanne Hoover, Dave Dillon, TAA Council member and author of the award-winning open textbook Blueprint for Success in College and Career, shared the 5R activities permitted by open access. Defining the “open” in open content and open educational resources (OER), Dillon noted, “The terms ‘open content’ and ‘open educational resources’, describe any copyrightable work that is either (1) in the public domain or (2) licensed in a manner that provides users with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities” below.
Member Spotlight: Paul M. Insel
TAA member Paul M. Insel is an Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry, Stanford University and is both a textbook and academic author in the health sciences writing discipline.
His most recent publication is the 16th edition of his textbook, Core Concepts in Health (2020). Throughout his career, he has published 14 books and 51 papers.
Q&A: Writing professors’ rights: Can the university claim the rights to your publication?
Q: Writing professors’ rights: Can the university claim the rights to your publication/royalties based on your employment at the time of writing the manuscript?”
A: Brenda Ulrich, Partner, Archstone Law Group PC:
“It’s an interesting issue. Under standard employment law the employer owns anything created by the employee in the scope of their employment. And certainly writing and publishing scholarly work is considered to be in the scope of a professor’s job duties. However, within academia there is what is often called the “academic tradition,” namely, that professors and academics own their own scholarship.
Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: October 18, 2019
William Wadsworth once said, “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” That may be easier said than done for some of us. Especially if, as discussed in our first article in this week’s collection, you ever find yourself in conflict with yourself or, in the case of our second article, you are an empath facing slow, smoldering burnout in academe.
Ways to address these challenges as well as other topics important to textbook and academic authors fill our collection of articles this week. Other topics include: peer reviewing your first paper, research data sharing, focus groups for research or evaluation, the Research Data Management Librarian Academy (RDMLA), and forthcoming AcWriMo Tweetchat events.
Wherever your heart leads you in writing this week, breathe new life into your papers and manuscripts as you go. Happy writing!
Academic Writing Month: Community and progress
One book to complete, another one to start. It must be time for Academic Writing Month! November is almost here, and writers around the world will be looking for tips and encouragement so they can make progress on articles, books, theses, or dissertations. We’ll share strategies, progress, and frustrations using the #AcWriMo hashtag.
Writing is typically a solitary occupation. Even when we are co-authoring, a lot of work is done on our own. And for most of us, the concept of a “book leave” or a sabbatical—undistracted time to focus on our writing—is the stuff of dreams. While we struggle to make sense of our thoughts and interpret research for our readers, life goes on. Dinner needs cooking, partners and kids need attention, and students expect us in class.
Member Spotlight: Melissa A. Paquin
TAA member Melissa A. Paquin is a PhD candidate and is an academic author in the biology, genetics, health sciences, and nursing disciplines.
Her most recent publication is an article titled, “Breast Cancer Risk Prediction Models: Challenges in Clinical Application”.