Your Textbook Deserves Recognition: Nominate it for a TAA Textbook Award

You’ve put so much time and passion into your textbook. Now is the time for that work to be recognized by nominating it for one of TAA’s industry-respected awards:

  • Most Promising New Textbook Award: this award recognizes promising textbooks and learning materials in their first edition.
  • Textbook Excellence Award: this award recognizes excellence in current textbooks and learning materials.
  • McGuffey Longevity Award: this award recognizes long-standing textbooks and learning materials that have been in print for at least 15 years.

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Larson Texts and Big Ideas Learning Unify Under a Single Brand Identity

Larson Texts and Big Ideas Learning, founded by TAA member and multiple TAA Textbook Award winner Dr. Ron Larson, announced the unification of its two brand identities to Big Ideas Learning, a Larson Texts Company.

Both companies are leaders in K-Higher-Ed math education. According to a September 20, 2024 press release, Larson’s “contribution to mathematics education is monumental. From the publication of his first Calculus textbook in 1978 to the foundation of Big Ideas Learning, his vision has always been to make math accessible and engaging for students.”

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A Copyeditor’s Suggestions for Tightening Up Your Prose

By Laura Poole

I’ve been copyediting scholarly nonfiction for many years now, and I have some gentle suggestions to academic writers who would like to tighten up their prose.

These are all suggestions at the phrase level, not the sentence level, to reduce wordiness, impose active voice, and improve flow. There are NOT hard-and-fast rules and should not be done as a knee-jerk reflex. There are times when these suggested edits won’t work or will change the meaning of the phrase; in these cases, don’t do them!

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The Importance of Textbooks

By Charles Corbin

Any of us who have served in academia, especially those who are at research intensive universities, are aware of the many anti-text arguments. Numerous hours are spent in tenure, promotion, and salary (merit raise) meetings debating what “counts” as scholarship and what doesn’t. Often textbooks are discounted. In a journal article published in Kinesiology Review in 2022, The Importance of Textbooks in Kinesiology, my coauthors, Hyeonho Yu, Diane L. Gill, and I, offer a historical perspective on the role of textbooks in physical education and kinesiology. The historical perspective provides a base for the discussion of topics related to the value of textbooks in our field and more broadly in all fields.

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2025 TAA Virtual Conference on Textbook & Academic Authoring Call for Proposals Now Open

The TAA Conference Committee invites proposals for its 2025 Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference, which will be held online June 6-7. Presenting at TAA’s 2025 Conference provides an opportunity to share your knowledge, experiences, and ideas with other textbook authors, academic authors, and industry professionals. The theme is “The Future is Now.” We welcome proposals from first-time and veteran presenters! The deadline for submitting a proposal is October 13, 2024.

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Publishers Strike Data Deals with AI Companies: What It Means for Academic Authors

By Kimberly Becker

Recent developments in academic publishing have dramatically shifted the landscape for authors. Major publishers like Taylor & Francis and Wiley have forged partnerships with tech giants, aiming to leverage vast academic content repositories for AI development. This means that copyrighted materials from these publishers are now being used to train AI models – a practice I previously advised against.

As a presenter at the recent TAA conference, I discussed the ethical integration of AI in academic writing. However, these new partnerships have rendered some of my initial advice partially obsolete. In light of these changes, it’s crucial to revisit this topic and explore its implications for TAA members.

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