Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisChillin
A Kindle edition with locations, or an ePub edition in which the page numbers vary from the print book, makes checking citations an unreliable process.
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Keep in mind that Kindle apps don't handle pagination the same way as some other apps. "Locations" are not flexible and don't change based on things like margins, font size or screen size; "Location 1840" is always going to point to the same exact spot in the text.
I can see how
flexible pagination is a disaster for academic purposes. But how is citing an ebook edition with a fixed location index be any different than citing a book that was issued in, say, two paper formats? Or in multiple editions?
After all, it's not like each and every paper edition of a book is going to have the exact same pagination. And if it's an article, you're probably going to work off of a PDF anyway, where pagination will be maintained.
While this may be necessary as a stop-gap, this is actually a step backwards in terms of scholarly use of ebooks. A better solution is for ebook apps to give the reader a choice between a fixed location (e.g. Kindle) or flexible pagination, rather than index it off of paper editions.