Academic ePublishing

Kumabjorn · 06-25-2012, 02:49 PM

We have Amazon for almost everything in mobi, Sony, B&N and Kobo for the same in ePub, Baen for Sci-Fi and fantasy, Smashwords for indie authors.

But is there any site specialized in academic ePublishing?

BWinmill · 06-25-2012, 03:54 PM

It depends what you're looking for.

In terms of journal articles, publishers have been making PDF (and sometimes PS) files available for well over a decade. Sometimes these are fee based, usually at outragous prices, and sometimes they are free. Even with the fee based journals, many universities will provide public access to articles. Certain disciplines offer pre-prints in centralized repositories. In other disciplines, you may find pre-prints on the researcher's website.

I haven't seen too much offered in the way of books. Sometimes a researcher will provide a PDF of their book on their website, but usually not. Sometimes you will find electronic editions that you access through a web based interface.

ProfCrash · 06-25-2012, 04:05 PM

The academic market is well behind the times when it comes to e-books.

Kumabjorn · 06-25-2012, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

The academic market is well behind the times when it comes to e-books.

Intuitively that is what I thought.
However, since it has been moving rather rapidly lately I was hoping that something had changed in that segment. If it is one field where there is little risk of piracy and untold benefits of having the material available in digital format it is academic publishing.
Too bad.

ProfCrash · 06-25-2012, 05:28 PM

None of my friends publish their book as e-books. I have even mentioned that I wouldbuytheir books in ebook form.

Ekaros · 06-25-2012, 05:36 PM

I discovered that my University offers quite large digital access to different service containing both books and papers so there is subscription based services, but reasonably priced individual purchases aren't there yet. Still, most of stuff might not be up to date.

I think it mostly comes to past models which way publishing has been done for papers and on other hand the model for books.

rkomar · 06-25-2012, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

The academic market is well behind the times when it comes to e-books.

I think it's that e-books haven't caught up to the needs of academics. Right now, if you want equations in an epub, you pretty well have to include them as images. If the reading software could handle MathML or SVG, that could start the move away from PDF.

ProfCrash · 06-25-2012, 10:02 PM

There are plenty of academic books that do not use a ton of equations. I have game theory texts as ebooks and math books that read just fine.

wizwor · 06-26-2012, 02:29 AM

Are you interested in buying books or who is publishing them? I'm not aware of sites specializing in the sale of academic texts, but there are LOTS of school books on Amazon and Barnes and Noble (B&N has the bookstore concession at my kid's college). Interesting read (with references) on the whole academic e-publishing movement here.

My oldest is in college and has been compelled to 'rent' e-texts on occasion. The cost of the e-text rental was close to extortion. Clearly, the objective was to maximize revenue by preventing re-sale/sharing of the pristine used e-text among those least impressed with copyright laws. There is so much money to be made on this model that I fear it is the unavoidable future -- instead of allowing kids/parents to buy and sell required texts, simply add an e-text rental to the endless list of fees that swell the cost of an education.

The ck-12 project is creating a library of free texts that are being, for the most part, ignored by Big Academia. My local school system, for instance, is 'looking into' e-education. They have pretty much settled on the i-pad and are looking for a compatible curriculum but are not looking at ck-12. I challenged this as backwards (pick the curriculum, then select among e-readers that support it), but the administration loves their free i-pads and thinks the kids will too. In my routine visits to the middle and high schools, I have only ever seen two administrators using an i-pad and both were taking notes at a meeting. Despite having these toys for several years, NOT A SINGLE PERSON HAS SAMPLED A SINGLE ACADEMIC PROGRAM ON AN IPAD.

I happen to have CK-12's Algebra I and Algebra II on my Fire and Kindle. Generally, when I am at the school, one of these is in a pocket. I shared with a couple of people 'engaged' in the curriculum selection process. They were unimpressed, "Those are just books." Apparently, we've moved on from texts at our underperforming schools.

Anyway, I digress...a lot. Check with B&N or Amazon for texts. Visit CK-12 or MIT's OpenCourseware site or Videolectures.net for some interesting, free content. Google academic epublishing in News to see what is going on.

Have fun!

AlexBell · 06-26-2012, 04:02 AM

Thanks for your post and URLs, wizwor. Do you have any information about the other end of the scale? I do some volunteer work teach Nepali and Bhutanese refugees in Australia to read, and need all the help I can get.

rhadin · 06-26-2012, 06:30 AM

I guess it depends on what you mean by academic texts. In every ad I see in the New York Review of Books by academic publishers like Oxford University Press, Indiana University Press, North Carolina University Press, etc., many, if not most, of the books advertised are also available as ebooks.

I think nonfiction ebooks have a difficult road to travel. I buy a lot of nonfiction but will not buy it in ebook form unless I buy both the pbook and the ebook, which I occasionally do. I consider nonfiction books to be not only readable now but future research resources and so I want ownership and quality, neither of which are fully available in ebooks yet. The day is getting closer, but it is not yet here.

Kumabjorn · 06-26-2012, 07:35 AM

Ah, but those books are not available in one easy to browse site, are they?
Forget about trying to browse something a as oblique as "academic texts" on Amazon.

wizwor · 06-26-2012, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Thanks for your post and URLs, wizwor. Do you have any information about the other end of the scale? I do some volunteer work teach Nepali and Bhutanese refugees in Australia to read, and need all the help I can get.

OCW, CK-12, and videolectures.net all have some translations available. I can't be more specific than that due to my ignorance of your situation and the dialects of asia's indigenous peoples.

wizwor · 06-26-2012, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Ah, but those books are not available in one easy to browse site, are they?
Forget about trying to browse something a as oblique as "academic texts" on Amazon.

I'd say get a list of ck-12 texts that interest you then search google or amazon or b&n for matches. People make lists and someone has probably made one that will get you started. Amazon has lists and a textbook tag. There are 7,386 products tagged as textbooks on amazon. It's really not oblique.

jehane · 06-28-2012, 07:43 AM

My experiences...

1. I've just bought a book from big academic publisher Wiley. In its favour, the ebook was cheaper than the paper book. Against that, it was not in epub format and requires specific software to be downloaded in order to read it (vitalsource). Worse, this information wasn't disclosed until *after* you bought the book. I knew beforehand having read comments by other students but it is not revealed on the site until you've paid. It's also not a straightforward process - worse than Adobe DRM if you can believe that!

2. There are a few academic ebook libraries - my organisation is subscribed to CRC and Safari that I can think of offhand. There's not a huge selection and you have to read them online. There's also NAP, although their selection is underwhelming.

3. Most journals that I have access to through work are electronic, which is good as I don't work at Head Office. Back issues are gradually being brought online which is even better. The upside is that anyone can buy single articles or subscribe. The downside is that it's prohibitively expensive for private individuals. Having said that, anyone who needs it for work will probably have organisational access. The best part is that they are in pdf format and are actually downloadable into an epub reader - I have read a few on my sony.

So, in terms of academic ebook publishing, there are a few moves, but thus far not much for e-ink readers. It's much more geared towards tablet users.

06-25-2012, 02:49 PM	#1
Kumabjorn Basculocolpic Posts: 4,356 Karma: 20181319 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Sweden Device: Kindle 3 WiFi, Kindle 4SO, Kindle for Android, Sony PRS-350 and PRS-T1	Academic ePublishing We have Amazon for almost everything in mobi, Sony, B&N and Kobo for the same in ePub, Baen for Sci-Fi and fantasy, Smashwords for indie authors. But is there any site specialized in academic ePublishing?

06-26-2012, 02:29 AM	#9
wizwor Wizard Posts: 1,068 Karma: 23867385 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: kindle, fire	Are you interested in buying books or who is publishing them? I'm not aware of sites specializing in the sale of academic texts, but there are LOTS of school books on Amazon and Barnes and Noble (B&N has the bookstore concession at my kid's college). Interesting read (with references) on the whole academic e-publishing movement here. My oldest is in college and has been compelled to 'rent' e-texts on occasion. The cost of the e-text rental was close to extortion. Clearly, the objective was to maximize revenue by preventing re-sale/sharing of the pristine used e-text among those least impressed with copyright laws. There is so much money to be made on this model that I fear it is the unavoidable future -- instead of allowing kids/parents to buy and sell required texts, simply add an e-text rental to the endless list of fees that swell the cost of an education. The ck-12 project is creating a library of free texts that are being, for the most part, ignored by Big Academia. My local school system, for instance, is 'looking into' e-education. They have pretty much settled on the i-pad and are looking for a compatible curriculum but are not looking at ck-12. I challenged this as backwards (pick the curriculum, then select among e-readers that support it), but the administration loves their *free* i-pads and thinks the kids will too. In my routine visits to the middle and high schools, I have only ever seen two administrators using an i-pad and both were taking notes at a meeting. Despite having these toys for several years, NOT A SINGLE PERSON HAS SAMPLED A SINGLE ACADEMIC PROGRAM ON AN IPAD. I happen to have CK-12's Algebra I and Algebra II on my Fire and Kindle. Generally, when I am at the school, one of these is in a pocket. I shared with a couple of people 'engaged' in the curriculum selection process. They were unimpressed, "Those are just books." Apparently, we've moved on from texts at our underperforming schools. Anyway, I digress...a lot. Check with B&N or Amazon for texts. Visit CK-12 or MIT's OpenCourseware site or Videolectures.net for some interesting, free content. Google academic epublishing in News to see what is going on. Have fun! Last edited by wizwor; 06-26-2012 at 02:32 AM.

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06-25-2012, 03:54 PM	#2
BWinmill Nameless Being	It depends what you're looking for. In terms of journal articles, publishers have been making PDF (and sometimes PS) files available for well over a decade. Sometimes these are fee based, usually at outragous prices, and sometimes they are free. Even with the fee based journals, many universities will provide public access to articles. Certain disciplines offer pre-prints in centralized repositories. In other disciplines, you may find pre-prints on the researcher's website. I haven't seen too much offered in the way of books. Sometimes a researcher will provide a PDF of their book on their website, but usually not. Sometimes you will find electronic editions that you access through a web based interface.

06-25-2012, 04:05 PM	#3
ProfCrash Tea Enthusiast Posts: 8,554 Karma: 75384937 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Somewhere in the USA Device: Kindle1, Kindle DX Graphite, K3 3G, IPad 3, PW2	The academic market is well behind the times when it comes to e-books.

06-25-2012, 05:28 PM	#5
ProfCrash Tea Enthusiast Posts: 8,554 Karma: 75384937 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Somewhere in the USA Device: Kindle1, Kindle DX Graphite, K3 3G, IPad 3, PW2	None of my friends publish their book as e-books. I have even mentioned that I wouldbuytheir books in ebook form.

06-25-2012, 05:36 PM	#6
Ekaros Illiterate newbie Posts: 661 Karma: 1702090 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Finland Device: Sony PRS-T1	I discovered that my University offers quite large digital access to different service containing both books and papers so there is subscription based services, but reasonably priced individual purchases aren't there yet. Still, most of stuff might not be up to date. I think it mostly comes to past models which way publishing has been done for papers and on other hand the model for books.

06-25-2012, 10:02 PM	#8
ProfCrash Tea Enthusiast Posts: 8,554 Karma: 75384937 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Somewhere in the USA Device: Kindle1, Kindle DX Graphite, K3 3G, IPad 3, PW2	There are plenty of academic books that do not use a ton of equations. I have game theory texts as ebooks and math books that read just fine.

06-26-2012, 04:02 AM	#10
AlexBell Wizard Posts: 3,413 Karma: 13369310 Join Date: May 2008 Location: Launceston, Tasmania Device: Sony PRS T3, Kobo Glo, Kindle Touch, iPad, Samsung SB 2 tablet	Thanks for your post and URLs, wizwor. Do you have any information about the other end of the scale? I do some volunteer work teach Nepali and Bhutanese refugees in Australia to read, and need all the help I can get.

06-26-2012, 06:30 AM	#11
rhadin Literacy = Understanding Posts: 4,833 Karma: 59674358 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: The World of Books Device: Nook, Nook Tablet	I guess it depends on what you mean by academic texts. In every ad I see in the New York Review of Books by academic publishers like Oxford University Press, Indiana University Press, North Carolina University Press, etc., many, if not most, of the books advertised are also available as ebooks. I think nonfiction ebooks have a difficult road to travel. I buy a lot of nonfiction but will not buy it in ebook form unless I buy both the pbook and the ebook, which I occasionally do. I consider nonfiction books to be not only readable now but future research resources and so I want ownership and quality, neither of which are fully available in ebooks yet. The day is getting closer, but it is not yet here.

06-26-2012, 07:35 AM	#12
Kumabjorn Basculocolpic Posts: 4,356 Karma: 20181319 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Sweden Device: Kindle 3 WiFi, Kindle 4SO, Kindle for Android, Sony PRS-350 and PRS-T1	Ah, but those books are not available in one easy to browse site, are they? Forget about trying to browse something a as oblique as "academic texts" on Amazon.

06-28-2012, 07:43 AM	#15
jehane Book addict Posts: 441 Karma: 2650464 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Antarctica/Australia/Ohio Device: Sony PRS-300/T1/Asus TF101	My experiences... 1. I've just bought a book from big academic publisher Wiley. In its favour, the ebook was cheaper than the paper book. Against that, it was not in epub format and requires specific software to be downloaded in order to read it (vitalsource). Worse, this information wasn't disclosed until after you bought the book. I knew beforehand having read comments by other students but it is not revealed on the site until you've paid. It's also not a straightforward process - worse than Adobe DRM if you can believe that! 2. There are a few academic ebook libraries - my organisation is subscribed to CRC and Safari that I can think of offhand. There's not a huge selection and you have to read them online. There's also NAP, although their selection is underwhelming. 3. Most journals that I have access to through work are electronic, which is good as I don't work at Head Office. Back issues are gradually being brought online which is even better. The upside is that anyone can buy single articles or subscribe. The downside is that it's prohibitively expensive for private individuals. Having said that, anyone who needs it for work will probably have organisational access. The best part is that they are in pdf format and are actually downloadable into an epub reader - I have read a few on my sony. So, in terms of academic ebook publishing, there are a few moves, but thus far not much for e-ink readers. It's much more geared towards tablet users.

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