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Iranian scholars object to AIAA banTEHRAN, Iran, June 27, 2005 -- A decision by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics to ban Iranian scientists from its journals and conventions met an expected protest from Iranian scientists. Fredun Hojabri, of the Sharif University of Technology Association, said the IAII had been specifically exempted from a trade embargo against Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Sudan. "There is no such law that would allow them to ban the publication from these countries," said Hojabri. About 100 articles being prepared for publication in eight AIAA journals were pulled beginning in late May.
Hojabri said the IAII's explanation that military technololgy was at stake didn't wash. Many of the pulled articles, he said, dealt with basic scientific topics such as fluid dynamics. Hojabri said the AIAA is supposed to be "a professional association and an academic association, not a security agency."
Background:
Iranian, other articles yanked from journals |
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Wiley, optical group to co-brand books| NEW YORK, June 26, 2005 -- A new imprint, Wiley-OSA, has been created by professional publisher John Wiley & Sons and the Optical Society of America for books in the optics, optical engineering and photonics pofessions. The multi-year agreement calls for five tio 10 co-branded titles a year beginning in 2007. |
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Elsevier purchases MC Strategies| ATLANTA, Georgia, June 19, 2005 -- An Atlanta company that provides online healthcare training products, MC Strategies, has been acquired by scientific, technical and medical publisher Elsevier. The companies have been in a partnership since 2004 with the online Medical/Surgical Nursing Curriculum. MC Strategies chief executive Don Galimore will continue to head the unit as part of Elsevier, the companies said in a joint announcement. The unit will continue to expand its branded e-learning products. |
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Withey: U-presses key in free inquiryPHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, June 18, 2005 -- The president-elect of the American Association of University Presses, Lynne Withey, called on members to see beyond the current financial crises that have seen many presses closed. "We need to realize it's a good thing for scholars to reach beyond the academy and that we as publishers are in a unique position to help do that," Withey said at the association's annual convention. These are difficult times in the academy with pressure to suppress inquiry and expression. University presses, she said, are in a unique position to counter "a political culture that seems bent on suppressing information" and "efforts to intimidate faculty who teach on controversial subjects." Resist efforts to limit the kind of political and social commentary that is published, she told members.
A record 700 AAUP members attended the convention. Withey called for the association to broaden beyond a "clubby" mentality. She referred to plans to expand membership membership to university presses outside North America and to publishers outside of academe that publish scholarly titles. "There's a real possibility for this organization to make a real difference in the publishing world and in the scholarly world in a way that wasn't possible a few years ago," Withey said.
Withey is director of the University of California Press. |
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| AMERICAN
ASSOCIATION
OF UNIVERSITY
PRESSES |
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Mandel out at Wisconsin PressMADISON, Wisconsin, June 17, 2005 -- The director of the University of Wisconsin Press the past five years, Robert Mandel, has resigned amid the financial problems that are besetting many university presses. The resignation was announced by the dean of the graduate school, who said Mandel will serve as a special consultant to the graduate school. The resignation was a surprise, coming after a series of successes in the University of Wisconsin Press list.
Under Mandel, the press increased production from about 50 titles a year to 90 or so. Output peaked at 119 two years ago. A new trade imprint, Terrace Books, was launched in 2003 for translations of literature, memoirs and current affairs. In May 2004 the press acquired Popular Press, which specialized in popular culture. In early 2004 the press announced the Americas Literary Initiative as a revenue-center to help subsidize scholarly books. Published to date have been a Spanish-language edition of Jacobo Timerman's 1982 memoir, Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number, and Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá's San Juan: Ciudad Soñada. The press also has leading titles in Holocaust studies, regional fiction, and lesbian and gay memoirs.
An heir apparent might have been the longtime associate director, Steve Salemson, but he committed himself to retire in July. Musicologist Susan Cook, the university's associate graduate dean for arts and humanities, was named interim director. The graduate dean, Martin Cadwallader, who oversees the press, said in announcing Mandel's resignation: "After a period of rapid growth, the press is settling into an optimal size for going forward, with a focus on its areas of greatest strength." Salemson said he expects the press can produce about 70 titles a year within budget.
The press's faculty advisory board is expected to set new goals on areas in which the press should specialize. Then a national search for a permanent director is expected. |
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Google on tight rope in scan project| PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, June 17, 2005 -- To doubters among university press executives, Tom Turvey of Google said his search-engine company has "great respect for copyright and copyright law." Turvey was in a hot seat at the national convention of the Association of American Publishers over Google's Library Project to scan and digitize all the books in the collections of Harvard and Stanford universities, the University of Michigan, the University of Oxford, and the New York Public Library. Turvey, Google's director of strategic partner development, web search, and syndication, said "a lot of misinformation floating around" has clouded the truth about the project, but he was less than clear on how Google sees the infringment issue. To a direct question about honoring the claims of copyright-holders, Turney said: "We are in active dialogue with our partners and other people in the industry about these issues." |
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| AMERICAN
ASSOCIATION
OF UNIVERSITY
PRESSES |
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Haights Cross buys CME med publisher| CHERRY HILLS, New Jersey, June 16, 2005 -- Multimedia continuing-ed publisher CMEinfo.com has been acquired by Haights Cross. Terms were not dsiclosed. CME's products include physician certification audio and video guides, some from the Mayo Clinic. Products include 1,600 hours in 23 medical and health fields. Haiughts Cross said the products will be integrated into its Oakstone Publishing subsidiary. The announcement signals a Haights Cross decision not to sell Oakstone. |
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House votes against Patriot Section 215WASHINGTON, June 15, 2005 -- The U.S. House voted to cut off funding for FBI searches of bookstores and libraries under the Patriot Act. The vote was a slap at President Bush, who has threatened to veto any weakening of the Patriot Act. The vote came on an amendment by Representative Bernard Sanders of Vermont to an appropriations bill. Almost a year ago the White House had fought off a similar amendment when the House Republican leadership held the vote open 20 minutes beyond its allotted time to persuade some members to change their vote. That amendment lost on a 210-210 tie.
Authors, booksellers and publishers had campaigned against Section 215 of the Patriot Act as an infringement of civil liberties. The section allowed the FBI to seize business records, including library and bookstore records, with virtually no judicial oversight. The American Booksellers Association, the American Library Association, the Asociation of American Publishers and the PEN American Center collected more than 200,000 signatures on petitions calling for dropping Section 215. |
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| BERNIE
SANDERS |
J&B buys Lewin's Virtual TextCAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, June 14, 2005 -- Biology textbook publisher Virtual Text, known mostly for Benjamin Lewin's Genes, now in its eighth edition, has been purchased by health and sciences publisher Jones & Bartlett. J&B plans to relocate the company to its Cambridge headquarters. Virtual was founded by Lewin in Sudbury, Massachusetts, in 2000. J&B said it would publish a ninth edition of Genes in 2008. The first Virtual titles under the J&:B name will be released early in 2006, the company said. Virtual has titles in cell biology, genetics, immunology, molecular biology, microbiology and neurobiology. The titles include Lewin's derivative text, Essential Genes, which was introduced in 2005.
Terms of the transaction were not announced. The deal includes Virtual's proprietary XML publishing software and a text and digital asset management system. J&B chief executive Clayton Jones said the software would enable the company to integrate J&B print textbooks with online materials. This, he said, "will allow us to broaden our reach and impact in science publishing." |
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LEWIN/8e |
| FINANCIALS POSTED JUNE 12, 2005 |
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| School Specialty. Sales grew 10.5 percent to $1 billion for the fiscal year ended April 20. Net income was up 5.4 percent to $43 million.
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College sales double in AprilNEW YORK, June 12, 2004 -- College sales more than doubled in April, compared to a year earlier, according to the latest data from the Association of American Publishers. The surghe, however, fell short of correcting a year-to-date 4.4 percent decline. El-hi sales were up 2.9 percent for April and 9.5 percent for the year. Here are the year-to-date data for genres in which academic authors write the most, as extrapolated from 92 reporting publishers:
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College
Professional
El-hi
University press (soft)
Univ press (hard) |
March
124.5%
3.5%
2.9%
-2.6%
-23.0%
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| Year-
to-date
-4.4%
-0.4%
9.5%
11.7%
-15.9%
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Association of American Publishers |
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Wiley puts books, journals on Questia| HOBOKEN, New Jersey, June 11, 2005 -- Book publisher John Wiley & Sons has signed a licensing agreement with online academic library Questia Media to make more than 1,300 Wiley books and 30 journals available by online subscription. The content will include journals and books from Wiley's professional/trade and scientific, technical and medical publishing programs going back to 1997. Questia sells individual subscriptions to students as well as educators at community colleges but does not allow downloading or offline viewing. |
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New bindery equipment to tighten productionJEFFERSON CITY, Missouri, June 7, 2005 -- Book printer Von Hoffman announced a $5 million expansion of its Jefferson City bindery plant for case-bound and softcover textbooks, instructor manuals and high page-count products. John DePaul, executive vice president, said the equipment will meet publisher demands for shorter production cycles. The bindery equipment is in addition to a new $15 million four-color web press announced earlier.
Feds try censoring botulism article| PALO ALTO, California, June 5, 2005 -- The federal government called on the National Academy of Sciences not to publish research by Stanford Univerity business prof Lawrence Wein on biological terrorism for fear it could used by terrorists. Wein and grad student Yifan Liu discuss how a botulism attack on the nation's milk supply could be thwarted. In Washington, government spokesperson Marc Wolfson said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services the U.S. Food and Drug Administration consider the paper "a road map on how you could use botulism toxin to taint the milk supply." Bruce Alberts, president of the National Academy of Sciences, has pulled the paper from its May 30 online edition of ana academy journal and is reviewing the article. Wein has already been published on the issue. In the New York Times he recently called for stricter regulations to ensure that the milk supply "is vigilantly guarded, from cow to consumer." |
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| FREE
INQUIRY
FREE
EXPRESSION
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| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
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| Paul D. Nolting (math), Manatee Community College, wrote the second edition of Math Study Skills Workbook (Houghton Mifflin). |
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Please
tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
EDITOR |
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CCC, Canadians create easier permissions| DANVERS, Massachusetts, June 2, 2005 -- The Copyright Clearance Center, which licenses permissions on behalf of U.S. rights-holders, entered agreements with two Canadian counterparts, Access Copyright and COPIBEC, to streamline obtaining permissions for international content for their customers. A license from either country will cover access to photocopy and digital reuse in both the United States and Canada. |
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Iranian, other articles yanked from journalsWASHINGTON, June 1, 2005 -- About 100 manuscripts have been pulled out of the peer-review and publication process at eight journals published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics to comply with U.S. trade embargoes against Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Sudan. The decision was made by the board of directors of the association, which has 30,000 members, about one-sixth of whom are overseas. In a formal statement, the association said: "AIAA, consistent with U.S. laws and policies, shall not knowingly provide products or services to, or engage in formal, technical information exchange with, individuals or entities residing in embargoed nations," a statement on the organization's Web site says. The association said scientists from embargoed countries will not be allowed at future conferences sponsored by the association.
Robert Dickman, executive director, said the ban was based on the fact that the association's conferences and publications often deal with applied engineering, including missile accuracy and weapon delivery systems.
The AIAA decision was a surprise. In December, pressed by several scholaraly organizations, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control ruled that scientific exchanges with authors from embargoed countries would be permissible. That ruling reversed a 2003 decision that had placed restrictions on communications with those authors. |
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