peer review and editing are very useful for quality, be it an academic book or not.
its also true that not all great works, academic and non-academic, went through such processes.
bypassing such processes implies the need for great vigilance and patience or genius or all of these, on the part of the writer.
if i choose to be an academic, i would expect to be judged by the global standard of contemporary academics, which is centred in peer evaluation.
if i do not wish to be an academic but simply operate as an intellectual, i would i would decide my criteria for evaluation in a different manner.
i dont aspire to be an academic. i have done it it and dont want to return. i want to succeed, professionally and financially, as a scholar, without having to be employed by anybody. i want to spend as much time as i can in research, writing, web construction, film making, publication and distribution, without any professional duties necessitated by being employed. and all done at my time and pace.
i observe however, that the books i enjoy reading most, the books i even often read for relaxation, are the very books published to service the academic market whose central institutions i dont want to belong to. books by academic publishers, often written by highly trained academics.
High Quality of Works from Academic Publishers
for me, these books are the best.
their standard is consistently high in all categories of writing and publishing.
surveying the books i possess, particularly non-fiction, from various academic publishers, Oxford UP, Routledge, Cambridge UP, Princeton UP, SUNY Press, Brill, Heinemann, University of Lagos Press, Yale UP, Edinburgh UP, etc etc
i conclude that the only competitors i see these publishers as having are a few trade publishers like Penguin, who, working with scholars, often academics, integrate the standards of academic publishing into their publishing process and some publishers in what seems to be the boom in publishing sophisticated books in India, as with such publishers as DK Printworld and Motilal Barnasidass.
these books are so good bcs of the rigorous development, often formal training, of their writers and the rigorous publication processes the books undergo.
consequently, for me and many others, having a book published by Oxford UP or any other acclaimed academic publisher says volumes about the book and about the writer.
The Economic Limitations of the Academic Writing and Publishing Model
but there is a catch.
the academic publishing market is geared towards the academic as an employee not as a person who can subsist from selling his or her ideas to the public. the academic is paid though wages by his or her employer.
must this be so?
i suspect not.
i suspect academic books are constructed and marketed in terms of narrow but rigorous parameters. the combination of narrowness and rigour does not help them attract a larger audience.
Parameters in the Construction and Marketing of Academic Works
while noting that changing these parameters might not work for all academics and all kinds of academic books, these parameters could be described as including
1. their exclusive dependence on verbal text. the human being is multi-cognitive and responds best to multiple cognitive stimuli. just like various senses are vital for giving a complete interaction with and understanding of the world, books and essays gain from integrating images and verbal texts.
2. What of sound? Can books not also be presented as films, integrating sound, image, motion and other forms? a number of publishing houses now advertise their books using their Youtube channels.
3. their exclusive dependence on the argumentative and expository essay forms. these are helpful but are only one of the methods used in the world's greatest cognitive productions. Plato used dialogues, with his works being described by his 20th century peers Alfred North Whitehead and Karl Popper, as the greatest examples of Western philosophy across the centuries, and Bertrand Russell declaring that any student of philosophy who fails to study Plato does so at his own risk,; classical Asian philosophers used the sutra, succinct, often one line summations, also used by the Western philosopher Wittgenstein in his Tractatus and the poem; various cognitive traditions integrate these forms and the short story, as was done by philosopher Richard Rorty's use of a short story in a brief section in his Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature.
4. restricting marketing to academic outlets like academic journals and academic publications catalogues. some of the best writing on the most salacious topics, using this term both literally and figuratively, is in academic works.
Tantric Sexuality in Academic Texts
The Hindu and Buddhist body of thought known as Tantra has become synonymous with sexuality in popular Western culture, so much so that an ad i tried to place on the classified site Gumtree for a Tantric theory and meditation workshop was automatically deleted, perhaps bcs it had the term 'Tantric' in the title and Gumtree forbids articles on 'Tantric massage'.
Abhinavgupta on Tantrix Sexuality in Chapter 29 of the Tantraloka,
yet the only translation known to me of the famous chapter 29 of the almost mythic Indian sage Abhinavagupta in his legendary Tantraloka, Light on the Tantras, a chapter where he waxes richly on the practice of ritual sex is John Dupuche's PhD published as The Kula Ritual as Elaborated in Chapter 29 of the Tantraloka published by Motilal Barnasidass. One of the most sublime and yet earthy depictions of sexuality is Abhinavagupta's summation of the Tantric concept of sexuality in that famous chapter, variously translated by Silburn and Dupuche.
From Lilian Silburn's Kundalini [very informative reviews on Amazon ] published by State University of New York Press:
What is it that should be worshipped?
Women are to be worshipped.
Who is the worshipper?
Man is the worshipper.
Who invokes the deity?
Their mutual love.
Which flower is offered?
The scratches made by the nails.
What are the incense and the oblation?
Embraces and caresses.
What is the mantra? [sacred sound]
The beloved's flow of words.
What is the recitation?
The pleasure of the lips.
What is the sacrificial pit?
The womb.
What is the wood of the sacrificial ladle?
The linga. [the phallus]
What is the fire?
The sprout in the womb.
What is the clarified butter?
The seed, the sperm.
What is, O Master of the Gods, the samadhi? [experience of transcendent consciousness]
And Siva answers:
Sound, touch, form, savor and odor,
just as the flow of bliss is released,
what issues from these sensations in a fivefold way,
that is Samadhi.
Having realized this, let one obtain Siva. [ a male deity understood as embodying, among other qualities, the creation, preservation, destruction and recreation of the cosmos through vast cycles of time]
Dupuche's translation is more explicit:
What is to be worshipped,
who is the worshipper,
what sort of invocation should there be?
What flower,
incense and oblation,
which mantra and recitation?
What is the sacrificial pit,
what is the fire
what is the stick
what is the ghee?
What is the divine rapture?
Tell, O Three-Eyed One! [Siva has three eyes, the two conventional eyes and one between the eyebrows, seeing into various dimensions of time and space]
The young women themselves are worshipped,
the man himself is the worshipper;
their joy is the invocation
and the scratches caused by their finger-nails is the flower.
The embrace mentioned above is the incense;
the 'oblation' is produced from their bodies.
The confused language of the beloved woman is the mantra
and the 'lower nectar' is the recitation.
The vulva is the sacrificial pit,
the penis is the ladle
and the clitoris is the fire itself and the seed is called 'ghee'.
So it is said in the Bhairava tradition. [the sacred tradition of Siva as erotic ascetic, quoting O' Flaherty's book with that title]
Word and touch, form, essence and smell are a set of five.
When bliss is aroused, the five fold universe appears [the 'five fold universe' refers to the various categories that constitute the totality of existence within this school of thought]
it would require an essay to expound fully on the content and form of these lines, taking us from the logic of the Tantric conception of the relationship between mind and body, between self and cosmos, itself embedded in these lines in an ancient tradition of transformations of conceptions of ritual between the concrete and the abstract in Indian thought and practice. vital in such grounding would be Surendranath Dasgupta's account of transformations of Vedic ritual in vol 1 of his 5 vol History of Indian Philosophy and Martin Skora's "Abhinavagupta's Erotic Mysticism: TheReconciliation of Spirit and Flesh", among other examples.
How may more people to be encouraged to read such works as those of Dasgupta? how will they get to read Skora , his essay being published in the print only International Journal of Hindu Studies?
Social, Financial and Information Access Benefits of Academic Employment
there is social and financial security in being employed. academics in the Western tradition began from being paid directly by students to the present system, where perhaps a more equitable distribution of income is possible across the board. everyone would not be a Peter Abelard in medieval Europe, whose students flocked wherever he went. Hegel's lectures were described as steadily emptying of students as he expounded his now famous philosophical system, on account of the rigour of the system. the modern academic world is organized differently from that of the Yoruba/Orisa tradition babalawo or the Indian guru who operates in terms of attracting clients or students, at least in the traditional sense. the universities secure huge reserves of academic information not available to the public outside their systems. it seems most journals are not publicly accessible and without these journals certain insights are just not possible.
Crossing the Divide between Academics, the Lay Public and Independent Scholars
how is this divide to be crossed? how can independent scholars have access to subscription only journals? how can institutions be encouraged or made to let any willing person pay a reasonable fee for access unlike the current situation where membership of the institution is necessary for access?
apologies if my approach to the subject is not exactly the route others have taken but this is what scratches me on the issue.
thanks
toyin
On Mon, May 28, 2012 at 4:37 PM, Tracy Flemming <flemmint@gvsu.edu> wrote:
Has anyone taught Front Line of Freedom: African Americans and the Forging of the Underground Railroad in the Ohio Valley? I haven't decided if I'm going to use it for an upcoming underground railroad class. For an On Demand text, I think students might respond well to it.
http://www.kentuckypress.com/live/title_detail.php?titleid=1958
--Tracy Flemming, Ph.D.Visiting Assistant ProfessorAfrican/African-American StudiesGrand Valley State University107 Lake Ontario Hall1 Campus DriveAllendale, Michigan 49401-9403USAOfc: 616/331-8150Dept: 616/331-8110Fax: 616/331-8111E-mail: flemmint@gvsu.edu--"The author is promised royalties if the book sells a certain number of copies. Of course, no print-on-demand book sells enough copies for the author to earn any royalties".------------Farooq A. KperogiThe above statement does not sound to me as referring only to academic publications. I publish poetry books on the Print On Demand platform and I have been receiving royalties since 2009.----CAO."The fact that these POD and self-published books and journals, whatever their insight, do not circulate beyond the author/editor and their family and friends. As a result, their insights are lost to the academic and intellectual community".------Moses Ochonu.Print On Demand books are available on the online bookshops and can be purchased by anybody.------CAO"In reality, the publishing house merely prepares a camera-ready copy of the manuscript, prints and mails a free author's copy of the book, and waits for orders".--------Farooq A. Kperogi.That is what they should do as online bookshops. Are they supposed to build warehouses, print the books, store them therein and await orders?-----CAO."I recognize that things are changing, but I would hate to see that change occur at the expense of long established protocols for disseminating ideas in a readable, edifying form. I have my issues with academic review, which is by no means a perfect arbiter of quality, but we can discuss that another day".------Moses Ochonu.Here lies the problem, acceptance of change in all ramifications have always been a problem. There is always that inclination to orthodoxy.------CAO.Publisher At PublicInformationProjects
From: Moses Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, May 28, 2012 1:23 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Print-on-demand Book Scams and Nigerian Universities
--Ken, you make valid points. However, I understand Farooq to be arguing not against self-publishing or print-on-demand (POD) publishing per se. I understand him, rather, to be be critiquing:
1. The growing trend IN NIGERIA to pass off vanity publishing as an academic accomplishment and to proceed to fraudulently ascend the academic ladder on the basis of that. His argument here is not that these publications may not have some insights but that they violate the ethos of peer review, quality control, and editorial oversight, long established as valuational mechanisms in the academy.
2. The fact that these POD and self-published books and journals, whatever their insight, do not circulate beyond the author/editor and their family and friends. As a result, their insights are lost to the academic and intellectual community.
3. That because there is little or no editorial intervention in the work the quality is often poor, and even when one is able to access the book or journal it is a turn off. If you cannot read a text because it is riddled with grammatical, structural, and stylistic problems how can you get to its insights, if any?
I recognize that things are changing, but I would hate to see that change occur at the expense of long established protocols for disseminating ideas in a readable, edifying form. I have my issues with academic review, which is by no means a perfect arbiter of quality, but we can discuss that another day.
Sent from my iPadsounds like what we have called "Self-Publishing" presses. this is not necessarily a fraudulent thing, unless its claims are misleading. but self-publishing presses have been around forever, and as you say, farooq, the books are not vetted, so do not "count" towards a publication in any real sense. on the other hand, if your manuscript has not succeeded in getting a publisher, you can go ahead and do it, and then send copies for reviews to journals. if the text gets a favorable review, you can build on that.
i don't think this is bad at all, unless it is duplicitous. as long as everyone realizes it is a self-published text, it can enter into the public domain and possibly gain an audience.
fiction authors have done this in the past; and "publishing" with electronic sources has made this even easier--which is a good thing, i believe. for instance, africultures is able to produce an enormous amount of great stuff, without the long process of vetting print journals go through, which can delay publication by up to two years. africultures is not self-publishing, but it is also not following the rigorous processes of print journals in its vetting.
sort of like blogs, or even comments in major newspapers that follow editorials or articles. often the comments, another form of self-publishing, are much better than the piece on which they comment.
things are changing....
ken
On 5/27/12 1:02 AM, Farooq A. Kperogi wrote:Saturday, May 26, 2012
Print-on-demand Book Scams and Nigerian Universities
By Farooq A. Kperogi
The other day, a friend of mine on Facebook proudly announced that his master's thesis had been published into a book by a German publishing company called Lambert Academic Publishing. Several people congratulated him. But I didn't. I knew he had been scammed—and that he would in turn unwittingly scam the Nigerian university system where he works as a lecturer.
Since reading his self-congratulatory post, I have heard of scores of other Nigerian university teachers who have published "academic books" through Lambert and other such Euro-American publishing companies. Before this trend becomes an epidemic, I thought I should call attention to an emerging, borderline fraudulent publishing model called "print on demand."
This is the way the model works. Author mills (that is, deceptive publishing houses that publish ANY work submitted to them) based in Europe and America use software to crawl the Internet (sometimes real people do the Web prowling) for any mention of "thesis" or "dissertation" on the Internet. The web crawler will identify the email addresses associated with the authors of the theses or dissertations and then send them an email using a standard email template that goes something like this:
"I am writing on behalf of an international publishing house, Lambert Academic Publishing.In the course of a research on the … I came across a reference to your thesis on "...". We are an international publisher whose aim is to make academic research available to a wider audience.LAP would be especially interested in publishing your dissertation in the form of a printed book.Your reply including an e-mail address to which I can send an e-mail with further information in an attachment will be greatly appreciated. I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,Acquisition EditorLAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing AG & Co. KGSaarbrückenDudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken Germany."I have received many variations of this email template at least five times in the past few years. If a person agrees to publish his/her dissertation or thesis with the company, the company will request that the manuscript be sent to them via email. Within six weeks, the book will be "out." Of course, it will neither be peer-reviewed by experts in the field nor will it be proofread by a copy editor. So it comes out embarrassingly error-ridden. It's basically garbage in, garbage out. As an American who submitted his manuscript to Lambert put it in a blog post, "it is very evident that no one at the publication house bothered to do any editing. There are multiple grammatical errors."
In reality, the publishing house merely prepares a camera-ready copy of the manuscript, prints and mails a free author's copy of the book, and waits for orders. The company makes money when the author's friends and relations place an order for the book--or when the author purchases extra copies of the book to share with friends and family. Since they print only when an order is placed (thus the name "print on demand"), they lose nothing. I am told that authors from the Third World are required to pay for their author's copy.
The front- and back-page prototype of the book will be displayed on the publishing company's website and on Amazon.com—and that's it. You will never find the book in any bookstore or library. There is no media publicity for the book by the publisher, no advertising, no marketing, no distribution, and no critical reviews in academic or popular journals.
The author is promised royalties if the book sells a certain number of copies. Of course, no print-on-demand book sells enough copies for the author to earn any royalties.
Here is why Nigerian university administrators should be concerned about print-on-demand books. One, they do not go through any kind of review before they are published. In fact, many people have experimented with sending a farrago of mumbo jumbo to these publishing companies to see if they will be published. And, sure enough, they often get published. No manuscript sent to print-on-demand publishers is ever returned as unpublishable, however awfully it may have been written. As most people know, only peer-reviewed books can count toward promotion in academia.
Two, they have limited or no materiality. By this I mean that there are usually no more than a few copies of the "books" in circulation. That means they add nothing to the disciplinary conversations of their areas since they can't be found in libraries and bookstores. In other words, they are basically worthless.
Third, our people have been brainwashed into thinking that anything published in the West must be of high quality. People may innocently think Lambert is a legitimate academic press because it has a German address. Before you know it, many people will be promoted to professors based purely on fraudulent books they publish with the company, which American writer Victoria Strauss aptly called "an academic author mill". That would be unfair to people who struggle against all odds to produce high-quality scholarship.
Many countries are waking up to the academic fraud that print-on-demand books are. The Australian Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC), for instance, has blacklisted books published by Lambert Academic Publishing. The Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) has a responsibility to do the same.
Related Articles:Ndi Okereke's Fake Doctorate and Professorship
On Bauchi's Fake Lecturer--and What Should Be Done
Intellectual 419: Philip Emeagwali and Gabriel Oyibo Compared
Andy Uba and the Epidemic of Fakery in Nigeria
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/farooqkperogiTwitter: https://twitter.com/#!/farooqkperogi
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
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