From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2012 14:17:16 -0500

My question was NOT meant as a challenge to Mr. Gupta's integrity but
as a question to determine on what basis Mr. Gupta was basing his
observations.

I would make two points:

1) Since the AAUP Operating Statistics do not cover journals, I am not
sure why he would have consulted them and what his understanding of
them could have been--unless he also has had experience working in a
book division. (At Chicago, anyway, those two divisions work quite
independently of each other, as far as I'm aware.)

2) Since "faculty influence" would likely be exercised quite
differently in journal than in book publishing, it would be risky to
extrapolate from experience in one to the other.

Sandy Thatcher


At 12:56 PM -0400 7/8/12, LIBLICENSE wrote:
From: Jill Emery <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2012 10:11:32 -0700
Hello Liblicense-l Community,

As an information professional, it does bother me when a simple fact
check is not undertaken. In light of this frustration, I just wanted
to make this point in reply to Sandy Thatcher.

[snip from Sandy Thatcher's post]

It would be interesting to know what "experience" Mr. Gupta has had
that allows him to pass judgment on the "business practices" of U.S.
presses. Has he ever worked at one? Has he ever had access to the AAUP
operating statistics reports that are produced annually?

[snip]

Bear in mind, I'm responding to this post as a librarian and not as a
publishing professional. If you were to perform a simple Google search
for "Nawin Gupta" the first entry given is for LinkedIn which even in
public view allows you to note that Mr. Gupta has worked as the
"Journal Division Manager for the University of Chicago Press."
Perhaps I am missing out on what appear to be several layers of
innuendo in the snippet from the previous post, but to respond in
complete naivete to your question, it does appear that Mr. Gupta has
"experience" that allows him to pass judgement on the "business
practices" of U.S. presses since it does appear he has worked at one.
I write that in full understanding that in the U.S., one state has the
right not to recognize rulings of another state so perhaps what I'm
missing is something along these lines where one previous state
university press employee does not recognize there being other
university press employees from other regions of the country.
Furthermore, I suspect, Mr. Gupta has had access to the AAUP operating
statistics reports given this previous position.

Jill Emery