From: Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 14:08:28 +0000

>In Rick Anderson's new
>posting on Scholarly Kitchen, he asks the question:  "How do we know
>that 'an increasing number of university presses are reluctant to
>offer a publishing contract to newly minted PhDs whose dissertations
>have been freely available via online sources'? I can understand the
>reasoning that might lead to this stance, but is there actual evidence
>to indicate that it is, in fact, an increasingly widespread one among
>publishers?"   Rick, the Conclusion of the article below answers that
>question.. the number of reluctant publishers has definitely increased
>in the last decade; the authors' recommendation is, therefore, at odds
>with their data?]

This study does indeed seem to show an increase -- although looking at the
conclusion, it seems like the respondent population in the earlier study
was asked only about monograph submissions, whereas the current study
polled both book publishers and journal editors. This makes direct
comparison between the two data sets a bit iffy. Still, it's certainly
suggestive that publishers are becoming less willing to take on revised
versions of ETDs.

If that is in fact the case, then it actually supports the AHA
recommendation -- which is that dissertation authors should be allowed to
put longer embargoes on their work, to make it more attractive to
publishers when the time comes for submission.

Rick Anderson
Interim Dean, J. Willard Marriott Library
University of Utah
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