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RE: why citations matter
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From: Donna German <DonnaGerman_at_SylvanDellPublishing.com>
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 11:27:31 -0400
I usually lurk but just have to jump in here.
I personally work with experts in the field to vet all of our books for accuracy prior to publication. I specifically do not want to work with people with whom the author may have worked as that would just give me the same research avenues. Over the five or so years we’ve been in business, most of the vetting goes very smoothly. I have noticed that some of our vetters almost give a rubber stamp but that’s not what I look for. I need someone to give us honest feedback. Because our books have the science focus, I have found working with educators at zoos, aquariums, nature centers, National Parks, and museums are often the best. Not only do they know the science behind the subject but they are accustomed to presenting it at a level that children can easily understand. I can think of one or two cases where the vetting brought some serious research issues (or lack thereof) to light and we could correct.
However, we do not put citations in the books. As someone mentioned yesterday, when working with picture books, the “real estate” is quite expensive. We do, however, put related links on the book’s homepage so that children and the adults in their lives can learn more and we do try to ensure that the site is a legitimate and accurate site.
Donna German
Editor
Sylvan Dell Publishing
612 Johnnie Dodds Blvd., Suite A2
Mount Pleasant, SC 29464
843-971-6722 (off), 877-958-2600 (toll free), 843-216-3804 (fax)
Science and Math through Literature
For more information, please visit our website at: www.SylvanDellPublishing.com
From: Nancy Thalia Reynolds
Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 10:20 AM To: ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu Cc: bookmarch@aol.com Subject: Re:
why citations matter
of educators and that none of the advisers objected to the textbook's
ruled "accurate and unbiased" by a committee of content specialists and teachers. Five Ponds Press has published 14 books that are used in the
This is an interesting story on many levels in addition to the issue of why citations matter. My understanding is that textbook publishing is quite profitable. Yet this publisher appears not to have sent the author's text out for peer review (to be read and reviewed by historians or other scholars in this area), before publishing it. It's unclear whether the Virginia Dept of Education review required any historians or other scholars to read the book.
My guess is that textbook publishers have ample resources available to provide such a review, but don't feel it is necessary. State budgets these days are at best extremely tight.
Another point: Ms. Masoff has evidently written 14 textbooks for this publisher that are in use by Virginia public schools. Many authors of series nonfiction and textbooks borrow from themselves. They maximize their income by recycling past research (this can lead to interesting copyright issues when more than one publisher is involved, but that's beside the point here). This allows the author to produce more text with less effort in less time, but where, as here, factually incorrect information is provided in one text, there's a good chance it will turn up elsewhere in the author's work on the same subject.
And finally: When the factual error is politically volatile, as here, and not widely available in other texts, the chance that such works will get cited elsewhere may go up. If an author wishes to establish the existence of black Confederate soldiers and only one "vetted" text contains that assertion, this text is likely to become a prominent "source" for that claim.
Nancy Thalia Reynolds
MIXED HERITAGE IN YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE (Scarecrow Press, 2009)
----- Original Message -----
From: bookmarch_at_aol.com To: ebattzedek@americanreading.com, ccbc-net@lists.wisc.edu Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 6:41:06 AM Subject: Re:
why citations matter
Anyone who doubts that citations matter, or thinks that in books for young people they are not necessary, should look up this article in today's Washington Post
907974.html?hpid=topnews
"Virginia 4th-grade textbook criticized over claims on black Confederate soldiers"
By Kevin Sieff
A 4th grade textbook supposedly vetted and completely approved for use in the state of Virginia claims that thousands of blacks fought for the South during the war -- yet when scholars checked the author's sources it turned out she had merely used websites created by Sons of the Confederacy who are determined to show that the slavery was not a central issue in the war.
Sources and citations matter. And I have to admit in some of my books I've used net sources only to have an expert reader show me that those were dated or inaccurate views -- so the very fact that it is so easy for us to find information makes it all the more important that we get real experts to review our work before we share it.
Marc Aronson
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 11:27:31 -0400
I usually lurk but just have to jump in here.
I personally work with experts in the field to vet all of our books for accuracy prior to publication. I specifically do not want to work with people with whom the author may have worked as that would just give me the same research avenues. Over the five or so years we’ve been in business, most of the vetting goes very smoothly. I have noticed that some of our vetters almost give a rubber stamp but that’s not what I look for. I need someone to give us honest feedback. Because our books have the science focus, I have found working with educators at zoos, aquariums, nature centers, National Parks, and museums are often the best. Not only do they know the science behind the subject but they are accustomed to presenting it at a level that children can easily understand. I can think of one or two cases where the vetting brought some serious research issues (or lack thereof) to light and we could correct.
However, we do not put citations in the books. As someone mentioned yesterday, when working with picture books, the “real estate” is quite expensive. We do, however, put related links on the book’s homepage so that children and the adults in their lives can learn more and we do try to ensure that the site is a legitimate and accurate site.
Donna German
Editor
Sylvan Dell Publishing
612 Johnnie Dodds Blvd., Suite A2
Mount Pleasant, SC 29464
843-971-6722 (off), 877-958-2600 (toll free), 843-216-3804 (fax)
Science and Math through Literature
For more information, please visit our website at: www.SylvanDellPublishing.com
From: Nancy Thalia Reynolds
Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 10:20 AM To: ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu Cc: bookmarch@aol.com Subject: Re:
why citations matter
of educators and that none of the advisers objected to the textbook's
ruled "accurate and unbiased" by a committee of content specialists and teachers. Five Ponds Press has published 14 books that are used in the
This is an interesting story on many levels in addition to the issue of why citations matter. My understanding is that textbook publishing is quite profitable. Yet this publisher appears not to have sent the author's text out for peer review (to be read and reviewed by historians or other scholars in this area), before publishing it. It's unclear whether the Virginia Dept of Education review required any historians or other scholars to read the book.
My guess is that textbook publishers have ample resources available to provide such a review, but don't feel it is necessary. State budgets these days are at best extremely tight.
Another point: Ms. Masoff has evidently written 14 textbooks for this publisher that are in use by Virginia public schools. Many authors of series nonfiction and textbooks borrow from themselves. They maximize their income by recycling past research (this can lead to interesting copyright issues when more than one publisher is involved, but that's beside the point here). This allows the author to produce more text with less effort in less time, but where, as here, factually incorrect information is provided in one text, there's a good chance it will turn up elsewhere in the author's work on the same subject.
And finally: When the factual error is politically volatile, as here, and not widely available in other texts, the chance that such works will get cited elsewhere may go up. If an author wishes to establish the existence of black Confederate soldiers and only one "vetted" text contains that assertion, this text is likely to become a prominent "source" for that claim.
Nancy Thalia Reynolds
MIXED HERITAGE IN YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE (Scarecrow Press, 2009)
----- Original Message -----
From: bookmarch_at_aol.com To: ebattzedek@americanreading.com, ccbc-net@lists.wisc.edu Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 6:41:06 AM Subject: Re:
why citations matter
Anyone who doubts that citations matter, or thinks that in books for young people they are not necessary, should look up this article in today's Washington Post
907974.html?hpid=topnews
"Virginia 4th-grade textbook criticized over claims on black Confederate soldiers"
By Kevin Sieff
A 4th grade textbook supposedly vetted and completely approved for use in the state of Virginia claims that thousands of blacks fought for the South during the war -- yet when scholars checked the author's sources it turned out she had merely used websites created by Sons of the Confederacy who are determined to show that the slavery was not a central issue in the war.
Sources and citations matter. And I have to admit in some of my books I've used net sources only to have an expert reader show me that those were dated or inaccurate views -- so the very fact that it is so easy for us to find information makes it all the more important that we get real experts to review our work before we share it.
Marc Aronson
---Received on Wed 20 Oct 2010 11:27:31 AM CDT
