I must admit I do not understand the publishing world. Aside from the astronomical prices for books from some publishing houses, there are some even more perplexing pricing models out there. Today I followed a link to a four page book review in Dead Sea Discoveries which took me to ingentaconnect where I can purchase this review for a “mere” $35.00.
By way of contrast, I can buy the entire book which was reviewed — Fitzmeyer’s 248 page A Guide to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature What Are the Dead Sea Scrolls and Why Do They Matter? The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Short History, for around $20.00 (including delivery) from a number of major book sellers.
Now Robert Holmstedt is an excellent scholar, but I have to draw the line at paying more for a short review than for the entire book under review! It is difficult to see how organisations like ingentaconnect are serving the scholarly community.
Martin,
I absolutely agree. That is why I post the PDFs of my materials on our blog and my U of T web site. (The blog is has been updated more recently, so you’ll find the DSD review there.)
Most journals now give explicit permission to do this; those that don’t are way behind the times (and I post those article anyway).
Cheers,
Robert
Robert,
Thanks very much for that heads-up, and for making all your material available (of course I already had your textbook).
Martin.
H/T to Jim West who pointed to this article in the Guardian which makes the point quite strongly.