Friday, June 17, 2005
six of one, a half dozen of the other
If you publish a paper in the American Journal of Sociology, they send you five complimentary copies of the journal, in addition to the copy you already get if you are a subscriber. Not to get all laryngoscopic on a gift horse, but what am I supposed to do with these extra copies? I mean, it's kind of them to offer, but, as far as I know, there is no way to decline the complementary copies, and I've never known what to do with complementary copies other than have them take up increasingly precious bookshelf space. Am I supposed to give them to people who offered comments on the paper? But everybody in academia is simultaneously fighting a War On Paper coming into their office. Besides, even people like me who subscribe to AJS still just use the online archive for individual articles (btw, here's the link to the article in question, although I'm not sure if it will work).
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8 comments:
That's funny. My entire family would be fighting to get copies of something I published. Not because they love to read sociology articles, nor do they understand what a published paper in AJS means. It's just a thing they do. But I guess that's because publishing is not exactly a routine occurence for me.
I say put them out on a table outside your office with a sign that says "free." A lot of grad students can't afford subscriptions, so I bet they'd take them.
Or just throw them out and move on with your life. Why burden your bookshelves with 6 of something you don't need or want?
You've seen my office. Those extra copies could easily get lost in the piles of paper littering my work space.
The abstract seems to be the only thing available to non-subscribers, though I imagine that a large number of JFW readers have access to an academic library.
Congratulations on the article, Jeremy. It looks really interesting. If I had an extra copy, I'd give it to my collegue who does health research.
i wonder this too. i like the free copies of journals that the articles appear in, that's cool. but i've never understood why people like having all the paper around when they can get the article online.
there is a discussion about this topic and taylor and francis publishers in crtnet right now, apparently people do not want to pay $25 per copy... i'm like, huh? why pay the publisher when your library or oclc is probably already paying them...
(Note: the previous Jeremy is not the proprietor of this weblog. This Jeremy is.)
Ang: I couldn't bring myself to put a single journal issue on a free table. It seems weird. Who wants a single issue of a journal?
A good point. I just always see tables with signs saying "free!" And that stuff is way more ridiculous than what you're offering.
There's always 7110.
I believe they are intended to send to your mom. Or, send them to instructors and peers who said you'd never amount to anything.
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