Elsevier mum on yanked article

NEW YORK, June 30, 2004 -- Journal publisher Elsevier Science would rather not talk about squelching a research article because IBM had threatened to sue. Elsevier's director of corporate relations, Eric Merkel-Sobotta, said discussions are unde way with the guest editor of a special issue Clinics in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, in which an unfavorable but peer-reviewed article about IBM had been scheduled. Said Merkel-Sobotta: "We are currently communicating constructively with the guest editor of the special issue. We have no further commrent at this time." The guest editor, enviornmental scientist Joseph LaDou of the University of California at San Francisco, is incensed that Elsevier nixed the article. All 10 contributors to LaDou's special issue have withdrawn their articles in protest. The article on IBM suggested higher cancer rates amonmg semiconductor plant workers. In threatening to sue Elsevier if the article were published, IBM claimed the data was wrongly obtained and also faulted the authors' analysis.

ELSEVIER SCIENCE EARLIER ARTICLE Scientists boycott Elsevier journal

Online limits take Supreme Court blow

Paul F. Boller Jr. (history), Texas Christian University, and Ronald Story (history), University of Massachusetts, Amherst, edited the sixth edition of A More Perfect Union Documents in U.S. History (Houghton Mifflin). Douglas Palmer (geology), University of Cambridge , wrote Prehistoric Past Revealed: The Four Billion Year History of Life on Earth (University of California Press). David Smith, chief executive at NCS Pearson, earlier with McGraw-Hill, William C. Bown and Houghton Mifflin, was elected to the Plato Learning board of directors.

Please tell us about your latest project: EDITOR More academic authoring people

Steady growth expected for college texts

Guild wary on e-royalty revisions

Scientists boycott Elsevier journal

SAN FRANCISCO, California, June 27, 2004 -- All the contributor to a special issue of Clinics in Occupational and Environmental Medicine have withdrawn their articles to protest a decision by publisher Elsevier Science to yank an article that IBM didn't want printed, said guest editor Joseph LaDou. He used the word "boycott" to describe the unanimous decision by contributors. That Elsevier bowed to IBM pressure is another example of industy influence over the practice of occupational and environmental medicine, said LaDou, who is director of rhe International Center for Occupational Medicine at the University of Caliofornia at San Francisco. What triggered the boycott was an Elsevier decision to over-rule LaDou and peer reviewers and withdraw an article that reported that IBM workers at semiconductor plants are more susceptible to cancer than the general population. LaDou said that IBM had threatened to sue Elsevier, which he called an example of industry's "heavy-handed tatocs" ito prevent publication of unfavorable but important discoveries. Joining LaDou in the boycott are 10 authors who had work scheduled for publication in the Elsevier journal in which ythe IBM study was also scheduled.

ELSEVIER SCIENCE EARLIER ARTICLE Elsevier: Axed article better at Abel journal

Virginia library coop buys Elsevier bundle

Blackwell (nee Iowa State) sales up

AMES, Iowa, June 25, 2004 -- Since British academic publisher Blackwell acquired Iowa State University Press in 2000, sales have grown 38 percent, said financial officer Brenda O'Neall-Smith. The company produces 60 titles a year with new lists in agriculture, applied chemistry, dentistry, and food science, in addition to the inherited lists in agriculture, animal science, aviation, journalism and veterinary medicine. The integration of Iowa State University Press has gone well, said O'Neall-Smith, despite the initial negative reaction among scholars who bemoaned the loss of yet another traditional universty press. Last year, the name Iowa State was dropped, the operation become Blackwell Publishing Professional. The name change has added to the recogntion of the company as a global publisher, said O'Neall-Smith.

BLACK- WELL

Harvard Business Press inks China deal

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, June 23, 2004 -- Harvard Business School Press signed a three-year exclusive deal with Commercial Press in Beijing to publish 150 HBS Press titles in Chinese. David Goehring, of Harvard Business Press, said he most frontlist titles will be translated. The agreement includes exchanging distribution, editorial, marketing and production personnel in a training period.

HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PRESS

Elsevier: Axed article better at Abel

NEW YORK, June 22, 2004 -- Journal publisher Elsevier Science, caught bowing to IBM pressure against publishing a critical environmental study, said the article that was stricken may yet appear. Elsevier axed the article from a special issue of Clinics in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, but spokesperson Heather Cullen said another publication, Abel's Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, may take the piece. The official Elsevier explanation is that the article was drawn from original research, which made it inappropriate for its Clinics, which only reviews original research that has appeared elsewhere. The explanation didn't settle well with authors Richard Clapp and Rebecca Johnson, who noted that their article already had been approved by four Elsevier peer reviewers. Elsevier nixed the article after IBM threatened to sue. The article concluded from IBM data that workers at semiconductor plants are especially vulnerable to terminal cancers.

ELSEVIER SCIENCE EARLIER ARTICLE Under pressure, Elsevier nixes journal article

Vivendi ex-chief in jail

PARIS, June 21, 2004 -- The former chief executive of Vivendi, Jean-Marie Messier, was jailed in a growing fraud investigation at the time he headed the global media company. A financial crimes unit ordered that Messiee be held. Since October 2002 an investigation has been under way into allegations of share buybacks and insider trading about time it was disocvered the Vuivebndi was almost impossibly overextended. Messier has been consistent in maintaining transactions were authorized by the Bourse by telephone. With the company inploding in July 2002, Messier was ousted. Last December U.S. authorities barred him from sitting on corporate boards for 10 years. About the jailing, expected to be short term, perhaps no more than48 hours, the Financial Times said: "Mr. Messier's detention us a further humiliattion for a man once held up as a symbol of modern French business and of France's determination to challenge the supremacy of the giant U.S. media groups."

VIVENDI MESSIER Boston book publisher Houghton Mifflin has been divested by Vivendi and now is in theh ands of U.S. equity investors EARLIER ARTICLE Messier sees "below radar" future

Achievement Tech hits 1 million

California el-hi sales buoy Houghton

BOSTON, Massachusetts, June 19, 2004 -- The year 2004 has more el-hi adoption opportunities for Houghton Mifflin and should be better than the past year, said chief executive Tony Lucki. El-hi sales were up 15.9 percent to $80.7 million the first three months of year, compared to a year earlier. Lucki said the increase, $10.1 million, had been boosted by $3.8 million in sales from acquisitions that weren't part of the company a year earlier. Without the acquistions, el-hi sales were up 10.5 percent, due mostly to sales of Houghton Mifflin's leveled readers in California. Strong opportunities remain for reading adoptioons in open and other adoption states this year, A focus in coming months, he said, will be developing products and sales strategies for 2005 adoptions and beyond. To shareholders, he promised new effiiencies from a review of business proesses and cost structures, as well as a new back-office systems.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN TONY LUCKI

Librarians asked to continue Cuba protest

Pearson launches Waterford math series

MESA, Arizona, June 17, 2004 -- Pearson Digital Learning introduced Levels 2 and 3 of the adaptive computer-based Waterford Early Math &' Science program, developed by the nonprofit Waterford Institute. The program, aimed at first-graders and second-graders, supports hands-on exploration and inquiry-based learning.

PEARSON DIGITAL LEARNING

El-hi sales to pace industry

Pressured, Elsevier nixes article

NEW YORK, June 15, 2004 -- After corporate giant IBM complained about a scientific study scheduled for the journal Clinics in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, journal publisher Elsevier Science decided against publishing the study. The article, by Boston University professor Richard Clapp and private consultant Rebecca Johnson, reported that IBM's own data suggest a higher cancer risk among semiconductor plant employees than the general population. The article had passed Elsevier'speer review process before IBM objected that Clapp and Johnson had no right to use the data, which the authors had obtained a civil lawsuit. IBM also said Clapp and Johnson's analysis was flawed. Elsevier sidesepped the issue of IBM pressure, saying its Clinics in Occupational and Environmental Medicine is limited to reviews of already-published research and that the Clapp and Johnson article was original reserarch.

ELSEVIER SCIENCE

Publisher tries global uni-pricing

NEW YORK, June 14, 2004 -- The forthcoming third edition of John Hennessy and David Patterson's Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface, will be sold at a single price worldwide in a new princing stratgey. The global price: $64.95. The publisher, Morgan Kaufmann, a unit of Elsevier, said there will be only one version for domestic and foreign markets -- a departue from usual textbook industry practice. There will be no discounted internaional strategy or scaled-down foreign variations.

MORGAN KAUF- MANN

120,000 petition against Patriot Act

McGraw unveils discount texts NEW YORK, June 12, 2004 -- E-textbooks at "significantly reduced prices," some half price, are being rolled out by McGraw-Hill for the college market, the company announced. The program, apparently put together in haste in response to dramatic declines in sales, is drawing on McGraw's existing Primis program that has been built up over the years to allow profs to mix and match segments of McGraw texts and fold in their own material. In the new program, 900 textbooks in the Primis system will be available intact as e-books. The Primis database holds 1.5 million pages of textbook content. The 900 Primis e-books also will remain available in print format. MORE The McGraw announcement came as a surprise. Only a few weeks earlier. the company's chair, Harold McGraw, said that electronic textbooks have "interesting potential" but the market didn't seem ready. Why the turn-around? In recent weeks, college textbook sales have plummeted, apparently because of growing student pressure on professors about the price of textbooks. Stores have returned millions of unsold copies to publisher warehouses. Through April, college sales were off 26.4 percent for the year. In the past month, Pearson and Thomson also have introduced discount versions of many of their books. MCGRAW- HILL HIGHER EDUCATION EARLIER ARTICLE McGraw holds back on e-texts Pearson offers half-price online texts College textbook sales in cellar TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE FINANCIALS Haights Cross: Sales grew 3.8 percent to $39.6 million in the company's first quarter, ended March 31, compared to the previous year. Net income was down 6.5 percent to offset new product development costs. Plato: Sales grew 85 percent to $32.2 million in the company's second quarter, ended April 30, compared to the previous year. There was a net loss of $3.2 million. Scholastic: Sales grew 5 percent to $587.4 million in the company's fourth quarter, which ended May 31, compared to a year earlier. For the fiscal year revenues were up 14 percent to $2.2 nillion, but operating profits were off 3 percent to $115 million. Education publishing was a bright spot, up 11 percent to $106.6 million for the quarter and 13 percent to $369 millon for the fiscal year. Varsity: Sales grew 49.9 percent to $1.8 million in the company's first quarter, ended March, compared to the previous year. There was a net loss of 444,000, down from $351,000. PREVIOUS FINANCIALS TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE DATA BANK College textbook sales in cellar NEW YORK, June 11, 2004 -- College publishing sales witnessed heavy losses in April for the second month in a row, the Association of American Publishers reported. Why so? Stores returned many more books to publishers than expected. In AAP's latets monthly data, for April 2003, sales ran a deficit of 6.9 million. For the year, college sales are down 26.4 percent. El-hi basal and supplemental net sales grew 17.6 percent to $211.8. Here is the year-to-date data as extrapolated from 92 reporting publishers: Professional, scholarly El-hi Univ press (hard) Univ press (soft) College 36.6% 17.6% -5.4% -17.2% -26.4% EARLIER DATA TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE Pearson chooses Safari tech form UPPER SADDLE RIVER, New Jersey, June 10, 2004 -- Technology solutions provider Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing will provide the background functionality for Pearson Education's half-price Safari digital college textbooks, Pearson said. The BvDEP contract includes back-office repoorting for usage and performance data, security, and BvDEP';s BlitzHit search engine. Safari includes an initial 300 titles for fall semester. PEARSON EDUCATION EARLIER ARTICLE Pearson offers half-price online texts Complete list: Pearson's first half-price texts Author: Safari plan student- friendly TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE Harcourt buys Saxon skills line ORLANDO, Florida, June 9, 2004 -- Harcourt Achieve recently acquired Saxon Publishers, which was built by maverick John Saxon into a significant niche company specializing in skill-based instructional materials for K-12. Terms were not announced. The company is noted mostly for and its Saxon Math research-based alternate basal program. The company publishes Saxon Phonics and Spelling K-3 and Saxon Early Learning. In announcing the acquisition, Harcourt said it was prepared to give Saxon products "a robust presence" in K-12 education. EL-HI HARCOURT ACHIEVE TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE Pearson chief back part-time NEW YORK, June 8, 2004 -- The chief executive at Pearson Education, Peter Jovanovich, returned to work part-time after a six-month medical leave for surgery for progressive lung disease. About his leave, noting he has been in the book business all his life, Jovanovich said: 'It's hard not to publish books." Jovanovich said he hopes to be back on a fuller schedule, including trips to Pearson's London headquarters, by the end of the year. JOVANOVICH PEARSON EDUCATION EARLIER ARTICLE Double lung transplant for Jovanovich Pearson chief TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE Carl J. Guarneri (history), St. Mary's College of California, wrote the second edition of America Compared: American History in International Perspective (Houghton Mifflin). Ellen M. Kozak (law), wrote the third edition of Every Writer's Guide to Copyright and Publishing Law (Henry Holt). Joan Roughgarden (ecology), Stanford University, wriote Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People (University of California Press). Frank White, president of E2 Consulting, earlier with ACTV, Kaplan and Jostens, was named director, New York City, at Scholastic Education, to opportunities for the company programs and classroom materials. Please tell us about your latest project: EDITOR More academic authoring people TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE Pacific Center using McGraw math NEW YORK, June 7, 2004 -- The Pacific Center for Advanced Technlogy Training will include McGraw-Hill content in its expanded e-learning math pilot program, McGraw announced. The Pacific program uses animation and streaming video to teach math conceopts. The program, launched in 2003, has 479,000 college and high school students worldwide. MCGRAW- HILL HIGHER EDUCATION TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE Thomson: Text adopters need briefings NEW YORK, June 6, 2004 -- Education publisher Thomson, under criticism with other publishers for textbook prices, plans a new initative to "educate" asdopting professors and students to the value of CD-ROMs and other add-ons. Adam Gaber, director of communications, said that critics are off-base in saying publishers bundle useless ancillaries with textbooks to drive up the price. The reality, Gaber said, is that profs and students often either don't know about the CD-ROMs and supplemental web sites or they don't know how to use them. "There are misperceptions among students and professors about what they are buying," he said. Thomson is training sales trps to offer in-class demonstrations and walk-throughs about using the supplementary materials. THOMSON LEARNING TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE Saudis slow in excising textbook hatred WASHINGTON, June 5, 2004 -- Textbooks in Saudi Arabia remain extremist and militant despite an official promise for reform, said Ali Al-Ahmed, the director of the Saudi Institute, which lobbies for modernization and moderation in the country. Al-Ahmed called the religious and history curriculums "extremely dangerous." Said Al-Ahmed: "The textbooks are pure indoctrination that teaches a militant, dark view of the world and the Muslim 'other' or non-Muslim 'other' as evil that must be eliminated." He noted one ninth-grade Saudi textbook that quotes the Prophet Mohammed as calling the faithful to kill Jews. Such content is ubiquitous, he said. In 2002 the Saudi foreign minister, Saud Al-Faisal, issued a story that found 5 percent of textbook content went too far. He said reforms had begun. "There is no room in our schools for hatred, for intolerance, or for anti-Western thinking," the prince said. AL-AHMED Saudi Institute TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE New anti-Patriot Act brief NEW YORK, June 4, 2004 -- The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression has filed a brief supporting the American Civil Liberties Union against Patriot Act provisions that allow the FBI to look at library and bookstore electronicrecords to learn who's reading what without even seeking a court order. The booksellers' president, Chris Finan, said the association has become increasingly concerned about the Patriot Act's Section 505, which authorizes the FBI to go into the records whenever it suspects this information is relevant to terrorism or a clandestine intelligence investigation. Section 505 clarly violates the First Amendment, Finan said. The booksellers assoication has been vigorously battling the Patriot Act for more than two years, but the focus on Section 505 is new. "This wasn't something that we had focused on before, but the closer we looked at it the more we became concerned about it," said Finan. "The language is broad enough that it could be applied to any bookstore that offers the public access to the Internet on its premises or operates a web site." Until now, The booksellers' earlier efforts focused on Section 215, which grants the FBI broad powers to search a business's customer records without establishing probable cause. FREE INQUIRY EARLIER ARTICLE Booksellers petition against Patriot Act TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE Wiley, accounting board in new deal NEW YORK, June 3, 2004 -- Under a new agreement, publisher John Wiley & Sons will continue as exclusive distributor for Financial Accounting Standards Board products for the college market. The agreement includes annual publications and the Financial Accounting Research System CD-ROM database of accounting literature. Wiley also will provide online access to the FARS database through a new subscription service for fall semester. JOHN WILEY & SONS FASB TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE Focal Press adds broadcast list NEW YORK, June 2, 2004 -- The National Association of Broadcasters' technology titles, including the NAB Executive Technology Briefing Series and the NAB Engineering Handbook, will be published by Focal Press in a new partnership. Books released under the partnership will be co-branded with both the Focal Press and NAB logos. Focal Press, part of Reed Elsevier, publishes media technology books. ELSEVIER FOCAL PRESS TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE WORTH READING Burton Bollag. "Don't Steal This Book," Chronicle of Higher Education (April 2, 2004), Pages A38-A45. Bollag, a news reporter, offers a definitive status report on textbook piracy, mostly through photocpying, in developing countries. Accompanying articles focus on India, Latin America, Taiwan and China. Brian Jud. Beyond the Bookstore: How to Sell More Books Profitably to Non-Bookstore Markets. New York: Reed, 2004. Jud, a book marketing consultant, offers tips for identifying and contacting special markets. Ellen M. Kozak. Every Writer's Guide to Copyright and Publishing Law, third edition New York: Henry Holt, 2004. Kozak, herself an author and lawyer, covers publishing contracts, libel, privacy, electronic property, moral rights, Son of Sam laws, and product liability in this clearly written update of her 1997 edition. AUTHORING BIBLIOGRAPHY TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE Harcourt empanels testing advisers ORLANDO, Florida, June 1, 2004 -- Educational publisher Harcourt created a research advisory board to help apply new methdlogy in psychometic and assessment into ts testing products. The members: Richard Duran, University of California, Santa Barbara Ronald Hambleton, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Robert Linn, University of Colorado, Boulder Martha Thurlow, University of Minnesota Mark Wilson, University of California, Berkeley TESTING HAR- COURT TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE Thomas L. Albright (accounting), University of Alabama, and Robert W. Ingram (accounting), University of Alabama, wrote Volume 1 of the preliminary edition of Accounting: Managing Business Information (South-West). Richard Koffler, executive editor for Aldine de Gruyter/Walter de Gruyter, was named director of public relatuions at Questia Media. Gary B. Nash (history), University of California, Los Angeles, Julie Roy Jeffrey (history), Goucher College, John R. Howe (history), University of Minnesota, Peter J. Frederick (history), Wabash College, Allen F. Davis (history), Temple University, Allan M. Winkler (history), Miami University of Ohio wrote the sixth edition of The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society (Longman). Please tell us about your latest project: EDITOR More academic authoring people TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE Hitler heir: Nein to Mein royalties VIENNA, Austria, June 1, 2004 -- The great-nephew of Adolph Hitler, Peter Raubal, said he doesn't want royalties from the influential 1925 best-seller, Mein Kampf, which helped propel Hitler into power. "Just leave me alone," Raubal told an interviewer who asked whether he intended to sue the state of Bavaria, which was granted the rights after World War II. Raibal, the grandson of Hitler's half-sister, is a retired Ajustrian engineer. Although banned in Germany, Mein Kampf remains widely read and sells steadily in the United States and many other countries. COPY- RIGHT TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE Major publishers go with Blackboard WASHINGTON, June 1, 2004 -- College classroom software maker Blackboard announced that textbook publishers Houghton Mifflin, Pearson and Thomson have signed on to its ChalkBox e-learning application. With ChalkBox, publishers can integrate their e-learning applications into the Blackboard system that is widely used by U.S. colleges. Those applications include Houghton's Eduspace, Pearson's Math XL, and Thomson's Personal Trainer. COLLEGE TECH- NOLOGY TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE