Ethics of Authorship--Part 1
In my career in textbook development I have worked with many authors of the highest integrity. Whatever issues arose over manuscript or reviews, I could always count on honest and open discussions and productive resolutions. The few times I have been disappointed in this have been instructive, however. I have come to realize that some unethical attitudes and behaviors may be so subtle or commonplace as to escape notice. I'm not talking about the obvious, such as plagiarizing or breaching a contract. I'm talking about misrepresentation, exploitation, and neglect.I have known authors who misrepresent themselves to acquisitions editors to win unearned advances upon signing, or perhaps just to put one over on an evil empire--for example, a Marxist (to anyone in the know) claiming to be writing a mainstream introduction to sociology or a creationist claiming to be writing a mainstream introduction to evolutionary biology.
Worse, to me, is textbook authors who misrepresent themselves as educators when they clearly care little for their readers and know nothing about learning theory or educational psychology. These authors have a "no pain no gain" attitude toward students. They don't see themselves as teachers (or even as learners in their own fields), and they tend to reject pedagogy in textbook development. Rather, they see themselves as experts and as gatekeepers of their professions--keeping out the riffraff. This all comes across in their writing, of course, but usually they don't see it. They write above grade level and fail to engage. Their textbooks are authoritative but unpopular and seldom survive more than a couple of editions.
But textbooks teach. That is their function. A textbook permits and encourages readers to learn and gives them what they need to do so efficiently. In the ethics of authorship, I believe that intending to communicate audience-appropriate content in a pedagogically sound way is the prime directive. The second is resisting opportunities to exploit that audience (or its champion, the editor), which I will take up in my next blog post: Ethics of Authorship--Part 2.
Labels: ethics, textbook authorship
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