Comments on bulbulistan: published

Don't let self-doubt kill you. Who cares if ...

2012-02-17T11:09:34.294+01:00

Don't let self-doubt kill you.

Who cares if some "dead Russian motherfucker" already did it, the world will be a richer place with your contribution.

A fresh perspective, different point of view, details missed by the other guy, ... I guess, what I'm trying to say is ... fuck the world and dead motherfuckers, pursue your interests and publish your findings.

Your question "I wonder if that's ever ha...

2012-02-13T01:03:42.231+01:00

Your question "I wonder if that's ever happened to anyone else." made me laugh.

I had a somewhat similar experience in publishing ...

2012-01-23T11:56:02.701+01:00

I had a somewhat similar experience in publishing with John Benjamins. I did get to copyedit proofs, but when I received the final version I discovered that many of my corrections were not actually taken up.

I contacted John Benjamins with the corrections and they very helpfully agreed to make the changes in the digital versions. So while there are printed books out there with some stupid mistakes which are not even due to myself, all ebook versions as well as the preview on Google Books have been corrected. (And who reads the printed books anyway?)

I would say it's worth a try. If Peter Lang does ebooks it is also to their advantage to correct sloppy errors.

To quote Robert Merton: "Anticipatory plagiar...

2012-01-18T21:08:24.544+01:00

To quote Robert Merton: "Anticipatory plagiarism occurs when someone steals your original idea and publishes it a hundred years before you were born".

John, that's an excellent point. I did, howeve...

2012-01-10T18:33:08.054+01:00

John,
that's an excellent point. I did, however, set out to make a contribution not just to my own knowledge, but also to knowledge in general. In that respect, fail, if only a partial one. And, as noted above, this seems to happen a lot.

As for errors, publish the corrections here.
Will definitely do so.

David,
WTF.
That was indeed my first reaction upon learning of the finished book.

Huh. Do tell!
Well, I know this guy...

As for novelty, that's easy in paleobiology
Paleobiology, eh? Any math involved?

besides from submitting the manuscript, I had n...

2012-01-06T20:22:04.039+01:00
besides from submitting the manuscript, I had no input in the editing process

WTF.

a project that seems worthvile

One of the best Freudian typos I've ever seen.

Used to be one of those long dead Russian motherfuckers (and they still remain the most likely suspects)

In the anatomy of extant animals, it's practically always a German who did it in the early 20th century.

A real option available to me.

Huh. Do tell!

The thesis would add nothing to knowledge, but nobody would read it anyway

I avoided this by publishing my thesis "in real time". 4 chapters came out before I defended the thesis, the appendix came out shortly before, another chapter is in review, and I'm working on the remaining one.

As for novelty, that's easy in paleobiology – there are always new fossils that (if nothing else) influence the big picture.

As for errors, publish the corrections here. Dr. Google and his numerous colleagues will take note of them all the same.

Seconded!

"In the future, perhaps, someone proposing a ...

2011-12-27T04:56:11.230+01:00
"In the future, perhaps, someone proposing a doctoral thesis, let us say on the Adonis myth in Milton or metaphors of nature in Milton or colour imagery in Tennyson, would look to see whether it had already been done, and discover that there were in existence 9,842 theses on precisely that topic, of which 7,235 were in Japanese. The department would nod its collective head and remark that any thesis that had been written as often as that must be an excellent one. The thesis would add nothing to knowledge, but nobody would read it anyway, and if there were something in it that could conceivably be used it could be made available by other means. So the crazy chain of thesis, thesis rewritten as book, book published, book bought by libraries, book added to an already groaning bibliography, would be broken." —Northrop Frye, "Literary and Mechanical Models"

I take it that Frye's point was that such contributions to knowledge are primarily contributions to one's own knowledge, and as such by no means to be scorned, and never mind the long-dead Russians qui ante nos nostra dixerunt. Indeed he mentions the importance of learning languages, which are certainly not "productive" in the factory sense, but which make quite a difference to one's education.

As for errors, publish the corrections here. Dr. Google and his numerous colleagues will take note of them all the same.