[Air-l] it's not Mike, and ..

[Barry Wellman]

I want to reassure Mike Gurstein that he was NOT one of the persons I
referred to (and not by name) re the Encyclopedia of Community
delinquency. If he had asked me privately, I would have told him.

Mike had his own reasons for not contributing, informed us in a quite
professional way in timely fashion, and we got a fine replacement. (Also a
reader of this list). The two people I had in mind only told us TWO WEEKS
before the shipping date that they wouldn't have their articles done --
after repeated inquiries by myself and the project coordinator. You can
imagine the bind this unprofessional conduct left us in -- and I repeat my
deep gratitude to the two colleagues who lept into the breach. Those two
authors know the stress that the defaulters put on them, on me, and on the
project. (The two delinquent authors appear to have shrugged it off, with
one saying something like "Well, don't most people not deliver
sometimes?")

As to Mike's point about compensation, that seems to be a general issue. I
know of many books that I've contributed to where I don't get compensated
except for the sheer joy of getting my ideas out to some part of the
reading public. And, in fact, contributors to the Encyclopedia ARE getting
compensated in terms spelled out up front. Those with articles of 1500
words or more get a copy of the 4 volumes of the Encyclopedia. Most
authors get some modest $$s too. This is more than most people get paid in
many book ventures. Indeed, no one else protested.

While I have your attention, I would like to say that the 49 articles I
edited are all solid, and will offer great starting points to you and to
your students doing research. (There are probably another 350 articles in
other fields of community; I can't vouch for them, but I do know that the
senior editors and project manager were very serious about readable, but
scholarly, quality).

We all make individual decisions in these matters, and I respect Mike's.
I've turned down requests to be in textbooks on similar grounds. I do
think the general issues of author compensation go beyond the AoIR list,
and that the issues are inappropriate to debate here. I do agree with Mike
that the web is a wonderful way to get your messages out.

Cheers,  Barry
 ___________________________________________________________________

  Barry Wellman        Professor of Sociology       NetLab Director
  wellman at chass.utoronto.ca   http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman

  Centre for Urban & Community Studies        University of Toronto
  455 Spadina Avenue   Toronto Canada M5S 2G8   fax:+1-416-978-7162
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