Abstract
The present study investigates the Iranian faculties’ attitude toward knowing the desirable features and weaknesses of academic textbooks. The survey research method was used and the data were collected by a semi-structured interview. The population consisted of Iranian faculties in the fields of management, geography, sports science and economics, and maximum variation sampling was used as a sampling method. Findings showed that when choosing academic books, faculties pay attention to several aspects including the use of a book, book credits, those materials added to the original text such as a table, diagram, figure, original content issues, book content, book appearance, and its distribution. The weaknesses presented by faculties can be divided into two parts: the weaknesses of compiled books and the weaknesses of translated books, which are related to publishers and authors. Besides, other weaknesses are lack of expert authors, the non-strength of book physical structure, inappropriate layouts, non-fluency, and literal translation. This is the first study to analyze the desirable and weakness point of Iranian academic book publishing and attempt to show selection criteria of academic book publishing as there is no evaluation systems of academic books in Iran.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bonaccorsi A. Towards an epistemic approach to evaluation in SSH, in Bonaccorsi. In: Bonaccorsi A, editor. The evaluation of research in social sciences and humanities: lessons from the Italian experience. Cham: Springer; 2018. p. 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68554-0_1.
Cronin B. Scholarly communication and epistemic cultures. New Rev Acad Librariansh. 2003;9(1):1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/13614530410001692004.
Verleysen FT, Ossenblok TLB. Profiles of monograph authors in the social sciences and humanities: an analysis of productivity, career stage, co-authorship, disciplinary affiliation and gender, based on a regional bibliographic database. Scientometrics. 2017;111(3):1673–83. https://doi.org/10.1007/S11192-017-2312-3.
Sivertsen G. Patterns of internationalization and criteria for research assessment in the social sciences and humanities. Scientometrics. 2016;107(2):357–68.
Engels TCE, Ossenblok TLB, Spruyt EHJ. Changing publication patterns in the social sciences and humanities, 2000–2009. Scientometrics. 2012;93(2):373–90.
Giménez-Toledo E, Román-Román A. Assessment of humanities and social sciences monographs through their publishers: a review and a study towards a model of evaluation. Res Eval. 2009;18(3):201–13. https://doi.org/10.3152/095820209X471986.
Bonaccorsi A, Daraio C, Fantoni S, Folli V, Leonetti M, Ruocco G. Do social sciences and humanities behave like life and hard sciences? Scientometrics. 2017;112(1):607–53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2384-0.
Zuccala A, Cornacchia R. Data matching, integration, and interoperability for a metric assessment of monographs. Scientometrics. 2016;108(1):465–84. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-1911-8.
Mannana-Rodriguez J, Giménez-Toledo E. Specialization and multidisciplinary of scholarly book publishers: differences between Spanish University presses and other scholarly publishers. Scientometrics. 2018;114(1):19–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2563-z.
Basili C, Lanzillo L. Research quality criteria in the evaluation of books. In: Bonaccorsi A, editor. The evaluation of research in social sciences and humanities. Cham: Springer; 2018. p. 159–84. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68554-0_7.
Zuccala A, Guns R, Cornacchia R, Bod R. Can we rank scholarly book publishers? A bibliometric experiment with the field of history. J Assoc Inf Sci Technol. 2015;66(7):1333–47. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23267.
Kulczycki E. The diversity of monographs: changing landscape of book evaluation in Poland. Aslib J Inf Manag. 2018;70(6):608–22. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-03-2018-0062.
Amalia M, Thelwall M. Do prestigious Spanish scholarly book publishers have more teaching impact? Aslib J Inf Manag. 2018;70(6):673–90. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-04-2018-0094.
Torres-Salinas D, Robinson-García N, Jiménez-Contreras E, Delgado López-Cózar E. Towards a ‘book publishers citation reports’ First approach using the ‘book citation index. Rev Esp Doc Cient. 2012;35(4):615–24.
Gorraiz J, Purnell P, Glänzel W. Opportunities and limitations of the book citation index. J Am Soc Inf Sci Technol. 2013;64(7):1388–98.
Peruginelli G, Faro S, Agnoloni T. A survey on legal research monograph evaluation in Italy. In: Bonaccorsi A, editor. The evaluation of research in social sciences and humanities: lessons from the Italian experience. Cham: Springer; 2018. p. 211–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68554-0_9.
Cronin B, Barre KL. Mickey mouse and Milton: book publishing in the humanities. Learn Publish. 2004;17(2):85–98.
Guns R. Concentration of academic book publishers. In: STI 2018 conference proceedings: Leiden; 2018. p. 518–525. https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/65268.
Williams P, Stevenson I, Nicholas D, Watkinson A, Rowlands I. The role and future of the monograph in arts & humanities research. ASLIB Proc. 2009;61(1):67–82. https://doi.org/10.1108/00012530910932294.
Puuska H-M. Scholarly publishing patterns in Finland: a comparison of disciplinary groups. Ph.D. thesis, University of Tampere, Tampere; 2014.
Gimenez-Toledo E, Manana-Rodriguez J, Engels TCE, Guns R, Kulczycki E, Ochsner M, Pölönen J, Sivertsen G, Zuccala AA. Taking scholarly books into account, part II: a comparison of 19 European countries in evaluation and funding. Scientometrics. 2019;118(1):233–51.
Giménez-Toledo E, Mañana-Rodríguez J, Engels TCE, Ingwersen P, Siverten G, Verleysen FT, Zuccala AA. Taking scholarly books into account: current developments in five European countries. Scientometrics. 2016;107(2):685–99.
Ghufron Mukti A, Saleh M. Evaluating academic writing textbook: teachers’ and students’ perspectives. Arab World Engl J. 2016;7(1):326–40.
Azarmi M. Priority of personalization look and feel and audiovisual capability criteria of ebook production in Iran: electronic publishers’ attitude. Thesis, Emam Raza University, Mashhad; 2013.
Kiyani M, Rastegarpour H, Sharif SM. Role of graphic on drawing and preparing academic textbook. Res Writ Acad Books. 2011;21(16):46–66.
Hui-Min K. Surveying faculty book selection in a comprehensive university library. Collect Build. 2000;19(1):27–35. https://doi.org/10.1108/01604950010371364.
Neuendorf K. Content analysis and thematic analysis. In: Brough P, editor. Research methods for applied psychologists: design, analysis and reporting. New York: Routledge; 2019. p. 211–23.
Graves K, Xu S. Designing language course, a guide for teachers. Boston: Cengage Learning; 2000.
Jamali-Zavareh B, Nasr A, Armand M, Nili M. Explaining the content criteria of writing and editing academic textbooks in training science, counseling and psychology. Res Writ Acad Books. 2009;21:31–49.
Chambliss JM, Calfee CR. Textbooks for learning: nurturing children’s minds. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers; 1998.
Education for change LTD. A strategy and vision for the future for electronic textbooks in UK further and higher education. London: The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) E-Books Working Group; 2003. p. 1–91.
Eisner E. The educational imagination: on the design and evaluation of school programs. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall; 2002.
Amerian MJ, Khaivar A. Textbook selection, evaluation and adaption procedures. Int J Lang Learn Appl Linguist World. 2014;6(1):523–33.
Clark ML. Electronic books and the humanities: a survey at the University of Denver. Collect Build. 2007;26(1):7–14. https://doi.org/10.1108/01604950710721548.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fahimifar, S., Isfandyari-Moghaddam, A. & Vasfi, M.R. The Desirable Features and Weaknesses of Iranian Academic Textbooks Publishing in Social Science Fields. Pub Res Q 36, 102–115 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-019-09701-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-019-09701-4