A humorous, tongue-in-cheek time-line of the history of scholarly publishing

Jackson, Donald D.

University of Northern Iowa

Iowa Science Teachers Journal Volume 5 Number 4 Article 13 1968 A Brief History of Scholarly Publishing Donald D. Jackson Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/istj  Part of the Science and Mathematics Education Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits you Copyright © Copyright 1968 by the Iowa Academy of Science Recommended Citation Jackson, Donald D. (1968) "A Brief History of Scholarly Publishing," Iowa Science Teachers Journal: Vol. 5 : No. 4 , Article 13. Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/istj/vol5/iss4/13 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa Academy of Science at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Iowa Science Teachers Journal by an authorized editor of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact scholarworks@uni.edu. A Brief History of Scholarly Publishing 50,000B.C. 1455 1483 1507 1859 1888 1897 1901 1916 1927 1928 1934 1952 1961 1962 DONALD D. JACKSON University of Illinois Press Stone-Age publisher demands that all manuscripts be double-spaced, and hacked on one side of stone only. Johannes Gutenberg applies to Ford Foundation for money to buy umlauts. First subsidized publishing venture. Invention of ibid. First use of circumlocution. "Without whom" is used for the first time in list of acknowledg-ments. Martyrdom of Ralph Thwaites, an author who deletes 503 com-mas from his galleys and is stoned by a copy editor. Famous old university Press in England announces that its Urdu dictionary has been in print 500 years. Entire edition, accidental-ly misplaced by a shipping clerk in 1497, is found during quad-ricentennial inventory. First free desk copy distributed ( Known as Black Thursday). First successful divorce case based on failure of author to thank his wife, in the foreword of his book, for typing the manuscript. Minor official in publishing house, who suggests that his firm is-sue books in gay paper covers and market them through drng houses, is passed over for promotion. Early use of ambiguous rejection letter, beginning, "While we have many good things to say about your manuscript, we feel that we are not now in position ... " Bookstore sends for two copies of Gleep: s Origin of Leases from University Press and instead receives three copies of Darwin's Storage of Fleeces plus half of stale peanut butter sandwich from stockroom clerk's lunch. Beginning of a famous Brentano Rebel-lion, resulting in temporary improvement in shipping practices. Scholarly writing begins to pay. Professor Harley Biddle's pub-lishing contract for royalty on his book after 1,000 copies have been sold to defray printing costs. Total sales: 1,009 copies. Important case of Dulany vs. McDaniel, in which Judge Kelley rnles to call a doctoral dissertation a non book is libelous per se. Copy editor's anthem, "Revise or Delete," is first sung at national convention. Quarrel over hyphen in second stanza delays official acceptance. source: _THE JOURNAL OF IRREPRODUCIBLE RESULTS v.16 #2 Dec. 1967 32 

A Brief History of Scholarly Publishing

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A Brief History of Scholarly Publishing

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