Are College Textbooks Priced Fairly?

Carbaugh, Robert; Ghosh, Koushik

doi:10.1080/05775132.2005.11034315

Cited by 17 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Although many students and legislators believe that publishers intentionally drive up the costs of textbooks with new editions, the production and marketing of textbooks is very complex and it is difficult if not impossible to assign blame for the higher prices (Carbaugh & Ghosh, 2005). Publishers contend that used texts and conflicts with authors over royalties contribute to reduced profits on the books that are published (Carbaugh & Ghosh;Iizuka, 2007).…”

Section: The Textbook Price Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Marketing Professors’ Perspectives on the Cost of College Textbooks: A Pilot Study

Silver

Stevens

Clow

2012

Journal of Education for Business

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Textbooks are an integral component of the higher education process. However, a great deal of concern about the high costs of college textbooks has been expressed by those inside and outside of higher education. The authors focus on the results of a pilot study of a survey of marketing professors' criteria and use of textbooks and their reactions to some of the changes that have been implemented or may be implemented by universities, state legislatures, and publishers to combat these cost escalations. Findings indicate that respondents appear to have strong resistance to university, legislative, and publisher actions that infringe on their options in selecting textbooks and how long they would have to use a specific textbook before replacing it with a newer edition. This was particularly true of a university policy requiring low-cost textbooks be adopted, requiring instructors to keep textbooks for all classes for at least 3 years, requiring publishers to send an invoice after a 30-day review period, and requiring sending only 1 examination per department. There were also significant differences among respondents based on a t test and analysis of variance. Basically, those who had more teaching experience (11 or more years) were opposed to any legislation or university policy about publishers releasing cost data or requiring the use of the lowest cost text. They also ranked the importance of content higher than their counterparts.

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Section: The Textbook Price Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One factor of textbook adoption that has received a great deal of interest recently is the cost of the text (Carbaugh & Ghosh, 2005;Iizuka, 2007;Seawall, 2005 Yang, Lo, & Lester, 2003). For the first quarter of 2007, college textbook sales totaled $324.3 million (Anonymous, 2007).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Marketing Professors’ Perspectives on the Cost of College Textbooks: A Pilot Study

Silver

Stevens

Clow

2012

Journal of Education for Business

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“…The industry rule of thumb is that in the second year of an edition, a textbook's sales are about 50% of what they were in the first year, and in the third year fall off an additional 50% compared with the second year. By the third year, more copies are sold of the used book than the new book (Carbaugh and Ghosh 2005). Used books enter the market mainly when students sell them back to college bookstores, which typically pay half the retail price for a book that they can resell on their own campus.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Five firms (Thompson, McGraw-Hill, Wiley, Houghton-Mifflin and Pearson) account for 80% of all college textbooks published (Koch 2006). In their comprehensive study of the costs of college textbooks, Carbaugh and Ghosh (2005) state that this oligopoly is a result of mergers and acquisitions in the last decade wherein large textbook companies absorbed dozens of smaller textbook and educational media firms.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Faculty Selling Desk Copies—The Textbook Industry, the Law and the Ethics

Davis

Usry

2011

J Acad Ethics

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It is a guilty secret that many college professors sell the complimentary desk copies that they receive from textbook publishers for cash. This article attempts to shed light on the undercover practice by looking at the resale of complimentary textbooks by faculty from four perspectives. Part One provides an overview of the college textbook industry, the business reasons that motivate publishers to provide complimentary desk copies to faculty, and the economic consequences of the entry of the textbooks into the used book market. Part Two examines the legal characteristics of complimentary desk copies in terms of their ownership and any contractual duties that may arise from their receipt. Part Three looks at legislative efforts to curb the practice, and Part Four reviews university policies addressing the issue. In Part Five, the ethical implications of faculty selling desk copies are examined, with a special focus on this practice in a business school. The Conclusion considers the future of the sale of complimentary copies in light of the move to e-books and other initiatives by authors and textbook publishers to circumvent the practice.The post-secondary bookselling industry is a complex one comprised of authors, publishers, brick and mortar bookstores, online sellers, universities, book buyers and students. Each of these stakeholders is involved with the buying and selling of textbooks, both new and used, to the ultimate purchaser, the student. Some 8,000 publishers provide 262,000 different titles for sale in college bookstores across the United States each year (Schroeder 2006) and total sales for the bookselling industry were estimated in 2003 at

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eVolution from Conventional Textbooks to Open Textbooks: A Way Out for Hong

Yuen

Cheung

et al. 2012

Communications in Computer and Information Science

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Are College Textbooks Priced Fairly?

Cited by 17 publications

References 3 publications

Marketing Professors’ Perspectives on the Cost of College Textbooks: A Pilot Study

Marketing Professors’ Perspectives on the Cost of College Textbooks: A Pilot Study

Faculty Selling Desk Copies—The Textbook Industry, the Law and the Ethics

eVolution from Conventional Textbooks to Open Textbooks: A Way Out for Hong

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