The relationships among the Malagasy carnivores is well supported as a single lineage by a large molecular dataset in a recent study.
See Poux et al. 2005 "Asynchronous Colonization of Madagascar by the Four Endemic Clades of Primates, Tenrecs, Carnivores, and Rodents as Inferred from Nuclear Genes" Systematic Biology 54(5): pp 719-730.
Laurence Frabotta, PhD
As a new PhD in molecular genetics and evolutionary biology (not yet a prof), I fully empathize with students on the exorbitant prices of today's college textbooks in ALL subjects.
But I have a unique and advantageous perspective on the root causes of current textbook pricing.
As an undergrad in the mid-80's, I worked for both my college bookstore (independently owned by the Student Union as are many in the western US) and one of a handful of "used book" companies that existed nationally at that time.
At that time, the average life expectancy of a college text was ~ 5 years. Certainly, the cost and effort to make changes to a current edition was far greater than it is today, given the ease of electronic typesetting and page layout, but more importantly, the used book market at that time was low with few players and the publishers were still selling new books and making profits.
Today, the market is saturated with used books within 3 years, and since it is far easier to move material/chapters electronically, many "new" editions involve little more than cover art changes with minimum content editing (including error carry-over from one edition to the next) and have a shelf life of 3 years.
Markup on textbooks has always been very low compared to the tradebook markets and current pricing is the result of pricing established by the publishers and not the retail outlets (whether that is the college bookstore or an off-campus competitor). As is the case with most other markets, big online retailers such as Amazon get price breaks from their vendors and can exist on very low profit margins.
If SprawlMart decided to get into the college text market, students could walk in and pay the same low prices found at the online retailers (unless of course, their local community hadn't already purged themselves of the evil that is Sprawlmart... but that's another topic).
In the Life Sciences, few profs write their own texts and I know many profs in Chemistry, Entomology, and Computer Sciences, none of whom have written their own textbooks. The commitment required to write a college-level textbook of any merit is enormous. Even profs wholely dissatisfied with the textbook options available for some courses usually settle for the least worst book rather than undertake authoring a textbook.
So IMO, ultimately the cause of the current state of college text prices falls on the used book market (who legitimately found a profitable niche) and the publishers.
Slashdot Mirror
The relationships among the Malagasy carnivores is well supported as a single lineage by a large molecular dataset in a recent study. See Poux et al. 2005 "Asynchronous Colonization of Madagascar by the Four Endemic Clades of Primates, Tenrecs, Carnivores, and Rodents as Inferred from Nuclear Genes" Systematic Biology 54(5): pp 719-730. Laurence Frabotta, PhD
But I have a unique and advantageous perspective on the root causes of current textbook pricing.
As an undergrad in the mid-80's, I worked for both my college bookstore (independently owned by the Student Union as are many in the western US) and one of a handful of "used book" companies that existed nationally at that time.
At that time, the average life expectancy of a college text was ~ 5 years. Certainly, the cost and effort to make changes to a current edition was far greater than it is today, given the ease of electronic typesetting and page layout, but more importantly, the used book market at that time was low with few players and the publishers were still selling new books and making profits.
Today, the market is saturated with used books within 3 years, and since it is far easier to move material/chapters electronically, many "new" editions involve little more than cover art changes with minimum content editing (including error carry-over from one edition to the next) and have a shelf life of 3 years.
Markup on textbooks has always been very low compared to the tradebook markets and current pricing is the result of pricing established by the publishers and not the retail outlets (whether that is the college bookstore or an off-campus competitor). As is the case with most other markets, big online retailers such as Amazon get price breaks from their vendors and can exist on very low profit margins.
If SprawlMart decided to get into the college text market, students could walk in and pay the same low prices found at the online retailers (unless of course, their local community hadn't already purged themselves of the evil that is Sprawlmart... but that's another topic).
In the Life Sciences, few profs write their own texts and I know many profs in Chemistry, Entomology, and Computer Sciences, none of whom have written their own textbooks. The commitment required to write a college-level textbook of any merit is enormous. Even profs wholely dissatisfied with the textbook options available for some courses usually settle for the least worst book rather than undertake authoring a textbook.
So IMO, ultimately the cause of the current state of college text prices falls on the used book market (who legitimately found a profitable niche) and the publishers.