All Questions
20
questions
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Is it ethical to use an illegal pdf of a book that you bought?
Let’s say the situation is this: you bought a physical copy of a textbook, and for whatever reason you want to view a pdf version of said book, maybe so that you don’t have to carry it around, etc., ...
- 211
2
votes
3
answers
586
views
Is it unethical to download a pirated copy of a textbook to evaluate its content, then buy if worth it? [closed]
Textbooks are expensive. If I want to buy one, I want to make sure that the content will be worth it. The sample chapters on Amazon might not be enough to make a careful evaluation. Some websites ...
- 139
32
votes
6
answers
8k
views
Is it ethical to share with students a book draft that the author no longer makes publicly available?
Several years ago I taught an upper-division Mathematics course at my former institution. In the course of preparing to teach the course, I discovered that a professor at another university had not ...
- 2,139
18
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Is it ethically acceptable for university book stores to market homework help websites?
A university bookstore, which is operated by a well known bookseller, is selling subscriptions to a "homework help and textbook solutions" website. The subscriptions appear beneath the ...
- 99.7k
3
votes
1
answer
331
views
Regarding PDF copy of a book downloaded from reputed universities [duplicate]
For ethical reasons I try to avoid reading books downloaded from illegal and pirated websites.
I was self studying a topic by reading a certain book. Due to COVID-19 my nearby library is closed. I ...
- 133
14
votes
6
answers
7k
views
My professor told us a previous version of our textbook would be okay, but has now decided that it isn't?
I currently have a class in which at the beginning of the semester, our entire class was told it would be okay to obtain a previous version of the textbook which I did because it was significantly ...
- 149
6
votes
2
answers
948
views
Is it ethical to use a textbook required for a class that was easily found online?
I am taking an online class that requires a textbook to be purchased. I have found the book through my first simple search using the Google search engine. The website where I found the book seems to ...
- 267
41
votes
12
answers
12k
views
Is it ethical to ask students to proofread a textbook?
I will have a draft of a new textbook ready for the fall semester. It is an engineering class.
I very much want feedback from the students concerning the quality and usefulness of the material.
What ...
- 2,172
5
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Is it okay to post textbook solutions online?
It seems to me, based on two previous stack exchange questions (1, 2) that this is legal, but I'm wondering more if it's "okay," i.e. what do academics/professors think of this?
I'm interested in ...
- 161
121
votes
17
answers
38k
views
Should I send professors money for illegally downloading their books? [closed]
I illegally download almost all the books I need for my studies. While I'm more than happy to give a middle finger to the publisher mafia, it does of course mean that the author of the book is not ...
- 1,167
3
votes
1
answer
188
views
Textbook publisher offers to pay me for a comparative review of textbooks
I'm currently teaching a fairly large introductory class,
with about 500 students per semester (spread across multiple sections).
Recently, I received an e-mail from McGraw-Hill Education
offering me ...
- 19.5k
9
votes
2
answers
777
views
Is it ethical to ask colleagues to write a review of my book?
I have published a monograph and now would like to see it reviewed by a/some journal(s) in the field. Given that there are many other books they could publish a review on, they might not find a ...
- 1,676
0
votes
1
answer
148
views
Textbook that is a combination of other textbooks? [closed]
A, B, C are three good textbooks from the market. An author/professor translates them, taking chapter 1 from A, 2 from B, 3 from C and combining them into another textbook. The content of the new ...
- 8,266
38
votes
4
answers
11k
views
Should I let my professor know that I cited a text written by him....that I pirated from online
I wrote an essay for a professor of mine, in which I cited a book he had written. As it so happens, the citation is based on my having obtained a (most likely) pirated PDF copy of the book. The text ...
- 11.5k
0
votes
2
answers
504
views
Is it fair to blame authors for exorbitant book costs? [closed]
Summary (TL;DR): The following's biased; so are there any counterarguments? Please beware that this question concerns only authors who are professors and who also write textbooks.
Are authors truly ...
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