Extrapolation

[Stan Gorodenski]

Kenelm Philip wrote:
> 
> That's a bit like shooting the messenger...
 
There are other messengers, and so shooting (figuratively speaking) a
bad one would not negatively impact on the deliverance of information
(unless ALL the messengers are bad). When I say 'bad one' I am not
claiming Cambridge is 'very very' bad. What I am actually saying is that
I have found some of their publications (in a relative sense compared to
other publishers) to not be of the scientific quality I expect. I now
have an impression of the publisher because of these observations, and
so I tend to shy away from them. They seem to accept a slightly
different class of authors (that other publishers may reject), and
Lomborg appears to be representative of this class (based on the reviews
of Lomborg's book).  There are favorable exceptions to some of
Cambridge's publications, such as:

>         In the mean time, I have gotten a lot of use out of _A Dictionary
> of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics_ (2nd edition, 1998, Cambridge Un.
> Press). I guess it's too bad that now I have to toss it into the fireplace
> because of who published it?  :-)
> 
I don't know why you would want to throw away this dictionary (-:  I
have one too, and have found it to be very good (I also own A Dictionary
of Genetics by Oxford University Press). The dictionary you cited is
covered by the statement I made that "I would not want to read anything
by this publisher if I wanted to learn something about a subject, unless
I had some outside information concerning a particular book". This is
the way I feel. Others will undoubtedly feel differently, e.g., Lomborg
must feel Cambridge is a good publisher. Based on some of their stuff I
have seen, I could not order a book from a promotional announcement, for
example, sight unseen, unless I knew more about it. 

Maybe I am being too myopic or harsh, and that is part of the reason I
asked the question "Does anyone else have similar experiences or
opinions concerning this publisher?" I can change my opinion (for me
personally) about the publisher, but so far the things I have read of
Lomborg's book confirms it.
Stan

 
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