Hi, Bill.
Good questions. I find the Creative Commons licenses to have a variety of potential problems. For example, most people use the NC license (non-commercial) because they don't want someone taking their free book and selling part or all of it. But what about using the book in a class that students pay to attend? Does that violate the NC term? How about a class in a university students pay to attend? Does that violate the clause? My local librarian says not, but I'm not sure. How do we write an NC clause that allows just enough but not too much? I've seen it argued that NC licenses defeat the purpose of open texts.
Your interest is in the derivatives part. Again, that is one of the things that makes the open source approach useful. I can open a chapter, cut for my use the parts that I want, change all your H-sub-1 alternative hypotheses to H-sub-A, change all your one tailed mu <= 0 null hypotheses to mu = 0, and have a text that matches what I teach.
But, as you note, what if I change a basic definition and get it wrong so that it looks like you screwed up? Well, the requirements say:
Reusers are prohibited from using attribution in any way that suggests the author endorses the views of the reuser.
Changes made to the original licensed works must be indicated by the reuser and a link back to the original must be provided. This allows further reusers to see what was modified and, thus, what can only be attributed to the reuser and not the original author
Why Sharing Academic Publications Under "No Derivatives" Licenses is Misguided - Creative Commons
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| Why Sharing Academic Publications Under "No Derivatives" Licenses is Misguided - Creative Commons |
| Using "No Derivatives" (ND) licenses on academic publications is ill-advised for policing academic fraud and unhelpful to the dissemination of research. |
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Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International - CC BY 4.0
I am not an expert in this area. I just find this kind of thing interesting!
Ed
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Edward Gracely
Associate Professor
Drexel University
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-05-2023 14:59
From: William Goodman
Subject: Open resource textbooks for an introductory statistics course
Hi Ed,
Thanks for your note.
I can see your point about possibly finding a more searchable place to put the book. (Though I'm pleased to note how many people have checked out my ResearchGate entry since I announced it.)
I'm not totally familiar with the Open Source concept required to post on that umn site you mentioned, and I think I need to ponder it for a bit. (I checked about the site's requirement) Have you ever posted in that mode?
Apparently, it entails giving permissions not just for downloading and distributing the text, but also for "editing and derivatives"? On the one hand, I'm totally happy if someone cuts-and-pastes sections of the book into their own course notes and slides, for example. However, as I understand it, the derivatives clause goes further, and means someone could re-publish a changed version of my work, with my name still attributed--but what if, for some reason, I didn't agree with some of the changes or think there are errors? How is that sort of issue handled in the open-source licenses for the r language, etc.?
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William (Bill) Goodman
Professor (Retired) and Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Business and Information Technology
Ontario Tech University
Original Message:
Sent: 09-04-2023 13:07
From: Edward Gracely
Subject: Open resource textbooks for an introductory statistics course
Hi, Bill.
Thank you for making the book open access. I like your use of 3 different packages (Excel, Minitab and SPSS). Gives the instructor options.
I have one suggestion -- ResearchGate has joined the ranks of web sites I avoid, because of all the irrelevant ads and links. Some even sound like what you went there for, and you only find out that "Download manual" is not the text you wanted after you have downloaded it!
Would you consider reformatting the book so it can be posted on a cleaner site, and also one where people will look for it? Here's one: https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/statistics
Ed
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Edward Gracely
Associate Professor
Drexel University
Original Message:
Sent: 09-01-2023 12:34
From: William Goodman
Subject: Open resource textbooks for an introductory statistics course
Hi Dr. Adhikari, and anyone else still exploring open resource textbooks.
The rights to my Modern Statistics textbook, originally published by Nelson Education in Canada, have reverted back to myself, and I've now posted the entire text, along with data files for exercises, online. One of the book's focuses was integrating the availability of computers to, for example, dispense with using paper t-tables, etc., and with things like the "calculation-version" formulas for linear regression, which are not intuitive to look at, and are not needed if one's not calculating by hand. The full text is available via zipped 'data' files for free, via ResearchGate: www.researchgate.net/publication/290391944_Modern_Statistics_A_Canadian_Perspective
Everyone's welcome to use any of the book's pages and adjunct files, with attribution, and to distribute them to your classes, if they're found helpful.
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William (Bill) Goodman
Professor (Retired) and Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Business and Information Technology
Ontario Tech University
Original Message:
Sent: 12-16-2021 17:51
From: Achut Adhikari
Subject: Open resource textbooks for an introductory statistics course
Dear ASA Community,
I am looking for open resource textbooks for an introductory statistics course for students without a calculus background. Can you please provide me link(s) for open resource textbooks? Your help in this matter is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
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Achut Adhikari, Ph.D.
Department of Statistics
Miami University
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