The Motivations of Book Publishers in Germany and Australia: An Empirical Comparison

Our study compares the motivations of Australian and German book publishers. The results demonstrate remarkable similarities, but also a significant difference regarding the effects of the publishers’ self-concept. In the German case the publishers with a dominant economic orientation are more proactive than the publishers with a dominant cultural orientation. In the Australian case, this correlation does not exist. The same difference holds for the relationship between the economic orientation and extrinsic motivation. We discuss these results and examine empirical evidence and theoretical suggestions to explain the differing findings. The data stem from surveys conducted in the two countries with responses of 196 (Germany) and 54 publishers (Australia).     

Master’s thesis projects: student perceptions of supervisor feedback

A growing body of research has investigated student perceptions of written feedback in higher education coursework, but few studies have considered feedback perceptions in one-on-one and face-to-face contexts such as master’s thesis projects. In this article, student perceptions of feedback are explored in the context of the supervision of master’s thesis projects, using review studies with respect to effective feedback in coursework situations. Online questionnaires were administered to collect data from three cohorts of master’s students who were either working on their thesis or had recently finished it (N?=?1016). The results of the study indicate that students perceive the focus of feedback in terms of a focus on task and self-regulation; they perceive the goal-relatedness of feedback in terms of feed up (goal-setting) and feed back-forward (how am I going and where to next?); and elaboration of feedback is perceived in terms of positive and negative feedback. Furthermore, students that perceive the feedback to be positive, and to provide information on how they are going and what next steps to take, are the most satisfied with their supervision and perceive they are learning most from their supervisor. The findings are discussed in relation to findings in coursework settings, and are explained using goal orientation theories.     

Journalism

George E. Stevens and John B. Webster's Law and the Student Press (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1973---price not given, paper)

Jerome L. Nelson's Libel. A Basic Program for Beginning Journalists (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1973---price not given, paper)

Art of the Printed Book: 1455-1955 (New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1973---$20.00/11.00)

Bruce Buschel, Albert Robbins, William Vitta, and Rod Nordland's The Watergate File (New York: Quick Fox Inc., 33 West 60th St., 1973---$3.95, paper)     

Tax incentives for R&D: a critical evaluation

A number of policy proposals have recently been presented that seek to address the problem of declining productivity growth. Many of these are aimed at encouraging private R&D spending through tax incentives. This paper first reviews some of these proposals, then evaluates tax incentives per se as a policy tool for encouraging R&D growth, and finally offers suggestions for redesigning R&D related tax incentive policies.     

One-trial excitatory backward conditioning as assessed by conditioned suppression of licking in rats: Concurrent observations of lick suppression and defensive behaviors

Twenty-eight male albino rats were given a single 4-sec 1-mA electric-grid-shock unconditioned stimulus (US). In the same session they received two 12-sec conditioned stimuli (CSs). One CS (explicitly unpaired) terminated 180 sec before the US began; the other (backward paired) began immediately after the US terminated. The CSs used were a 1000-Hz 85-dB tone and an 84-dB click; their roles were counterbalanced. Over the next 2 days, each CS was presented for 2 min while the rats drank from a water bottle. The backward-paired CS was found to suppress licking more than the explicitly unpaired CS. This suppression was accompanied by an increase in defensive behavior (freezing and freeze/nod) and by a decrease in other activity. The suppression did not seem to be due to a maintained or enhanced CS-orienting response reflex, nor could it be attributed to an adventitiously reinforced interfering operant. The results support the presumption made in previous reports that the lick suppression evoked by a backward CS reflected one-trial backward excitatory fear conditioning.