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eratosignis m.

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Total Points
82

1 Review by eratosignis

  • RedShelf

1/18/19

I am a professor teaching population genetics, and requested an "inspection copy" of a new book on Molecular Population Genetics. This would normally be provided free for an actual book if I called the editor associated with this area of science, because the publisher, Sinauer/Oxford University Press, know that I may implement the book as a required or recommended reading in my courses.

Instead, after my online application, OUP directed me to my free copy on RedShelf.com, but I was underwhelmed. I could not obtain a PDF copy (presumably in case I circulated it), and the text I did receive online was fuzzy and difficult to read. I searched for FST (a common parameter in population genetics, which is dealt with in the book), but the search engine failed to find it, even though it is treated as a major topic in the book. I tried highlighting the FST statements in the text and copying (Ctrl-C) to see if I could search for the formatting they use, but this didn't work either. Instead, RedShelf chose to colour the background to the FST text yellow (for some reason), but no copy was transmitted to the clipboard, so I could not paste it into the search engine.

Supposedly, by my license I am allowed to print out only 36 pages, but I've not tried; a clear printout would make the whole book readily readable. I suspect that the printnout would be very low quality, compared to the printed book.

With internet delays and slow response due to bloated software of RedShelf, this book is not readily readable at present in this format, in what they presented me as my "free copy."

In view of the unsuccessful search for FST, I searched for my own name, and found it once. But it's present at least twice in the actual text, I found. I suspect that the RedShelf strategy is to provide a very low resolution copy of the book, but instead of taking the original electronic text, they appear to have scanned the book at low resolution, and then attempted to recognize text in that low resolution version, and provide the low resolution version to subscribers. So there are errors.

Really, you can do better RedShelf! And OUP, you should just send me a PDF!

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