One of the perceived advantages of electronic publication is the possibility of corrections.I say “perceived” because this casts us into the deep sea of uncertainty when it comes to citing sources.If you read an article, and something really struck you, then the author revised that very thing later, you would be “misquoting” if you quoted that fact you found so stunning.In our mania for keeping up-to-date you would need to constantly recheck your sources to ensure that you were working with the latest version of your resource.This level of change speed isn’t conducive to academic practice.When I was young I was taught that a book of the same edition, published under the same title, by the same author, would be the same across printings.That’s no longer true.Due to the ability to insert corrections, the same ISBN can result in two very different books.Call it the hang-up of an ex-literalist, but this bothers me.
Back in the old days it was common to publish books with a “addenda etcorrigenda”page that listed the known errors.Beyond that you just had to suck it up and admit that there might be errors in your book.You had to face with fortitude when someone pointed them out.Now you can go back to the publisher, particularly if the book is in electronic form, and have your errors corrected.The only ones to be confused will be your readers. Why are we so bad at owning up to our mistakes? Electronic reading can lead to a slippery slope of confusion about what publishers call “the version of record.”Your permanent record, it turns out, can be changed after all!Mistakes can be erased.Sins can be forgiven.
In publishing the set standard had been that you had to wait for a new edition to change the interior text of your book.The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) was your guarantee that the contents would be identical to any other copy with the same ISBN.That’s no longer true.If you don’t pay attention to which printing you have (which is never cited in footnotes or bibliography) you could be citing in error.This practice has deep and worrying implications.It has come to a crisis under Trump, a president who constitutionally lies.Truth is what he says it is.And if you want to check the facts, well you better be sure that you cite your printing because any of your critics could easily stick a [sic] next to your words if they find any “error” at all.
No longer “Standard”?