Book woes due to a publisher

[Khendraja'aro]

So, since my knowledge about Quantum Mechanics was always a bit shaky, I though to educate myself a bit more on that matter.

Looked around a bit at our local university's bookstore and finally decided on Atkins' & Friedman's Molecular Quantum Mechanics. With this book, I finally understood the mystery behind bra and ket, and the rest of the book looked just as good.

So, bought the book, went home, worked through the first chapter and arrived at the end-of-chapter tasks. Looked around a bit more and found that the solutions to these tasks were not included. No worries, though! Surely a solutions manual would be available somewhere!

However, no luck. Amazon only had the manual for the 3rd edition, I possess the 4th edition (other searches yielded the same result). The university's library didn't have it either and a Northern-Germany-wide search found that no library had a solutions manual for the 4th edition.

Then I emailed our university if they were able to procure this one book - after a week they replied that they'd love to, but it simply wasn't available.

As a last resort, I contacted the publisher (Oxford press) directly. The reply: The solutions manual only exists in an electronic form and _only_ registered lecturers who use this book in their lectures have access to it. And I should ask my lecturer to give me access.

I guess, foreign countries which primarily use non-english books do not exist and neither do people who try to learn something independently of lectures (which I always thought was one of the goals of a university).

Oh well. Let's see what their next response will be. I mean, for some lecture books I could understand the policy of not giving easy access to the solutions. But we're talking about university level here and not primary school. And even for university, Quantum Mechanics is not exactly part of Physics 101.

[Nessus]

Their main target customers are universities and university lecturers, a lot of my older colleagues get loads of "free sample" text books. In that context, it makes sense for them to try and limit access to the model answers, since that way the lecturer has less work on their hands. Of course the right solutions are circulated among the students anyway, but that only hurts the ones trying to cheat and they won't learn anything anyway.

[Khendraja'aro]

Well, German lecturers don't actually do that. Digging for the solutions to our tasks took almost as long as trying to solve the tasks for yourself.

However, some tasks actually needed digging in the library. I still remember one I was honestly stumped on and finally found a small book from 1950 where the exact same question was solved step by step! Boy, was I happy!

But then, in the middle of the solution appeared the dreaded: "After a trivial remodelling, we'll easily see that..." That "trivial remodelling" then covered 2 DIN A4 pages before I decided: "Fuck that!" and simply copied the same phrase into my solution.

Strangely enough, our lecturer accepted this solution, including the phrase without any question.

Thank the Gods that this was the only occurence where the tasks were that hard.

[Flixy]

But then, in the middle of the solution appeared the dreaded: "After a trivial remodelling, we'll easily see that..." That "trivial remodelling" then covered 2 DIN A4 pages

I hate it when they do that. I was studying on condensed matter last week, I followed a calculation, completely understood what they were doing, until the last step: "It is then trivial to see that....". Well, it sure wasn't trivial to me because I still don't see it

I think that if study books have a paper solution manual, they have it in the university library. Sucks that you can't get the digital version though. And the people at your uni can't get it because they don't use the book? Maybe you could ask a lecturer at another uni that does use the book to send you the solutions.. Or try to get the solution manual of the previous edition from a library, it may not be exactly the same but surely they have most tasks in common.

[Khendraja'aro]

I hate it when they do that. I was studying on condensed matter last week, I followed a calculation, completely understood what they were doing, until the last step: "It is then trivial to see that....". Well, it sure wasn't trivial to me because I still don't see it

I think that if study books have a paper solution manual, they have it in the university library. Sucks that you can't get the digital version though. And the people at your uni can't get it because they don't use the book? Maybe you could ask a lecturer at another uni that does use the book to send you the solutions.. Or try to get the solution manual of the previous edition from a library, it may not be exactly the same but surely they have most tasks in common.

Well, the 4th edition specifically states: New chapters, chapters remodelled and so on.

And I have no idea on how to even find another lecturer at another university using this exact book. I mean, there are a lot of universities around

But Oxford press finally answered to say it was "standard practice"? Oh yeah? Why do I easily find the solutions manual to the other really big book named "Physical Chemistry" by the same professor (Atkins) quite easily? Even for the newest (8th) edition?

Physics by Professor Tipler? No problem
Organic Chemistry by McMurry? No problem, even has a website with even more tasks with solutions!
Anorganische Chemie by Binnewies? You can download the solutions for free!

Well, as a last resort, I've decided to e-mail Professor Atkins and Professor Friedman directly. Let's see if I get an answer from them, I don't believe so, but I don't want to feel like I've wasted 80€.

[Nessus]

It's possible they don't own the copyright to the solutions and can't forward it to you because of that

[Khendraja'aro]

It's possible they don't own the copyright to the solutions and can't forward it to you because of that

Well, the answer of Oxford University press cited two reasons for not publishing the manual:
a) Business reasons, as you suspected
b) Wish of the authors to not publish the solutions

Remembering Physical Chemistry, I've decided to call their bluff on b).

[Flixy]

You have most likely already tried this, but maybe looking online helps - I remember a similar problem that was solved when we found that someone had put all the solutions on his website.

[Lor]

Hehe, you had to deal with OUP - we feel your pain.

[Khendraja'aro]

You have most likely already tried this, but maybe looking online helps - I remember a similar problem that was solved when we found that someone had put all the solutions on his website.

been there, done that

Hehe, you had to deal with OUP - we feel your pain.

What was your experience?

[Khendraja'aro]

Update: Professor Friedman has already replied to my inquiry and basically agrees with me.

He has promised to contact OUP and try to make the manual available to me. His contact person is on holiday right now, though, so I'll have to wait a bit to see how the situation develops. He also has hinted at something akin to a NDA, which I could perfectly live with.

Well, we'll see.

[coinich]

Got the author of the book to try and help you out there? I'm honestly surprised, but good luck.

[Lor]

What was your experience?

They constantly break production date, generally a pain like most publishers.

[Khendraja'aro]

I just got an answer from Professor Atkins himself. He confirmed what Nessus already stated: The solutions are in OUP's hands.

However, he also recognized the validity of my claims and will talk to OUP at their next meeting.

He also said that the next edition (5th) would be available early next year - this probably means one of two things: Either the solutions to the 4th edition will become available with the introduction of the 5th edition - or he will try to find a solution for the 5th edition.

Oh well. I've just asked him to make sure that OUP prints a statement regarding this policy on the back of the book - because they're actually advertising the exercises without mentioning the restrictions on the solutions.

[Khendraja'aro]

Seems as if we have a happy ending: Just received an email from someone at OUP who promised me to give me access to the solutions.

Furthermore, he said that they would change their policy regarding end of chapter tasks a bit - one half would be public, the other half would be intended for lecturers.

He also stated that I was not the only one who contacted them concerning the solutions

[Lor]

Glad to see you are getting some answers Khen. You actually popped into mind late last week - we are going to be printing a book called 'Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics' next week.

[Khendraja'aro]

Yeah, I'm happy now. Just got the zip with the 15 PDFs inside it. Am not allowed to share, though