* The instructor of a 500-student nutrition class is offered $500 if she orders a particular book. The payment is for keeping a diary of student reactions to the text.
* A biology department has whittled down its choice to three books. One publisher offers the department $1 for every book ordered, to be used for educational equipment.
* The text selection committee of a university science department has made a decision, but changes its mind at the zero hour. Why? The publisher of the second- choice text offers the department a videodisk player if they adopt the book.
Many professors and departments encourage such practices, which can be viewed as either bribes or legitimate marketing ploys. Richard McKenzie, a professor of economics at the University of California, Irvine, was appalled at schools' requests for inducements to adopt his textbook The New World of Economics (Homewood, Ill., Irwin Publishing Inc., ...
