The Hell Creek Formation and the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary in the Northern Great Plains: An Integrated Continental Record of the End of the Cretaceous

Abstract

The Hell Creek Formation and the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary in the Northern Great Plains: An Integrated Continental Record of the End of the Cretaceous. Joseph H. Hartman, Kirk R. Johnson, and Douglas J. Nichols (eds.). 2002. Geological Society of America Special Paper, 361, 520 p., paperback, ISBN 0-813-72361-2. As a scientist who works on the Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary for something less than an assistant professor's salary, I eagerly awaited the arrival of this volume at my university library. Apparently I wasn't the only one. Because although I was ready to pounce and present my card the moment it arrived, the librarian reported The Hell Creek Formation and the Cretaceous–Tertiary Boundary in the Northern Great Plains stolen before I got there. If this strikes anyone as surprising, add the outrageous cost of the book—$96 for Geological Society of America members and $120 for nonmembers—to its utility, and ask yourself whether the GSA is serving the geoscience community. Why should volumes like this (and #361 is not the most expensive of the Special Papers), published by a professional society, be so unavailable to so many of us? Yes, printing and paper do cost something—at 520 pages and extras, the volume could be photocopied cover-to-cover for $26.30. For almost five times the cost of photocopying, publishers should provide something one can't get in a copy. Yet the editors and authors aren't getting royalties, the graphic design is nothing special, and there are no color illustrations. It's not even a durable book; this is a glue-bound paperback, unlikely to endure as a family heirloom. Fortunately, the Journal of Paleontology editors saved me from a life of copyright crime by sending a review copy. The GSA needs to move into the century at hand: Put the chapters on the World Wide Web as .pdf files, and charge …