6 December 2011
Publishing 'feet' for Dundee academic
Picture: Dr Weyers displays the yard-high stack of his textbooks. Credit: John Neesom
Publishing fifteen books in a year would be a significant landmark for any academic, but University of Dundee staff member Dr Jonathan Weyers has now achieved an additional milestone in 2011, having published over 50 titles in total, counting translations, adaptations and different editions.
Dr Weyers has been so prolific his books now account for over three feet of bookshelf space.
'I only discovered that this point had been reached when tidying my office and collecting all the different volumes together on one bookshelf,' said Dr Weyers. 'I was surprised to find there is now a full yard of titles over the twenty years since the first text appeared in 1991.'
Currently Director of Quality Assurance, Dr Weyers has over 33 years of service with the University. His textbooks fall into two distinct areas connected with his changing roles.
The first series dates from his time as a Senior Lecturer in Life Sciences when, with ex-colleagues Rob Reed and Allan Jones, he started writing 'Practical Skills' books supporting the development of students' laboratory expertise.
'We began with Practical Skills in Biology, and moved on to Biomedical Science, Chemistry, Environmental Science and then Forensic Science,' said Dr Weyers. 'Two new books published this year are in Sports & Exercise Science and Food Science, Nutrition & Dietetics. The basic format for each of these new titles is similar, with chapters of generic material being combined with those co-produced with experts in the subject areas. However, my current task is proof-reading the 5th edition of the original Biology title, which is due out in 2012.'
Jonathan's second string of books dates from his time as Director of the University’s Learning Enhancement Unit, where one of his main roles was to improve student retention and performance.
'I worked closely with Dr Kathleen McMillan at that time, and we decided to write a book called ‘The Smarter Student’ that would help undergraduates to study successfully. This led to three more specific texts on writing essays, producing a research dissertation, and preparing for exams, now all in their second edition. These were closely followed by a student planner, which incorporates study tips into its diary pages, and then by several adaptations of the texts for the Pearson Education 'Brilliant' series. There have also been a number of foreign language translations, and this year we’ve also published a version of the original text for international students, to assist with the particular academic and social challenges they face when studying in the UK.'
In fact, Jonathan’s co-authored books will shortly have been translated into no fewer than 11 languages including Albanian, Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Swedish and Vietnamese. They have been widely adopted in places as diverse as Australia, Canada and South Africa. His achievements in authorship and quality assurance were recently recognised by the University of Central Queensland, Australia, which has appointed him as a Visiting Professor for 2012.
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