What happened:<\/p>\n
A little over a year ago I began what I would consider serious academic writing.\u00a0 The first thrust was when I coauthored a book chapter1<\/sup> with a colleague of mine (Prof. R.T. Mathers).\u00a0 My portion of this chapter was a review on terpenic resins; in particular, methodologies developed for their synthesis.\u00a0 With this being the most comprehensive review of its sort I made sure to include sections on use as well as market related information (note, the publisher omitted a positive sign in one of my schemes for some reason {and I caught several other omissions on the publisher\u2019s part in the next to final draft}).\u00a0 While in the process of writing this book chapter I requested basic information from a number of manufacturers of terpenic resins.\u00a0 Despite not being paid to write the review (as it was for an academic audience) not a single producer of terpenic resins offered to lift a hand to help me.\u00a0 I was a bit shocked at the time.<\/p>\n Next I began writing the most comprehensive review on chemistries developed for the synthesis of polyisobutene and butyl rubber (another work coauthored with Robert).2<\/sup>\u00a0 Again, I sought basic information for the book.\u00a0 Specifically I attempted to get ExxonMobil to contribute information that had already been public (in many cases for > 20+ years) and still I ran into a brick wall.\u00a0 Not only that, but not a single company that does market analyses provided a single piece of data for inclusion in the chapter!\u00a0 Again, I was not paid to write the chapter and the book was geared towards an academic audience.<\/p>\n Now that I am in the process of writing a series of books on cationic polymerization and having already composed two top notch reviews on polymers made by the technique I thought for sure someone would step up to the plate.\u00a0 As you will see below, not a single large organization has offered to provide the smallest piece of information.\u00a0 I made certain to drive home the point to each of these companies that the material requested was already known publically and that the book was for academic purposes!!!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What happened: A little over a year ago I began what I would consider serious academic writing.\u00a0 The first thrust was when I coauthored a book chapter1 with a colleague of mine (Prof. R.T. Mathers).\u00a0 My portion of this chapter … Continue reading \n