I first bought Leslie Nicoll's "Perspectives on Nursing Theory" when everyone else did, I suppose, during the theory sequence in my doctoral program, back in 1991-2. She had done doctoral students in nursing a great service, collecting around 50 of the classic papers from the early 1970's on in one volume, so we didn't have to dash madly around the library making copies from fragile volumes of 'Nursing Research' and 'ANS'.
When I returned to academia this year and bought the newest iteration (the first without Dr. Nicoll's shepherding hand), I was bitterly disappointed. Fully 3/4 of the book is now papers produced since 1990, and almost all the classics are gone.
I understand the need to include up-to-date references, but not at the price of banishing the foundational references for our discipline! Why not produce two volumes, one for the classics and one for newer writing extending those classic themes into the new century?
Now doctoral students are back dashing madly through the aisles of the library, because the original papers from the 1970s are as important as ever.
