Publishers and editors provide an important source of quality control.
Publishers
Publishers contract with authors to publish books and, therefore, only tend to accept books that they believe are high quality or would appeal to the market they serve
Many publishers tend to serve a particular audience
Many universities have presses that publish scholarly books (like the University of Chicago Press)
Some presses publish both scholarly books and popular books while others specialize in only one type
Editors
Editorial boards are responsible for ensuring the quality of articles in journals
Editors perform functions that are similar to publishers
Some web sites have editors and accept submissions that are reviewed and either accepted or rejected
by editors
Like authors, the editors should also be experts in the field and able to make reliable judgements
about what information should be included in a journal
When looking at a book, article, journal, or Web site, ask yourself:
Does this publisher or editor serve an academic / scholarly audience?
Does this publisher or editor represent a stable organization or a fly-by-night operation?
Ask a Reference Librarian
A Reference Librarian can get you a lot of information about particular publishers and editors. This information can be useful
when deciding whether or not to trust the information you have found.
