The Role of Publishers and Editors

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 scholarly books and popular books
• Some presses specialize in non-scholarly books and novels

Editors:

• Editorial boards are responsible for ensuring the quality of articles in journals
• Editors perform a function that is similar to that played by 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.