Evaluating Research:
Publisher
As with authors, publishers also have reputations and biases. And different imprints from the same publisher might have different credibility.
Discussion
It is a good idea to learn the names of the quality publishers for your discipline. Ask your instructor or a reference librarian for assistance in identifying them.
Special Notes on Web Pages
For certain web pages, the publisher's credentials really have no bearing on the credibility of the web site. For example, some colleges provide web space for their faculty and students to design home pages; home pages that are not reviewed by the college.
Also, the site the hosts a website is not the publishers of the website. For example, this Resources for Researchers is hosted on servers I have rented from Dot 5 Hosting. This does not make Dot 5 Hosting the publisher of the website. While it is not clear that Dot 5 is the host of my website, many social media companies allow you to post materials on their servers for free as long as their name appears in the URL for the website. For example, Facebook is not the publisher of the material that individuals post on Facebook's servers.
There is both a problem and a benefit with how easy it is for individuals to become their own publishers. The problem is that many self-published websites lack quality. The benefit is that you can demonstrate your digital literacy skills by publishing quality research or research inspired writing on websites like Wordpress or Blogger or Weebly.
