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Why is authority important?
Understanding who is responsible for the content of print resources can be very helpful in deciding whether the information is likely to be from a reputable author or publisher.
Authors (books and journal articles)
Author information is usually on the back of a book or near the contents page. The Foreword of a book often includes reference to the status or accomplishments of the authors. The journal cover, or start of a journal article usually contains author information.
The USC Library has research databases which you can search for the publications by an author, to see if they are well published and cited (Scopus & Web of Science). This example is from Scopus:
The largest multidisciplinary abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, books, journals, online tools, bibliographic databases and newsletters relevant to science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities. Provides tools to track, analyse and visualise research.
Web of Science
Multidisciplinary collection of full text and citation index databases including scholarly journals, books, book series, reports and conferences. Provides Citation Indexes such as Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Science Citation Index (SCI), Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and Chemical Indexes.
Publishers (books and journals)
Publisher information is usually on the title page of a book and on a journal's homepage.
There are several ways to identify reputable publishers:
Beall's list of predatory journals and publishers
Reputable list of ‘predatory’ publishers of very questionable quality - this list has been discontinued as an actively updated resource in early 2017, but remains a very extensive list with useful links to evaluation sources.
ULRICHSWeb Global Serials Directory
Bibliographic database of detailed information of active and current periodicals of all types: journals, e-journals, magazines, newspapers and newsletters.