Academic books published by university presses: How much expertise do the editors have?

Question

I'm talking about books on specific academic topic, e.g. history of the Aztecs before colonialism, which are published by [university presses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_press) like the Oxford University Press. How expert are the editors of such books? Can we count on them to ensure that authors don't misrepresent their sources, or don't make statements that are known by experts in that specific area to be clearly false? Or is their expertise really minimal and we must only trust on the authors?

Answer 1

Most university presses have well-qualified editors overseeing the publication of their books. I wouldn't worry about the credibility of a book published by a top outfit such as Oxford, Yale, or Chicago. Their books undergo rigorous fact-checking and evaluation of sources, yes. That goes for the vast majority of university presses, really. I teach Composition II, and always tell my students that a book published by a university press is about as solid a source as can be found.