11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions encoded thereon, which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising: obtaining at a first computer an online content item authored by an author for public online display; determining a reputation score for the author, the reputation score determined based on one or more reviews of the online content item authored by the author, the one or more reviews provided by one or more reviewers other than the author; determining a credibility factor for the author in association with the online content item, wherein determining the credibility factor comprises: obtaining personal information about the author that relates to education or employment of the author; verifying that the obtained personal information about the author is true; and generating the credibility factor based, at least in part on: (a) the verified information about the author that has been verified to be true, wherein the verified information about the author comprises information about the author's level of education or training in a field, (b) the relevancy of the field of the author's education or training to the author's online content item, and (c) the author's reputation score; and in response to a query for online content wherein the online content item is included in a set of search results, determining a ranking of the online content item in the set based at least in part on the credibility factor of the author.
11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions encoded thereon, which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising: obtaining at a first computer an online content item authored by an author for public online display; determining a reputation score for the author, the reputation score determined based on one or more reviews of the online content item authored by the author, the one or more reviews provided by one or more reviewers other than the author; determining a credibility factor for the author in association with the online content item, wherein determining the credibility factor comprises: obtaining personal information about the author that relates to education or employment of the author; verifying that the obtained personal information about the author is true; and generating the credibility factor based, at least in part on: (a) the verified information about the author that has been verified to be true, wherein the verified information about the author comprises information about the author's level of education or training in a field, (b) the relevancy of the field of the author's education or training to the author's online content item, and (c) the author's reputation score; and in response to a query for online content wherein the online content item is included in a set of search results, determining a ranking of the online content item in the set based at least in part on the credibility factor of the author. 16. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the verified information about the author further comprises the number of other publications of the author that are relevant to the author's online content item.