The publisher is the entity primarily responsible for producing the work or making it available to the public. In the example below, Oxford University Press is the publisher of the book “Who Set You Flowin’?”: The African-American Migration Narrative.
Ex. Griffin, Farah Jasmine. “Who Set You Flowin’?”: The African-American Migration Narrative. Oxford UP, 1996.
A publisher’s name may be omitted when, by convention, the publisher need not be given or there is no publisher. Examples include the following:
- periodicals
- self-published works
- websites whose titles are essentially the same as the names of their publishers
- websites not involved in producing the works they make available
From MLA Handbook, 9th ed., Ch. 5.54 Publisher: What It Is
