Sitecore Fundamentals

Installing Sitecore

Data Definition Reference
An overview of the Sitecore tree, items, data templates, and field types.
Data Definition Cookbook
A list of how tos for setting up your site’s tree structure - creating data templates, assigning icons, creating items. Also includes a section on the insert options pipeline.
Data Definition API Cookbook
How to access data templates programmatically.
Content API Cookbook
Basic Sitecore API reference.
Content Reference
Overview of how Sitecore manages content, including information about the content tree and versioning.
Sitecore Query

Content Reference
Chapter 3 contains information about publishing (including targets, types, and restrictions - please refer to this blog post for an overview of the major publishing improvements made in 7.2 (written by the development team).
See the Scaling Guide for information about cache-clearing on publish:end per site (Topic 4.4 - How to: Configure HTML cache clearing)

NOTE: Visit the scaling and optimization page for information about publishing and caching.