Questions tagged [journals]

Questions about mathematical publishing, including specific journals, peer review etc.

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31 votes
2 answers
1k views

Original source for Littlewood’s three precepts of refereeing in mathematics

I have a question regarding Littlewood’s three precepts of refereeing a mathematical paper, namely whether it is (1) new, (2) correct, and (3) interesting. I have found these mentioned in the ...
Christian Greiffenhagen's user avatar
19 votes
2 answers
740 views

Permanent archival of errata/corrigenda for published papers

(Note: This question might be off-topic for MO but the only other plausible alternative that comes to mind is Academia Stack Exchange, and there are some features of this question that are, to some ...
Timothy Chow's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
426 views

Improvements to one's own theorems

What are some notable (famous?) instances where the following has occurred. A particular author proves: Every P which satisfies Q has property Z. A few years later (roughly speaking) the same author ...
59 votes
7 answers
7k views

What to do if you notice a substantial improvement to a result in a paper whilst refereeing it?

What would you do/have you done in such a situation? Hand out the improvement for free in your report Wait until the result is published and then submit elsewhere Inform the editor about the ...
6 votes
1 answer
2k views

Is it appropriate to add a dedication to a paper?

A paper of mine (relatively junior mathematician) was just accepted in a good journal, and I was considering adding a dedication to the memory of a mathematician in my area that passed away, and whose ...
user132227's user avatar
35 votes
5 answers
4k views

Should computer code be included within publications that present numerical results?

Many research papers include numerical results obtained through computation. Most of the time such computations are performed using software that is used by many mathematicians, i.e., Maple, ...
3 votes
2 answers
945 views

Would a journal such as Bulletin of the AMS accept an article from a student? [closed]

I am a masters student, and am currently writing an expository article on an area of applied maths for a class project. I plan to work on it for several more months. One of my major goals is to ...
student123's user avatar
44 votes
3 answers
9k views

Publishing a Simple Paper as an Undergraduate

First off I apologize if this question does not belong here, I would be happy to hear about any better locations to post this on. I am a (first year) undergraduate mathematics student, and I recently ...
7 votes
2 answers
2k views

Question on academic affiliation when submitting a paper

I just finished grad school, earning a Ph.D. in mathematics. Currently I do not know if I want to continue my academic career or not, but in the meantime I have written an article containing some of ...
User28341's user avatar
  • 599
1 vote
0 answers
314 views

How to approach a respected researcher? [closed]

I'm developing a theory that (I think) is pretty good and something new. I'm thinking of contacting a respected researcher (one of the best in the field), mainly because I'm not 100% that this has not ...
Jake B.'s user avatar
  • 1,425
23 votes
2 answers
3k views

Should I inform the editor about a generalized result of a result in a paper under review?

Hoping that my question is appropriate for MO, I would like to ask the following question: I have sent one of the editors of a very good math journal a paper of mine which contains a main result, call ...
37 votes
6 answers
6k views

Obsessive editing/revising of math papers

I've been wanting to ask this question, because I have no insights into the way other mathematicians prepare papers (for eventual publication). How much are editing, revising, updating, adding to, ...
11 votes
5 answers
1k views

Early examples of mathematicians publishing (from home) in a foreign language?

Today this is common, but how exactly did it start? I am looking for examples in various languages, and suggest: Exclude Latin (as more “ancient” or “international” than “foreign”) Exclude French ...
32 votes
2 answers
2k views

Should I publish a paper if its results overlap significantly with an earlier paper?

I have a preprint X that is sitting in the ArXiv for which I am not sure if it is still worth publishing. It turns out the paper I wrote has considerable overlap with another preprint Y after one of ...
22 votes
1 answer
3k views

Why did _Research in the Mathematical Sciences_ change from open access to subscription-based?

The journal Research in the Mathematical Sciences was founded in 2014 and originally published by SpringerOpen, a division of Springer supporting Open Access journals. In the first article of the ...
Sam Hopkins's user avatar
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7 votes
2 answers
2k views

Good papers on stochastic differential equations with applications in finance

I recently completed reading the book "Stochastic Differential Equations" by Bernt Oksendal which is the first time ever I was exposed to the topic. Now I am interested in pursuing research ( Ph.D.) ...
Heisenberg's user avatar
22 votes
3 answers
1k views

Properties of a "research announcement"

Some mathematics journals publish "research announcements", a class of publication that before today I had not heard of. An example is Electronic Research Announcements in Mathematical Sciences. I ...
15 votes
1 answer
1k views

Math journal publishing work related to combinatorics, probability, counting problems etc.?

I'm a high school student. My peer and I have done some work on the Ballot Theorem counting problem and Catalan Numbers. We have come up with a new proof to the Ballot Theorem and we demonstrate the ...
14 votes
3 answers
3k views

In a publication, should an `\ldots` always be followed by a period? [closed]

The Latex command \ldots is often used to denote "and so forth". For instance, $$ \pi \approx 3.1415\ldots $$ When a sentence ends with an ...
6 votes
0 answers
328 views

Would you like a subject class for semigroup theory on the arXiv?

After contacting the arxiv recently about possibly adding semigroup theory as a subject class, they suggested I canvas the research community to establish whether such a subject class would be used ...
Nicholas Ham's user avatar
36 votes
3 answers
3k views

On Mathematical Analysis of MathSciNet & MathOverflow

This question has two original motivations: mathematical and social. The mathematical motivation is mainly based on what I have seen about Zipf's law here and there. The Zipf's law simply states ...
Morteza Azad's user avatar
36 votes
7 answers
3k views

Papers in which the questions were more interesting than the results

I am looking for examples of recently (last 20 years, say) published math papers such that: the results/examples were fairly trivial (by this I mean anyone with the definitions and standard ...
36 votes
2 answers
2k views

Is it possible to cite a page in n-Lab in a research paper?

One of the concepts I need in my paper is best summarized on the n-Lab page. I tried my best to find a similar description of the same concept in a more "classical" reference, such as a paper or a ...
2 votes
1 answer
2k views

Inquiring about the status of a submitted paper

More than 6 months ago I submitted a paper to a very prestigious journal in Mathematics. Honestly I did not expect it to make it past the managing editor, I thought to give it a try, and then submit ...
35 votes
2 answers
2k views

When to publish minor results?

One of the main things I enjoy about MO and MSE is the chance to solve somewhat difficult problems. On a couple of occasions, I've found proofs of results (posed as questions mostly on MSE) which ...
12 votes
3 answers
3k views

Where to publish new mathematical identities?

Similar questions have been asked before regarding journals that publish: expository work, recreational mathematics, computational results, new proofs of old theorems, and even math textbooxs. ...
5 votes
0 answers
615 views

Why should one subscribe to print Journals [closed]

It seems obvious to me that having print journals in a library is beneficial. Yes, Arxiv, MathSciNet, Blogs and lecture notes by Mathematicians, Math Overflow, Wikipedia and Scholarpedia all of these ...
Vagabond's user avatar
  • 1,775
26 votes
1 answer
4k views

What percentage of published mathematics papers are correct?

As described in Larcombe and Ridd, estimates for the percentage of published papers found to be reliable or reproducible in sciences such as biomedical science, have been as low as 50%, 25% and even ...
M Dean's user avatar
  • 349
25 votes
2 answers
2k views

$P(s)=1-\sqrt{\frac{2}{\zeta(s)}-\sqrt{\frac{2}{\zeta(2s)}-\sqrt{\frac{2}{\zeta(4s)}-\sqrt{\frac{2}{\zeta(8s)}-...}}}}$

Vassilev-Missana - A note on prime zeta function and Riemann zeta function¹ claims the following remarkable identity: $$ P(s)=1-\sqrt{\frac{2}{\zeta(s)}-\sqrt{\frac{2}{\zeta(2s)}-\sqrt{\frac{2}{\zeta(...
Klangen's user avatar
  • 1,943
9 votes
0 answers
1k views

Can the Math 2.0 Forum's Closure be prevented? [closed]

Apologies if this is not regarded as suitable for MO, but I have noticed other "soft" questions and feel this deserves some attention by the community, and did not know where else this could be asked. ...
36 votes
3 answers
5k views

Dealing with unwanted co-authorship requests

This post is a sequel to: Collaboration or acknowledgment? The following has come to my attention. A senior mathematician (let us call him or her Alice) suggested a problem to a young mathematician (...
10 votes
1 answer
1k views

How are constants/functions named after their discoverer?

In general, when a paper references an object discovered/defined in another paper by author X, it goes something along the lines of: "Let $\tau$ be the constant defined by X in 1999 [1]$\ldots$", or ...
Klangen's user avatar
  • 1,943
4 votes
0 answers
347 views

Understand the publishing process time [closed]

Like a lot of beginner mathematicians (I guess), I'm worried about the publishing process time. In order to better understand that, I have a series of small questions (answers expected in average). ...
Sebastien Palcoux's user avatar
40 votes
5 answers
7k views

Publishing mathematical coincidences

I've always wondered how some "mathematical coincidences" are published, or spread to a wider audience. For instance, the almost integer: $$ e^\pi -\pi = 19.9990999\ldots $$ was "noticed almost ...
164 votes
9 answers
28k views

Endless controversy about the correctness of significant papers

In principle, a mathematical paper should be complete and correct. New statements should be supported by appropriate proofs. But this is only theory. Because we often cannot enter into the smallest ...
6 votes
2 answers
365 views

A nice result for an sub-area I am not working in

I have recently come across a (recent) problem in a different sub-area, by a well-established mathematician, that he deems likely to be intractable, but to which I have found a particularly nice proof ...
16 votes
2 answers
1k views

Is there any published summary of Erdos's published problems in the American Mathematical Monthly journal?

As we know Erdos has proposed a considerable number of problems in the "American Mathematical Monthly" journal. Is there any published summary of Erdos's published problems in the American ...
Martin Bokner's user avatar
26 votes
3 answers
1k views

Access to papers as an unaffiliated individual

I have graduated and my employer does not provide access to journals. I don't mind paying, but I cannot afford subscribing directly. Are there public mathematics associations that provide members ...
4 votes
2 answers
4k views

$\log(x)$ or $\ln(x)$ to denote the natural logarithm in research papers? [closed]

Since the natural logarithm, i.e. with base $e$, is very commonly used in research papers and that both $\ln(x)$ and $\log(x)$ are used to denote it, it is natural* to ask which of these notations to ...
Klangen's user avatar
  • 1,943
2 votes
2 answers
536 views

Names of convex geometry journals

What are the names of the research journals that focus on convex geometry? I know of "Advances in Geometry" and "Discrete & Computational Geometry" but no others. Context of question: I am a ...
math4's user avatar
  • 155
9 votes
0 answers
362 views

Why do journals need styles? [closed]

Fairly high on my list of "I want those hours of my life back" is time spent wrangling my LaTeX to compile correctly with the style files provided by journal publishers, and subsequently dealing with ...
Mike Shulman's user avatar
  • 65.1k
38 votes
5 answers
5k views

Requesting a referee's report on my paper from a math journal

I have been in situations when I submitted a paper to a math journal, but at the end of the refereeing process the final report was not sent to me. It has happened both in case when my paper was ...
60 votes
9 answers
6k views

Publishing conjectures

One has written a paper, the main contribution of which is a few conjectures. Several known theorems turned out to be special cases of the conjectures, however no new case of the conjectures was ...
33 votes
3 answers
3k views

Frequency of papers showing academic misconduct among the articles indexed by MathSciNet and Zentralblatt MATH

Among the papers indexed by MathSciNet and Zentralblatt MATH, I occasionally have seen papers which consist essentially only of text copied from elsewhere without proper attribution and without adding ...
29 votes
3 answers
3k views

Etiquette of publishing folklore results

I am wondering what is the etiquette of publishing a "folklore" result? Though special cases of the result are well-known, the proof is not readily available in any reference text or paper I've seen....
12 votes
2 answers
3k views

Is it fine to inquire about a paper that's been under review for around 9 months?

I have submitted a paper on applied probability in one of SIAM journals. The paper is under review for 9 months. I asked the editor 1 month ago about it, I was told that one review report has come and ...
26 votes
4 answers
7k views

Where to publish a new proof of an old theorem?

A few months ago I came up with a proof for an old theorem. After being excited for a moment, I then tried to find my proof in the literature. Since I did not find it, then I started to wonder if it ...
4 votes
1 answer
443 views

series of special articles of Notices AMS

Notices AMS used to publish series of Special Articles devoted to exposition of extraordinary quality. some of the articles include: Local algebraic topology by Frank Quinn Rademacher on J(τ), ...
student's user avatar
  • 41
26 votes
4 answers
3k views

Would you resubmit a research paper after it has been superseded by another as yet unpublished paper?

Hope that the following soft question is still appropriate on MathOverflow. I was wondering if there is any communal protocol or etiquette with regard to the resubmission of a research paper after it ...
8 votes
2 answers
5k views

What are the top journals in applied mathematics and what are the differences between them? [closed]

This question is essentially an applied mathematics version of Which are the best mathematics journals, and what are the differences between them? Unfortunately, unlike the above question I was not ...
just-someone's user avatar

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