Questions tagged [journals]
Questions about mathematical publishing, including specific journals, peer review etc.
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Which journals publish expository work?
I wonder if anyone else has noticed that the market for expository papers in mathematics is very narrow (more so than it used to be, perhaps).
Are there any journals which publish expository work, ...
117
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13
answers
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How do I fix someone's published error?
Paper A is in the literature, and has been for more than a decade.
An error is discovered in paper A and is substantial in that many
details are affected, although certain fundamental properties
...
164
votes
9
answers
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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 ...
113
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15
answers
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Top specialized journals
In geometry/topology, there are (at least) three specialized journals that end up publishing a large fraction of the best papers in the subject -- Geometry and Topology, JDG, and GAFA.
What journals ...
164
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21
answers
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When should a supervisor be a co-author?
What are people's views on this? To be specific: suppose a PhD student has produced a piece of original mathematical research. Suppose that student's supervisor suggested the problem, and gave a few ...
61
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10
answers
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Should I not cite an arxiv.org paper which otherwise seems to be unpublished?
I want to cite a paper which is on arxiv.org but is not published or reviewed anywhere, and no publication or review seems to be in the pipeline. Would citing this arxiv.org paper be bad? Should I ...
99
votes
2
answers
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Extent of “unscientific”, and of wrong, papers in research mathematics
This question is cross-posted from academia.stackexchange.com where it got closed with the advice of posting it on MO.
Kevin Buzzard's slides (PDF version) at a recent conference have really ...
65
votes
6
answers
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Does a referee have to check carefully the proof ?
I have always checked very carefully the papers I was refereeing when I wanted to suggest "accept". Actually I spend almost as much time checking the maths of a paper I referee than checking the maths ...
60
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9
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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 ...
35
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5
answers
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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, ...
23
votes
3
answers
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Which tools can identify scholarly papers that use the same types of equations?
Many types of equations are being used in multiple contexts, so a search for specific formulas might be one way to identify scholarly papers that are conceptually related.
Is any website or tool ...
225
votes
11
answers
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Refereeing a Paper [closed]
I've refereed at least a dozen papers in my (short) career so far and I still find the process completely baffling. I'm wondering what is actually expected and what people tend to do...
Some things ...
120
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41
answers
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What are some very important papers published in non-top journals?
There has already been a question about important papers that were initially rejected. Many of the answers were very interesting. The question is here.
My concern in this question is slightly ...
73
votes
17
answers
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Mathematical research published in the form of poems
The article
Friedrich Wille: Galerkins Lösungsnäherungen bei monotonen Abbildungen,
Math. Z. 127 (1972), no. 1, 10-16
is written in the form of a lengthy poem, in a style similar to that
of the ...
54
votes
6
answers
6k
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What happened to online articles published in K-theory (Springer journal)?
As most people probably know, the journal "K-theory" used to be published by Springer, but was discontinued after the editorial board resigned around 2007. The editors (or many of them) started the ...
46
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5
answers
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Publishing journals articles without transferring copyright.
I'm a grad student getting close to submitting my first journal article (which will be single-authored). My understanding is that it's standard practice for authors to transfer the copyright of their ...
41
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4
answers
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Math papers where the only issue is that someone else could've done it but didn't
Do editors for top math journals ever read a submitted paper, agree that there are no mistakes and the result is new, yet still reject it on the basis that this is a top math journal and someone could'...
39
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4
answers
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Should one post a paper on the arXiv if it is not intended to be published?
A brief description: I have written a paper which contains a new result which I believe is somewhat important but not vital to the field. It is a generalization of an existing proof to get ...
33
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4
answers
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Computer calculations in a paper
I think I can improve the current upper bound concerning an open problem. The ideas are purely combinatorial, but in the end I have to calculate the maximum of a really ugly, non elementary function ...
31
votes
15
answers
3k
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Big list of repositories of mathematical preprints and postprints
I'm looking for a extensive list of online repositories of mathematical preprints and postprints. I'm interested in every type of repository, including small informal and semi-formal collections, like ...
29
votes
6
answers
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Where to find Astérisque online?
Is there a place online where one can download papers that have appeared in the Astérisque if "your institution subscribes"? I am especially interested in back issues: Astérisque series published a ...
26
votes
1
answer
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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 ...
25
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5
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Rankings of mathematical conferences and journals [closed]
Just to keep it simple: What rankings of mathematical conferences and journals are available in the internet?
(I'm only interested in rankings, not about any discussion about rankings.)
22
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3
answers
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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 ...
14
votes
1
answer
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How reliable is arXiv to use as a reference in a paper?
I'm writing a small and simple paper to finish my graduation, I never wrote or published anything before. Is about some irrational/transcendental numbers. I was mentioning some numbers that it's not ...
12
votes
1
answer
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Where to publish a long classification?
Suppose that the classification of some mathematical (say algebraic) notions requires (say) 70 pages. Let clarify that (say) 90% of the pages are used to write the result itself, whereas only 10% are ...
11
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1
answer
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Which mathematician sampled published proofs and found one third of them to have errors?
A recent question about whether/how we can trust mathematics in the face of human fallibility reminded me of a paper or article I read probably more than twenty years ago about a mathematician who was ...
102
votes
8
answers
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When should a result be made into a paper?
I recently posted a short (6 page) note on arXiv, and have more or less decided that I should not submit it to a journal. I could have tacked it onto the end of a previous paper, but I thought it ...
96
votes
8
answers
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Which are the best mathematics journals, and what are the differences between them? [closed]
Suppose you have a draft paper that you think is pretty good, and people tell you that you should submit it to a top journal. How do you work out where to send it to?
Coming up with a shortlist isn't ...
95
votes
6
answers
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Peer review 2.0
I have an idea for a website that could improve some well-known difficulties around peer review system and "hidden knowledge" in mathematics. It seems like a low hanging fruit that many ...
57
votes
5
answers
6k
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What about a mathematics journal for 'negative' results?
In the empirical sciences, there are a number of journals that publish 'negative' results. Negative or null results occur when researchers are unable to confirm the findings obtained from earlier ...
54
votes
6
answers
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Publication rates in Mathematics
Have there been any studies of publication rates in Mathematics?
We are trying to construct a workload model for the Faculty of Science and Engineering at my institution. Part of this involves ...
52
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10
answers
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Where to publish a math textbook in Creative Commons
The question I am asking concerns publishing and not mathematics in a strict sense, the argument might be off-topic for this site... but I will try anyway.
Suppose that you are writing a textbook in ...
49
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3
answers
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how to use arxiv?
This is a soft question. How do people usually use arxiv to put their papers? At which stage does one usually put his/her paper/report there? Someone suggests me to submit a paper while putting it on ...
48
votes
7
answers
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How to correct an error in a submitted paper?
Suppose that after submitting a paper for publication, but before hearing anything back from the referee, I discover an error in the paper that needs to be corrected, or an omission that needs to be ...
38
votes
21
answers
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Journals for undergraduates
Are there math journals that are aimed for undergraduates? I don't mean here journals where students can publish their papers, but journals that publish introductory articles that an undergraduate can ...
36
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2
answers
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Does anyone want a pretty Maass form?
A few months ago, I was curious about some properties of Maass cusp forms, of nonabelian arithmetic origin. As a result, I went through a somewhat predictable process of finding a totally real $A_4$ ...
31
votes
5
answers
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How to pass on research posthumously
I've been independently researching math, for a while in the homeless community. While I am generally safe, situational realities (weather, equipment stress, health and especially how cities can ...
26
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4
answers
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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 ...
26
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4
answers
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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 ...
26
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3
answers
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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 ...
24
votes
5
answers
4k
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How to get a research paper published after the author has died?
Sometimes, a mathematician dies suddenly, leaving behind very good mathematics that didn't make it through the publication pipeline. For example, it is possible they had a paper entirely ready to ...
23
votes
2
answers
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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 ...
22
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8
answers
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Is discrete mathematics mainstream?
Recently, the Department of Mathematics at
our University issued a recommendation encouraging its members
to publish their research in non-specialized, mainstream mathematical journals. For
numerical ...
20
votes
2
answers
2k
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Can the place of publication be harmful to one's reputation?
What can be said about publishing mathematical papers on e.g. viXra if the motivation is its low barriers and lack of experience with publishing papers and the idea behind it is to build up a ...
20
votes
7
answers
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Which journals publish 1-page papers
Having read a thread on a similar question on expository papers I'm reminded of reason #99 to drop my math PhD thingy, late c20th: I just couldn't blow up this paper to 4 pages. (OK, one half-page ...
20
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4
answers
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Two questions about combinatorics journals
Hello,
I have two questions regarding combinatorics journals. I hope that this is the right place for such questions.
Which combinatorics/DM journals would you consider as the "top tier"?
I tried to ...
20
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4
answers
8k
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13 months and not even one report. what would you do?
I submitted a 24 pages paper to a good journal - say usually in the top 10-20 - of pure maths, and after 14 months from the submission I haven't received any report. The last news I had from the ...
19
votes
4
answers
9k
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Fast turn-around times
This is a very soft question, but it is somewhat relevant to some other questions, like Which are the best mathematics journals, and what are the differences between them?.
I've read that Notices ...
19
votes
1
answer
2k
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Ethics questions concerning a referee assignment
I recently refereed a paper that I returned to the author(s) for revision. The thrust of their argument relied on a claim whose justification I felt was lacking. I dutifully raised the issue in my ...