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Is there any scholarly journal

  • of opinion on professional matters,
  • for mathematicians, that would exclude things just as relevant to other fields as to mathematics,
  • that is not just $\text{“}\,$leisure reading$\text{,''}$ (i.e., it is on weighty consequential matters)?

"Professional matters" would include research, philosophy, and pedagogy, and probably other things.

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    $\begingroup$ I don't know any journal that is exclusively opinion, but many publications often print such opinion pieces, e.g. AMS Notices. $\endgroup$
    – Nate Eldredge
    Commented Mar 11, 2020 at 16:49
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    $\begingroup$ @NateEldredge : "Many" is an interesting word. $\endgroup$
    – Michael Hardy
    Commented Mar 11, 2020 at 16:50
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    $\begingroup$ and let me guess, you want it not to degrade to Blue-Red mudslinging in a few issues? ;) $\endgroup$
    – darij grinberg
    Commented Mar 11, 2020 at 16:51
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    $\begingroup$ Another journal that may interest you is Journal of Humanistic Mathematics. $\endgroup$
    – Nate Eldredge
    Commented Mar 11, 2020 at 16:51
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    $\begingroup$ Are you exclusively interested in journals in English language? (A lot of non-native speakers easily write mathematical papers, but would have a hard time writing a well-written text with opinions etc.) $\endgroup$
    – YCor
    Commented Mar 11, 2020 at 16:55

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This question was asked some time ago but remains on the unanswered queue. I want to echo Nate's comment regarding the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics. I've published two papers there. The first one included plenty of "serious opinions on weighty matters" such as the balance between writing research papers concisely vs welcoming new mathematicians into the field, and our collective habit of obfuscating the thought process that led to a result, leading to the impression that doing math successfully requires an inexplicable stroke of genius. We also opined on the importance of finding ways to share mental imagery with readers/listeners, and finding ways to explain math research to the general public. The second paper included opinions (and data from surveys) about many topics, like the importance of play as part of the research process, the value of expository writing, the importance of sharing personal hardships so that junior people know it's possible to bounce back from setbacks and still have a productive professional career (I have done this myself a few times), improving upon the culture of spreading knowledge via word-of-mouth (especially with an eye towards making math more inclusive, including to people who can't easily attend conferences), and more.

I'm a big fan of the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics and would love to see more people submitting articles there. They certainly seem to welcome (well thought-out, potentially research driven) opinions on matters that many mathematicians care about.

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