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There is a list of open problems in my sub-field that was published in a journal some time ago and has had an impact on the area.

Many of the problems have been solved, some have partial solutions, and some are still unsolved.

I am considering trying to write a survey of the current status of this list. However, I am concerned about a few publication-related questions:

(1) Can my survey reproduce the statements of the problems? Of course I would not take credit for the problems, but I am concerned that I would be reproducing a large proportion of the content of a published paper.

(2) Is the answer to Question (1) different if I am trying to publish the survey in a journal vs. just post on arxiv vs. just post to my website?

(Regarding (2), it may be that no journal would be interested; that is a secondary concern.)

(3) Can anyone point to examples of surveys like this, in any area of mathematics? (Surveys discussing the current status of a list of problems in a specialized area. Surveys and books about the Clay Millennium Problems abound, but how about more specialized examples?)

Thank you.

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Q3: A classic of this type is Erdős on Graphs : His Legacy of Unsolved Problems

This book is a tribute to Paul Erdős, the wandering mathematician once described as the "prince of problem solvers and the absolute monarch of problem posers." It examines the legacy of open problems he left to the world after his death in 1996.

Q1: of course you will want to reproduce the open problems themselves, to make the survey self-contained.
Q2: such reproduction falls under "fair use" of published material, so it can be included in a publication without copyright infringement.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you. I accepted this answer of Carlo Beenakker because it answered all three parts of my question. I appreciate all the responses. $\endgroup$
    – user153985
    Mar 24, 2020 at 12:32
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Q3: For group theory, you will probably not find many more comprehensive surveys like this than the Kourovka Notebook; this has been active since 1965, and is regularly updated with new problems, which problems have been solved, and a quick reference to where the solution appears.

Problems have been proposed by hundreds of mathematicians from all over the world, the difficulty of problems ranges from PhD level to well-known problems that remain open for decades. More than fifty years “Kourovka Notebook” serves as a unique means of communication for researchers in Group Theory and nearby fields of mathematics. Probably the most striking illustration of its success is the fact that more than three-quarters of the problems from the 1st edition of 1965 have now been solved.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for sharing. This is a great project. $\endgroup$
    – user153985
    Mar 24, 2020 at 12:29

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