7
$\begingroup$

In the course of my research I computed terms of an existing OEIS sequence that are currently unknown. Having prepared my paper for publication, I am now faced with a (small) dilemma:

  1. Do I first contribute my findings to the OEIS database, then submit my paper for publication, or
  2. Go through the whole (lengthy) peer review process, then once the paper is published add the new terms to OEIS?

Both of these options have their advantages/disadvantages. On the one hand, the very purpose of the OEIS is to accommodate new computational results and there is no better place to publish them than there. However, given that these new terms required months to compute, they should probably go through some review process first.

On the other had, some results in my paper explicitly depend on these newly computed terms. Contributing them to the OEIS before the lengthy publication process bears its fruit might prompt others to use these new terms to find and publish the same (or similar) results.

Surely, I am not the first one to ask this question. What is the correct course of action in this case?

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
8
  • 9
    $\begingroup$ Why not post the paper on arXiv and then reference the preprint in OEIS entry? Once you are published in a journal you can update the reference. $\endgroup$
    – Wojowu
    Commented Jun 7, 2020 at 9:34
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ I would even say: publish on arxiv and update the sequence on oeis at the same time. This is sufficient to stake a claim on a new result. $\endgroup$
    – Dima Pasechnik
    Commented Jun 7, 2020 at 11:12
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ Dima is obviously correct. In addition, I think the number of people scanning newly-extended OEIS sequences in the hope of finding new data that will enable them to write papers gazumping the sequence extender may be lower than you think. $\endgroup$
    – Gordon Royle
    Commented Jun 7, 2020 at 12:38
  • $\begingroup$ You should publish your result first. Because when amending OEIS you will need to insert a reference on your published paper. $\endgroup$
    – Alexandre Eremenko
    Commented Jun 7, 2020 at 13:04
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ @AlexandreEremenko : As someone who owes more than one published paper to the existence of the OEIS, including specifically an entry that had no published reference, I would say that the philosophy of the OEIS is that it is primarily a tool for discovery, and not primarily a compilation of absolute truths. I would much rather suffer ten false positives and score a magnificent hit than have zero false positives and miss the hit. Having said that, I will point out that the OEIS is indeed moderated. $\endgroup$
    – Timothy Chow
    Commented Jun 9, 2020 at 0:07

0

Reset to default

You must log in to answer this question.