Questions tagged [journals]

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

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290 votes
34 answers
38k views

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 votes
13 answers
14k views

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
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 ...
113 votes
15 answers
54k views

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 votes
21 answers
25k views

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 votes
10 answers
49k views

Should I not cite an arxiv.org paper which otherwise seems to be unpublished?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
11k views

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
8k views

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 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 ...
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, ...
23 votes
3 answers
1k views

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 ...
Daniel Mietchen's user avatar
225 votes
11 answers
25k views

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 votes
41 answers
28k views

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
9k views

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 views

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 votes
5 answers
5k views

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 votes
4 answers
8k views

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 votes
4 answers
5k views

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 votes
4 answers
3k views

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 views

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
6k views

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 ...
Anonymous's user avatar
  • 299
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
5 answers
28k views

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 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 ...
14 votes
1 answer
2k views

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
971 views

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 votes
1 answer
2k views

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 ...
msouth's user avatar
  • 279
102 votes
8 answers
10k views

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
96k views

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
6k views

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 views

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
15k views

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 votes
10 answers
6k views

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 votes
3 answers
13k views

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
19k views

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
16k views

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 votes
2 answers
3k views

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
5k views

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 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
24 votes
5 answers
4k views

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 ...
David White's user avatar
  • 29.8k
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 ...
22 votes
8 answers
9k views

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 views

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
4 answers
8k views

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 ...
20 votes
7 answers
11k views

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 votes
4 answers
12k views

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 ...
19 votes
4 answers
9k views

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 views

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 ...