Reading and listening to mathematics
The MAA’s compilation of advice on reading mathematics.
The MAA’s compilation of advice on listening to mathematics.
Advice on getting the most out of talks, from Ravi Vakil
Several ways to become familiar with the literature:
- Search MSC (Mathematics Subject Classification) codes. An MSC code (eg 14N35) identifies a narrow subfield of math.
- First find codes you are interested in. You can browse the complete index of MSC codes. Or, search MathSciNet for a particular paper that you are interested in and see what codes it is assigned (You can also use ZbMath though the codes will be different.)
- On MathSciNet, you can click directly on the code to see a list of all papers with this classification. Or, find multiple codes that you are interested in and search these from MathSciNet’s homepage (under “Search Terms” select “MSC Primary/Secondary”).
- Browse the arxiv. This is where mathematicians post their preprints. You can subscribe here to get daily emails listing the author/title/abstract of new papers in whatever subjects interest you.
- Search forwards/backwards citations with google scholar or MathSciNet
- Talk to people