1

I did my MS math in a poor math department from south Asia. While as a MS student I wrote a solo author research paper in finite group theory (without any advisor or help from anyone). I don't know any one who works in my area or who can understand my paper completely. I have no experience of writing any research paper. I have now completed my paper and want to submit it to a journal. I have no idea about submission or appropriate journal. At this point what should I do?

Buffy
  • 363,966
  • 84
  • 956
  • 1,406
G math
  • 431
  • 3
  • 7
  • There are journals devoted to mathematics papers written by undergraduates. Examples: https://scholar.rose-hulman.edu/rhumj/ , https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/mjum/about – GEdgar Apr 02 '22 at 13:49
  • @GEdgar, it seems the OP was no longer an undergraduate when the paper was written. – JRN Apr 02 '22 at 13:52

1 Answers1

1

First question: Do you have an understanding of what is and what is not known in the specific area of your paper? If no, then you aren't done with the research yet - maybe the stuff you've proven is already known? You'll need to try and figure out what are the right keywords to put into eg Google Scholar to find the papers you need to read first. If you've completed this step, proceed to the second question.

Second question: In which journals were the papers you've read that seemed similar to yours in topic and how groundbraking/impressive/of general interest they are? These would be the natural candidates for you to submit your article to. Have a look at what these journals have recently published. Would your article fit in there? [At this stage, you'll also want to reconsider the presentation of your paper. You'll want to adapt your writing style to the target audience.]

Once you have settled on the journal you want to try, simply look at its website for the instructions to authors and follow them. Some journals will already want you to use the journal style for submissions, other's don't care. You'll then either upload the pdf of your article on an online submission system, or sometimes email it to the relevant editor. To be clear, the pdf you are submitting should be created with LaTeX and follow standard formatting conventions whether or not the journal specifies a particular style.

Arno
  • 43,962
  • 8
  • 123
  • 169
  • I have already submitted my paper to a top combinatorics journal ( my result is a bit combinatorial) . After review, it got rejected and referee asked me to rewrite and submit in a algebra Journal – G math Mar 03 '22 at 11:50
  • 1
    If you want I can share the arxiv link. – G math Mar 03 '22 at 11:51
  • Another aspect worth considering when trying to publish a paper "by yourself" are the (often high) article processing charges. If you don't want to spend money, you need to look for journals without those. – Sursula Mar 03 '22 at 11:55
  • @Gmath So you do have some idea how the process works. – Arno Mar 03 '22 at 11:58
  • 8
    @Sursula-they- My impression is that in math, APC's are a very rare thing. – Arno Mar 03 '22 at 11:58
  • @Arno Nice, I did not know that. Is this because in math, it is more common for unaffiliated researchers to publish on their own? (and APCs would keep them from being able to do so?) – Sursula Mar 03 '22 at 12:07
  • 4
    @Sursula-they- My guess is that due to the arXiv, green open access is straight-forward, which means that there is not that much to gain from gold OA. Also, since we typeset our papers using LaTeX, it is relatively easy to set up Diamond OA journals. – Arno Mar 03 '22 at 12:15
  • @Sursula: Regarding Arno's last comment, publication fees for mathematics papers have been essentially non-existent for pretty much forever -- certainly throughout the 20th century -- and not just since the early 1990s when LaTeX was becoming widespread in use and when arXiv began. I think the main reason is that funding for math researchers is not as widespread (and certainly not nearly universal) as it is in many science fields, and I imagine math publishers knew that few people would submit manuscripts if there were publication fees. (continued) – Dave L Renfro Dec 29 '22 at 13:01
  • Here I'm speaking about before, say, 1990 -- with the exception of late 1950s to 1970 when, at least in the U.S., there was an outlier-bubble created by the huge (temporary) upswing in mathematicians needed for teaching and for the emergent industrial/computer developments in the 1960s. FYI, I was led here (9 months after the previous comments) by a link at the end of this answer. – Dave L Renfro Dec 29 '22 at 13:01