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I am doing some amateur research in formal language theory. Now see, I don't even know if that's where my study area is...

So anyway, I come up with interesting ideas that on occasion work, and I'm learning to filter out the bad approaches to problems. So I have this formal language conjugacy class idea. But not exactly that. Firstly, does that trigger any recall of peer-reviewed work that you know of?

Anyhow, I am almost always running into this issue, so I would like some help. Google is not pulling up any relevant papers on that idea or anything else I can think of to type. I am sure not everything is indexed by google. I would like some simple guidelines that will help me find what I need and I don't have much money, though would be willing to purchase maybe 1-2 memberships if it would mean this issue of mine is resolved most easily that way.

I am also aware that all of my efforts may be pointless as there are many category-theoretical approaches to formal language theory that have probably already made these observations or beyond. However, working only at that abstract level, also hides simple observations. So I need to learn both the concrete areas and the more abstract areas.

If I could just feel confident that I've ruled out all possible peer-reviewed articles, and that I'm not duplicating known ideas, that would be awesome. If that is the case, I would rather get back to my more productive, known math studying.

What is a non-academic mathematician to do? We have had the internet around for maybe 20 years. I shouldn't have to ask this question, but here I am. Ideally, I could be addressing this research hindrance issue in my personal software projects, but I am already loaded with tasks.

Daniel Donnelly
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    "I would like some simple guidelines that will help me find what I need". Yes, I understand that. However, research is not so easy. We have enormous resources on the internet (arxiv, stack exchange, etc.), but still it is difficult to find the right information. Some very interesting ideas do not have a link, and google does not find them, although they are on the internet. – Dietrich Burde Oct 14 '16 at 18:26
  • @Dietrich, I will try arxiv.org. If I send a paper to journal, how will the editors even know if it's original work? This doesn't make sense. – Daniel Donnelly Oct 14 '16 at 18:30
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    This is a really great question. I hope someone has an answer. – layman Oct 14 '16 at 18:36
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    I feel sorry, but there is now way one can help you if you do not give more details on your idea. What do you mean by formal language conjugacy class? – J.-E. Pin Oct 15 '16 at 06:32
  • @J.E. Pin: I want to love and hold my idea for a while before it gets shot down by the community. Thanks. Needless to say my specific problem is not my problem in this question, as I explained that the general issue of not finding what I need is the problem I need help with. – Daniel Donnelly Oct 15 '16 at 15:17
  • Is there a successful, non-academic author of peer-reviewed articles out there that can answer this question? – Daniel Donnelly Oct 15 '16 at 15:22
  • No need for an answer any longer. It has been answered before: http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/275194/how-does-a-non-mathematician-go-about-publishing-a-proof-in-a-way-that-ensures-i/275213#275213 – Daniel Donnelly Oct 15 '16 at 15:32

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