2008-02-22 14:27MATH 880 PROSEMINAR JT SMITHOUTLINE 13 SPRING 20081. Assignmenta. Continue formulating questions about the paper we’re outlining in class.i. Where should examples go?ii. What about history?iii. What general cleanup and rearrangement is appropriate?b. Continue formulating questions about the social organization of mathematics.2. LATEXa. We continued discussing some ongoing correspondence between me, DeanAxler, and Birkhäuser regarding use of LATEX in book production.b. Birkhäuser is insisting on that, regardless of our success using my previousmethod, and regardless of my saving them effort.c. Evidently what they really want is the text source code, in easily editableform. I grant that LATEX is the only present way for them to get that.d. Axler argues:i. LATEX is prettier—granted, but only about 5%.ii. LATEX is easier —I doubt it, but WYSIWIG software may be appearing.iii. LATEX is better for archiving and for broadening dissemination—Yes,for mathematics archiving. But the whole Internet world is working on*.pdf, and what will almost certainly happen in the future is that filesin a LATEX-like format will ordinarily be converted to *.pdf beforeviewing.iv. MikTEX is okay and cheap—But I don’t care about the cost, and whenI installed that in the Department it seemed to me an inconvenient,amateurish implementation.e. One student pointed out that the TUG (TEX user’s group) has a list of possiblybetter interfaces. I’ll probably review it soon.f. I looked at Scientific Word last Fall, and found that its user-interface is notas WYSIWIG as it claims to be.3. How will research papers be published?a. We discussed the article “Harvard to collect, disseminate scholarly articles forfaculty,” in the 13 February 2008 issue of Harvard Gazette (available online).This has been abstracted in other newsmedia this week. The Harvard Arts& Science faculty have voted to make all their research papers freely availableon a University website. This is an attack on the astronomical pricing ofresearch journals by independent publishers.b. Recently the entire editorial boards of two or more mathematics researchjournals, in logic and topology, published by independent publishers haveresigned suddenly to protest high prices and inferior publishing service. Theyhave approached universities as alternatives to the independent publishers.c. I think the same disputes are going on in other disciplines, too, and predictsome major changes soon in the answer to this question.Page 2 MATH 880 SPRING 2008 OUTLINE 132008-02-22 14:27d. One student remarked that this discussion had not addressed the questionof peer reviews of papers. Amen. Later. 4. Social Organization of Mathematics. We discussed some questions that had beenon deck now for some days.a. Academies. These are generally governmental organizations that supportresearch. It’s eye-opening to surf their websites.i. United States(1) NAS (National Academy of Sciences). Tops in prestige, publishesshort summaries of the most important research, and to someextent influences government policy. This is supported by thenational government, but to my knowledge has no further facilities.(2) MSRI (Mathematical Sciences Research Institute) in Berkeley.Supported by the national government and various grants. Con-centrates on a small number of specialties each semester, andinvites participation by researchers worldwide. Nice facility, withoffices, meeting rooms, and library but no lodging. It doesn’tpublish, to my knowledge, beyond its website, which features onlinestreaming lectures, some from SFSU faculty. (3) AIM (American Institute of Mathematics) now in Palo Alto, soonto relocate in Morgan Hill. Somewhat like MSRI, but privatelyfunded.(4) There are one or two other such institutes.ii. Canada. There’s a counterpart of MSRI in Banff.iii. Sweden. There’s a counterpart of MSRI in Sweden.iv. Steklov. This is the renowned Russian institute in St. Petersburg. Idon’t know much about it.v. Oberwolfach. This is the German national mathematics research insti-tute, in the rural Black Forest area. Supported by the government andprivate funds, it sponsors week-long conferences of twenty or soresearchers in very narrow areas, providing room and board and sometransportation. It has an excellent library.vi. Royal Society. The British academies are organized differently fromothers.b. A student asked whether facilities such as RAND and SRI should be includedhere. No, they are think-tanks. Their funding supports physical facilities andsome support staff. They have some “permanent” research staff, but thoseare expected to obtain contracts from other agencies to work on specificresearch projects. They belong in the Industry category.c. Publishing journalsi. Some are published by societies.(1) I circulated earlier copies of all the MAA (Mathematical Associationof America) journals. None are research journals. That’s not theMAA’s mission.MATH 880 SPRING 2008 OUTLINE 13 Page 32008-02-22 14:27(2) The AMS (American Mathematical Society) publishes a newsjournal, the Notices, and another, less frequent one, the Bulletin,devoted to major reviews and major research survey articles. Italso publishes several journals for contemporary research. Checkthe AMS website for details.(3) The ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) has approxi-mately the same variety of journals as the AMS, for computerscience.(4) The ASA (American Statistical Society) is analogous, too. But Idon’t know anything about it.(5) Other research journals are published by societies devoted tospecial research areas. For example, the ASL (Association forSymbolic Logic) publishes two.(6) Foreign societies have similar offerings. I circulated the currentissues of the Mitteilungen der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereini-gung, and Mathematische Semesterberichte, from the DMV (Ger-man Mathematical Society). The former is a news organ; the lat-ter, somewhat like the Monthly. The DMV also publishes theJahresbericht, which is rather like the Bulletin of the AMS but lesshigh-falutin. ii. Some journals are published by academies:(1) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences was alreadymentioned.(2) Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Academie desSciences is its French analog.iii. Some journals are published by universities:(1) Annals of Mathematics (Princeton)(2) American Journal of Mathematics (Johns Hopkins)(3) Indiana (4)