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Advice for amateur mathematicians on writing and publishing papers | Henry Cohn

cohn.mit.edu · 1,785 words · saved by 1 readers

There's no reason why amateurs can't make worthwhile research contributions in mathematics. It has happened many times in the past, and I know of several cases today. I don't have time to offer a lot of personal advice and guidance, but I figured I'd post some general advice here. I've aimed it at people who think they've already solved famous problems, since those are the sort that typically write, but it should be equally useful for people with more modest aspirations. I focus on the mechanics of how to do literature searches, write papers, and publish them, because I have less to say about the deeper issue of how to do research. None of this advice is specific to amateurs, but professionals already learn all these things from their advisors. If you appear out of nowhere claiming to have solved a famous open problem, nobody will pay any attention. In principle you might be right, but many people claim to have done this and virtually all of them are wrong. If you want anyone to take y

There's no reason why amateurs can't make worthwhile research contributions in mathematics. It has happened many times in the past, and I know of several cases today. I don't have time to offer a lot of personal advice and guidance, but I figured I'd post some general advice here. I've aimed it at people who think they've already solved famous problems, since those are the sort that typically write, but it should be equally useful for people with more modest aspirations. I focus on the mechanics of how to do literature searches, write papers, and publish them, because I have less to say about

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