0

I am interested about where a mathematical discovery can be posted to be credited for it, if its "father" is an undergraduate or someone who never took mathematics courses but studies mathematics on his own and is pretty good at it? Is it some scientific company or some university?

KKZiomek
  • 4,012
  • 2
    Not to discourage, but the chances of a new discovery by someone without some exposure to the mathematical community are fairly small. You might want to mention what field of mathematics you are thinking of. – copper.hat Mar 03 '17 at 04:24
  • @copper.hat Sorry I didn't make the question clear enough. I meant someone who studies mathematics by their own and is pretty good at it but never really attended some formal teaching. I will correct the question. – KKZiomek Mar 03 '17 at 04:25
  • 2
    You would normally submit the result as a paper or note to a relevant journal. – copper.hat Mar 03 '17 at 04:27
  • 1
    @copper.hat Journal like what? Let's say I discovered a new type of function which somehow turns out to be important to multivariable calculus or something. I write a paper 300 pages long about its discovery, properties, and applications. Where do I post it now? (By the way I didn't discover anything, I am just curious.) – KKZiomek Mar 03 '17 at 04:30
  • It is a little hard to answer the hypothetical, particularly given the likelihood. – copper.hat Mar 03 '17 at 04:38
  • Sad reality here - this is so rare there is no general rule. Even if an undergraduate really were to do something amazing his/her works generally aren't accepted right away, historically either because of culture or a lack of formalization on the student's part. There are of course famous exceptions, but don't think this is the norm. – Brevan Ellefsen Mar 03 '17 at 04:43
  • @BrevanEllefsen how about students belonging to an university. How do they share their discoveries? I'm curious too. – KKZiomek Mar 03 '17 at 05:52
  • @KKZiomek depends. Comment is too short to describe, but it could be word of mouth, published in journal, communication and publication through professor, Associates/Bachelors degree theses (which are generally never read by anyone, but are published in some manner), or even possibly kept in notebooks because no one will listen to an undergraduate and believe their work is legitimate. All have happened. – Brevan Ellefsen Mar 03 '17 at 05:55
  • @KKZiomek if you're interested in any of those or any other methods I can go into detail, but as-is your question is a bit broad – Brevan Ellefsen Mar 03 '17 at 06:04
  • @BrevanEllefsen If you want you can assemble an answer. If you want of course. With some examples in the history or anything. – KKZiomek Mar 03 '17 at 19:59

2 Answers2

1

A possible venue for unpublished articles by undergraduates or anyone else is the arxiv: https://arxiv.org/

However, you will have to get an endorsement from someone who already has an authorisation to place papers there, such as a mathematician familiar with this work. This may be nontrivial but certainly easier than getting the article published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Mikhail Katz
  • 42,112
  • 3
  • 66
  • 131
0

I did original research as an undergraduate and wrote a paper on it. I published the paper I wrote on arXiv, and am currently in the process of working to get it published in a journal. In the meanwhile it's been read at least a few times because it's been cited in further work on the topic. There are also journals that specifically publish the work of undergraduates.

Stella Biderman
  • 31,155