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Publishing a Simple Paper as an Undergraduate
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First off I apologize if this question does not belong here, I would be happy to hear about any better locations to post this on.
I am a (first year) undergraduate mathematics student, and I recently discovered some interesting properties hidden in certain families of sequences. I ran these ideas past my math professors, and they said these are interesting ideas and the kind of thing I may want to consider publishing. I did pretty thorough research through my school's library and I am highly confident at this point that these ideas have not been written on before.
To give some context into the situation, I am attending a top 15 university, and my professors are all Harvard, Cambridge, Princeton, etc. educated, so I know they know what they are talking about. With that said, the ideas I discovered -- while interesting -- are really pretty trivial as they can be completely understood with background in Calculus III and some linear algebra, and all my proofs fit onto about 3 pages of LaTeX.
I would love to go ahead with trying to write up a paper on these ideas and get them published as I think that would be a great experience, however I do not want to run the risk of coming off as an over-confident "crank" type early on and be stained by that. Would you recommend I keep my cards close to my chess so to speak, or do you think I should put my ideas out there and see what happens? If I was to pursue publication, I would just submit to undergraduate journals, or maybe something else a little more specialized.
soft-question career advice
asked 1 hour ago
Sam Grassi
273
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Sam Grassi is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
favorite
First off I apologize if this question does not belong here, I would be happy to hear about any better locations to post this on.
I am a (first year) undergraduate mathematics student, and I recently discovered some interesting properties hidden in certain families of sequences. I ran these ideas past my math professors, and they said these are interesting ideas and the kind of thing I may want to consider publishing. I did pretty thorough research through my school's library and I am highly confident at this point that these ideas have not been written on before.
To give some context into the situation, I am attending a top 15 university, and my professors are all Harvard, Cambridge, Princeton, etc. educated, so I know they know what they are talking about. With that said, the ideas I discovered -- while interesting -- are really pretty trivial as they can be completely understood with background in Calculus III and some linear algebra, and all my proofs fit onto about 3 pages of LaTeX.
I would love to go ahead with trying to write up a paper on these ideas and get them published as I think that would be a great experience, however I do not want to run the risk of coming off as an over-confident "crank" type early on and be stained by that. Would you recommend I keep my cards close to my chess so to speak, or do you think I should put my ideas out there and see what happens? If I was to pursue publication, I would just submit to undergraduate journals, or maybe something else a little more specialized.
soft-question career advice
asked 1 hour ago
Sam Grassi
273
New contributor
Sam Grassi is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
5
Trivial but new and interesting is still new and interesting. When I showed the outside member of my dissertation committee the main result, he described it as "astonishing, but trivial to prove." And I got the PhD.
– Matt Samuel
53 mins ago
5
One, it seems like your professors should be able to suggest a suitable journal to submit to. Two, I wouldn't worry about "coming off as a crank" because if the paper is rejected no one will even know about it. My feeling is that writing it up for publication will be a valuable experience in itself, regardless of whether it ends up leading anywhere.
– Nik Weaver
36 mins ago
There is also academia.stackexchange.com
– AHusain
14 mins ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
favorite
up vote
4
down vote
favorite
First off I apologize if this question does not belong here, I would be happy to hear about any better locations to post this on.
I am a (first year) undergraduate mathematics student, and I recently discovered some interesting properties hidden in certain families of sequences. I ran these ideas past my math professors, and they said these are interesting ideas and the kind of thing I may want to consider publishing. I did pretty thorough research through my school's library and I am highly confident at this point that these ideas have not been written on before.
To give some context into the situation, I am attending a top 15 university, and my professors are all Harvard, Cambridge, Princeton, etc. educated, so I know they know what they are talking about. With that said, the ideas I discovered -- while interesting -- are really pretty trivial as they can be completely understood with background in Calculus III and some linear algebra, and all my proofs fit onto about 3 pages of LaTeX.
I would love to go ahead with trying to write up a paper on these ideas and get them published as I think that would be a great experience, however I do not want to run the risk of coming off as an over-confident "crank" type early on and be stained by that. Would you recommend I keep my cards close to my chess so to speak, or do you think I should put my ideas out there and see what happens? If I was to pursue publication, I would just submit to undergraduate journals, or maybe something else a little more specialized.
soft-question career advice
asked 1 hour ago
Sam Grassi
273
New contributor
Sam Grassi is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
First off I apologize if this question does not belong here, I would be happy to hear about any better locations to post this on.
I am a (first year) undergraduate mathematics student, and I recently discovered some interesting properties hidden in certain families of sequences. I ran these ideas past my math professors, and they said these are interesting ideas and the kind of thing I may want to consider publishing. I did pretty thorough research through my school's library and I am highly confident at this point that these ideas have not been written on before.
To give some context into the situation, I am attending a top 15 university, and my professors are all Harvard, Cambridge, Princeton, etc. educated, so I know they know what they are talking about. With that said, the ideas I discovered -- while interesting -- are really pretty trivial as they can be completely understood with background in Calculus III and some linear algebra, and all my proofs fit onto about 3 pages of LaTeX.
I would love to go ahead with trying to write up a paper on these ideas and get them published as I think that would be a great experience, however I do not want to run the risk of coming off as an over-confident "crank" type early on and be stained by that. Would you recommend I keep my cards close to my chess so to speak, or do you think I should put my ideas out there and see what happens? If I was to pursue publication, I would just submit to undergraduate journals, or maybe something else a little more specialized.
soft-question career advice
soft-question career advice
asked 1 hour ago
Sam Grassi
273
New contributor
Sam Grassi is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 1 hour ago
Sam Grassi
273
New contributor
Sam Grassi is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 1 hour ago
Sam Grassi
273
New contributor
Sam Grassi is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 1 hour ago
Sam Grassi
273
asked 1 hour ago
Sam Grassi
273
273
New contributor
Sam Grassi is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Sam Grassi is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Sam Grassi is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
5
Trivial but new and interesting is still new and interesting. When I showed the outside member of my dissertation committee the main result, he described it as "astonishing, but trivial to prove." And I got the PhD.
– Matt Samuel
53 mins ago
5
One, it seems like your professors should be able to suggest a suitable journal to submit to. Two, I wouldn't worry about "coming off as a crank" because if the paper is rejected no one will even know about it. My feeling is that writing it up for publication will be a valuable experience in itself, regardless of whether it ends up leading anywhere.
– Nik Weaver
36 mins ago
There is also academia.stackexchange.com
– AHusain
14 mins ago
add a comment |Â
5
Trivial but new and interesting is still new and interesting. When I showed the outside member of my dissertation committee the main result, he described it as "astonishing, but trivial to prove." And I got the PhD.
– Matt Samuel
53 mins ago
5
One, it seems like your professors should be able to suggest a suitable journal to submit to. Two, I wouldn't worry about "coming off as a crank" because if the paper is rejected no one will even know about it. My feeling is that writing it up for publication will be a valuable experience in itself, regardless of whether it ends up leading anywhere.
– Nik Weaver
36 mins ago
There is also academia.stackexchange.com
– AHusain
14 mins ago
5
5
Trivial but new and interesting is still new and interesting. When I showed the outside member of my dissertation committee the main result, he described it as "astonishing, but trivial to prove." And I got the PhD.
– Matt Samuel
53 mins ago
Trivial but new and interesting is still new and interesting. When I showed the outside member of my dissertation committee the main result, he described it as "astonishing, but trivial to prove." And I got the PhD.
– Matt Samuel
53 mins ago
5
5
One, it seems like your professors should be able to suggest a suitable journal to submit to. Two, I wouldn't worry about "coming off as a crank" because if the paper is rejected no one will even know about it. My feeling is that writing it up for publication will be a valuable experience in itself, regardless of whether it ends up leading anywhere.
– Nik Weaver
36 mins ago
One, it seems like your professors should be able to suggest a suitable journal to submit to. Two, I wouldn't worry about "coming off as a crank" because if the paper is rejected no one will even know about it. My feeling is that writing it up for publication will be a valuable experience in itself, regardless of whether it ends up leading anywhere.
– Nik Weaver
36 mins ago
There is also academia.stackexchange.com
– AHusain
14 mins ago
There is also academia.stackexchange.com
– AHusain
14 mins ago
add a comment |Â
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
up vote
5
down vote
After writing a manuscript (which it seems you may have already), go through it and revise it a few times until you feel that it is in a polished form. Then you could ask your professors to read it and provide some feedback and revise accordingly. This revision/feedback process will be a good experience for practicing and getting a feel of what the process writing research mathematics is like. Plus, you may come across potential generalizations or other cases you may not have previously considered.
You could then post the paper on arXiv, depending on how your professors advice. It's important to stress here that you should listen to the your professors! They will generally know what journals / media that your paper would be suitable for. For instance, they could advise you on whether it would be worth publishing the article in an undergraduate journal (e.g. Involve, the Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal, the Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal) or presenting the material at an undergraduate mathematics conference (e.g. the MAA Meetings). These could definitely be valuable experiences to get a feel for mathematics research!
Even if you don't publish your current research, the experience is usually more useful in the following two ways than the actual mathematics: understanding the research process and motivating future mathematical study. Use this process to see if research mathematics is something that you want to pursue. Also explore the connections of what you are studying to fields of mathematics that you haven't learned yet! Perhaps when looking at generalizations or applications of your result, you'll find that you'll need some deeper mathematical theory X. Use this as motivation to go learn X! Maybe after studying X, you'll have a much better understanding of your previous results when going back to it. Who knows, maybe the ideas from your initial research can be useful for something else much farther down the line, regardless of whether it was publishable in its initial form!
answered 13 mins ago
robinz16
1978
add a comment |Â
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
5
down vote
After writing a manuscript (which it seems you may have already), go through it and revise it a few times until you feel that it is in a polished form. Then you could ask your professors to read it and provide some feedback and revise accordingly. This revision/feedback process will be a good experience for practicing and getting a feel of what the process writing research mathematics is like. Plus, you may come across potential generalizations or other cases you may not have previously considered.
You could then post the paper on arXiv, depending on how your professors advice. It's important to stress here that you should listen to the your professors! They will generally know what journals / media that your paper would be suitable for. For instance, they could advise you on whether it would be worth publishing the article in an undergraduate journal (e.g. Involve, the Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal, the Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal) or presenting the material at an undergraduate mathematics conference (e.g. the MAA Meetings). These could definitely be valuable experiences to get a feel for mathematics research!
Even if you don't publish your current research, the experience is usually more useful in the following two ways than the actual mathematics: understanding the research process and motivating future mathematical study. Use this process to see if research mathematics is something that you want to pursue. Also explore the connections of what you are studying to fields of mathematics that you haven't learned yet! Perhaps when looking at generalizations or applications of your result, you'll find that you'll need some deeper mathematical theory X. Use this as motivation to go learn X! Maybe after studying X, you'll have a much better understanding of your previous results when going back to it. Who knows, maybe the ideas from your initial research can be useful for something else much farther down the line, regardless of whether it was publishable in its initial form!
answered 13 mins ago
robinz16
1978
add a comment |Â
up vote
5
down vote
After writing a manuscript (which it seems you may have already), go through it and revise it a few times until you feel that it is in a polished form. Then you could ask your professors to read it and provide some feedback and revise accordingly. This revision/feedback process will be a good experience for practicing and getting a feel of what the process writing research mathematics is like. Plus, you may come across potential generalizations or other cases you may not have previously considered.
You could then post the paper on arXiv, depending on how your professors advice. It's important to stress here that you should listen to the your professors! They will generally know what journals / media that your paper would be suitable for. For instance, they could advise you on whether it would be worth publishing the article in an undergraduate journal (e.g. Involve, the Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal, the Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal) or presenting the material at an undergraduate mathematics conference (e.g. the MAA Meetings). These could definitely be valuable experiences to get a feel for mathematics research!
Even if you don't publish your current research, the experience is usually more useful in the following two ways than the actual mathematics: understanding the research process and motivating future mathematical study. Use this process to see if research mathematics is something that you want to pursue. Also explore the connections of what you are studying to fields of mathematics that you haven't learned yet! Perhaps when looking at generalizations or applications of your result, you'll find that you'll need some deeper mathematical theory X. Use this as motivation to go learn X! Maybe after studying X, you'll have a much better understanding of your previous results when going back to it. Who knows, maybe the ideas from your initial research can be useful for something else much farther down the line, regardless of whether it was publishable in its initial form!
answered 13 mins ago
robinz16
1978
add a comment |Â
up vote
5
down vote
up vote
5
down vote
After writing a manuscript (which it seems you may have already), go through it and revise it a few times until you feel that it is in a polished form. Then you could ask your professors to read it and provide some feedback and revise accordingly. This revision/feedback process will be a good experience for practicing and getting a feel of what the process writing research mathematics is like. Plus, you may come across potential generalizations or other cases you may not have previously considered.
You could then post the paper on arXiv, depending on how your professors advice. It's important to stress here that you should listen to the your professors! They will generally know what journals / media that your paper would be suitable for. For instance, they could advise you on whether it would be worth publishing the article in an undergraduate journal (e.g. Involve, the Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal, the Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal) or presenting the material at an undergraduate mathematics conference (e.g. the MAA Meetings). These could definitely be valuable experiences to get a feel for mathematics research!
Even if you don't publish your current research, the experience is usually more useful in the following two ways than the actual mathematics: understanding the research process and motivating future mathematical study. Use this process to see if research mathematics is something that you want to pursue. Also explore the connections of what you are studying to fields of mathematics that you haven't learned yet! Perhaps when looking at generalizations or applications of your result, you'll find that you'll need some deeper mathematical theory X. Use this as motivation to go learn X! Maybe after studying X, you'll have a much better understanding of your previous results when going back to it. Who knows, maybe the ideas from your initial research can be useful for something else much farther down the line, regardless of whether it was publishable in its initial form!
answered 13 mins ago
robinz16
1978
After writing a manuscript (which it seems you may have already), go through it and revise it a few times until you feel that it is in a polished form. Then you could ask your professors to read it and provide some feedback and revise accordingly. This revision/feedback process will be a good experience for practicing and getting a feel of what the process writing research mathematics is like. Plus, you may come across potential generalizations or other cases you may not have previously considered.
You could then post the paper on arXiv, depending on how your professors advice. It's important to stress here that you should listen to the your professors! They will generally know what journals / media that your paper would be suitable for. For instance, they could advise you on whether it would be worth publishing the article in an undergraduate journal (e.g. Involve, the Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal, the Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal) or presenting the material at an undergraduate mathematics conference (e.g. the MAA Meetings). These could definitely be valuable experiences to get a feel for mathematics research!
Even if you don't publish your current research, the experience is usually more useful in the following two ways than the actual mathematics: understanding the research process and motivating future mathematical study. Use this process to see if research mathematics is something that you want to pursue. Also explore the connections of what you are studying to fields of mathematics that you haven't learned yet! Perhaps when looking at generalizations or applications of your result, you'll find that you'll need some deeper mathematical theory X. Use this as motivation to go learn X! Maybe after studying X, you'll have a much better understanding of your previous results when going back to it. Who knows, maybe the ideas from your initial research can be useful for something else much farther down the line, regardless of whether it was publishable in its initial form!
answered 13 mins ago
robinz16
1978
edited 7 mins ago
answered 13 mins ago
robinz16
1978
answered 13 mins ago
robinz16
1978
answered 13 mins ago
robinz16
1978
1978
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
Sam Grassi is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Sam Grassi is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Sam Grassi is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Sam Grassi is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
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5
Trivial but new and interesting is still new and interesting. When I showed the outside member of my dissertation committee the main result, he described it as "astonishing, but trivial to prove." And I got the PhD.
– Matt Samuel
53 mins ago
5
One, it seems like your professors should be able to suggest a suitable journal to submit to. Two, I wouldn't worry about "coming off as a crank" because if the paper is rejected no one will even know about it. My feeling is that writing it up for publication will be a valuable experience in itself, regardless of whether it ends up leading anywhere.
– Nik Weaver
36 mins ago
There is also academia.stackexchange.com
– AHusain
14 mins ago