ABSTRACT
I. Introduction 38II. Strategies 39III. Finding Journal Articles: Indexes toMathematical Literature 39A. MathSciNet/Mathematical Reviews (MR) 40B. MATH/Zentralblatt (ZBL) 42C. Referativnyi Zhurnal Matematika 43D. Historical development of mathematicaljournals and indexes 44E. Finding older journal articles 45F. Mathematics Subject Classification 47G. Finding articles for cross-disciplinary research 48H. Citation indexing 49IV. Finding Mathematics Papers on the Web 50A. Digitized mathematics papers on the web 50B. Preprints 51C. Search engines/portals 51D. Retrospective digitization projects 52E. Digital library of mathematics proposal 53V. Obtaining Specific Papers, e-Prints, and Books 53A. How do you find a book or paperonce you have found a reference? 53 37
B. Is the journal available electronically?C. What if my library does not own the journal or book? 5555
The experience of mathematical culture is recorded in the literature-the papers, articles, and books published by mathematicians. Mathematicians produce new results and then record, document, and publish their work. They work on problems with the ultimate goal of creating new mathematics. As graduate students, mathematicians are challenged to find an original topic and to locate the research that supports their work. There is often a need to explore new topics or perhaps research an unfamiliar area of mathematics.Dissertation research requires special attention to the mathematics literature. Working with an advisor, graduate students search carefully, broadly, and exhaustively to find all prior results. It is important to become familiar with the publications of any other mathematicians, past or present, who work in a particular area, and it is essential to explore the foundations that support work on specific problems.The literature review is an ongoing project-a lifelong habit to be developed and nurtured. It is important to keep up with new research, applications, results, and methods. Mathematicians often apply new concepts and methods to older problems. Alternatively, perhaps there is a need to find a problem to work on-by looking for holes in the literature. At times it is prudent to locate and understand another problem in order to clarify a difficult concept.Mathematicians credit the earlier work that forms the background for the structure of their research. Mathematics is carefully constructed on axioms and proofs of theorems. Conjectures are developed from the proofs. Most advanced students learn to trace the footnotes and references in the bibliography of relevant articles. This technique is valuable and useful, but expanded information-gathering skills must be cultivated in order to do an adequate literature search.Fortunately, there are established tools and practices for reviewing scholarly literature. Many beginning researchers rely on faculty suggestions and responses from colleagues. Learning to use the resources and methods for conducting thorough searches is an integral part of the learning process for mathematicians. Search results can then be supplemented and enhanced by referrals gained through personal contact and professional networking. Over the course of a career, new information-gathering techniques may evolve, either through technological advancement or through changes in
practice in the profession. A researcher needs to maintain the flexibility to adapt new methods of tracking information. II. STRATEGIES
Searching for information can feel overwhelming. A basic framework for conducting a discovery process would ideally encompass the following steps and procedures. 1. What level of information are you seeking? Analyze your topic and think strategically. Later steps will depend on this basic assessment. Research level or undergraduate level? Mathematics applied to another subject area?2. Do background reading in books, mathematics encyclopedias, or reference works, especially if you need general explanatory information (see also Chapter 2).3. Try searching the catalog of your local library for books on a topic if you need an advanced text, an in-depth survey of a specific area, or proceedings of a conference. Look for keywords in book titles. Search for relevant subject headings, which sometimes use a specialized vocabulary that differs from keywords.4. Search for relevant journal articles: (a) choose a periodical index-current or retrospective (pre-1940s); (b) find references to a few good articles; or (c) find everything on a topic by conducting a comprehensive search.5. Find and read the articles either in print or electronically.6. Follow the reference lists at the end of the article or the footnotes-the bibliographic trail leading to prior work.7. Bring the information forward in time by performing a citation search to find work that is more recent, discover further developments on a topic, or find out if a work has had an impact on other mathematical work. We will focus on finding research articles in indexes, tracing literature through time, and reviewing various resources available on the public Web.