The Mathematical Reviews Database: Past, Present and Future

1
The Mathematical Reviews Database Past, Present
and Future

• Jane Kister
• Mathematical Reviews
• Ann Arbor, March 18, 2002

2
Mission Statement

• Since its founding in 1940, Mathematical Reviews
  (MR) has aimed to serve researchers and scholars
  in the mathematical sciences by providing timely
  information on articles and books that contain
  new contributions to mathematical research.

3
Outline History

• 1940 First issue of paper MR
• 1982 MathFile available on line through vendors
• 1985 Name changed to MathSci
• 1989 MathSciDisc 1985-current introduced
• 1991 MathSciDisc 1980-84 introduced
• 1992 MathSciDisc 1940-79 (biblio only)
• 1996 MathSciNet introduced
• 1999 Reviews 1940-79 added
• 2001 Reference lists added to MRDB

4
Volume 1, no. 1 176 reviews 32 pages
5
2002a issue 4509 reviews 770 pages
6
Microfilm number
?Reference to earlier review
? Info for finding item in library
Review 1,139e
Review number 1,139e
7
Author primary ?
Review number 8,187b
8
? Forward citations to later reviews
9
Outline History

• 1940 First issue of paper MR
• 1979 Moved to computerized typesetting
• 1982 MathFile (1973-79 biblio data reviews
  1980-)
• 1983 Biblio data 1959-72 added to MathFile
• 1985 MathFile renamed MathSci TeX introduced
• 1989 MathSciDisc 1985-current introduced
• 1991 MathSciDisc (1980-84) introduced
• 1992 1940-79 biblio data added
• 1996 MathSciNet introduced

10
(No Transcript)
11
Digitization of reviews

• Reviews from 1985 in TeX
• What to do about earlier reviews?
• Scanned images (no search)
• Scanned images OCR (math?)
• Rekeying ()

12
Outline History

• 1940 First issue of paper MR
• 1979 Moved to computerized typesetting
• 1982 MathFile (1973-79 biblio data reviews
  1980-)
• 1983 Biblio data 1959-72 added to MathFile
• 1985 MathFile renamed MathSci TeX introduced
• 1989 MathSciDisc 1985-current intriduced
• 1991 MathSciDisc (1980-84) introduced
• 1992 1940-79 biblio data added
• 1996 MathSciNet introduced
• 1999 Reviews 1940-79 added

13
Review 1,139e
Review number 1,139e
14
Link to Erdos items
Link to reviews citing 1,139e
Link to earlier review
15
A subset of Erdos 1542 items in MathSciNet!
16
Link to original
Link to Erdos items
Link to reviews citing 1,139e
Link to earlier review
17
(Now over 190,000 links to originals)
18
Outline History

• 1940 First issue of paper MR
• 1979 Moved to computerized typesetting
• 1982 MathFile (1973-79 biblio data reviews
  1980-)
• 1983 Biblio data 1959-72 added to MathFile
• 1985 MathFile renamed MathSci TeX introduced
• 1989 MathSciDisc 1985-current introduced
• 1991 MathSciDisc (1980-84) introduced
• 1992 1940-79 biblio data added
• 1996 MathSciNet introduced
• 1999 Reviews 1940-79 added
• 2001 Reference lists added

19
Reference lists

• 65 selected journals
• reference lists from 2000 forward to start
• reference lists 1997-99 added in 2002
• currently 9,500 lists, almost 200,000 references

20
Item with reference list
21
Part of the reference list for 2000g19001
22
Items with reference list citing 2000g19001
23
(No Transcript)
24
OpenURL example
25
Other plans

• More links to original articles
• More reference lists (including
  publisher-submitted lists)
• Biblio data for pre-1940 items links to
  originals