(2 Mar 2026) On the 30th anniversary of MathSciNet, Edward Dunne, the Executive Editor of Mathematical Reviews retraces the history of Mathematical Reviews and explains its importance.
“There are several things that make MathSciNet essential. First, it is a service for mathematicians, by mathematicians. The backing of the world’s largest mathematical society is a very important factor in the success of MathSciNet.
Our editorial oversight committee, which is appointed by the leadership of the AMS, sets editorial guidelines representing the standards of the Society. Moreover, we benefit by having colleagues who work in other areas supporting the mathematics profession: books and journals publishing, meetings and conferences, membership, and professional programs.
Second, the material indexed in MathSciNet is not randomly collected by bots crawling the internet. There are editorial processes for selecting which journals will be covered and for selecting which articles in those journals will be included.These decisions are made by research mathematicians, following the guidance provided by the AMS.
Mathematicians trust what they find in MathSciNet because we have followed such standards for 85 years. Senior mathematicians mentoring early career mathematicians will advise them to send their papers only to journals that are indexed in MathSciNet. Finally, MathSciNet includes reviews, which are written by volunteer researchers around the world. There are currently over 27,000 researchers who serve as reviewers for MR.”
Read more here.
