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I have written a math paper on combinatorics (a generalization of a math olympiad problem) and am looking to get it published. I believe I have discovered something new (although I don't claim it is "important" in the sense of being a breakthrough or anything) and want to get credit for it. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find anyone to endorse me to publish on arxiv, so I'm trying to get it published in another (less popular) repository that doesn't need endorsement.

Any suggestions? Things I have looked at so far:

  • academia.edu - apparently this isn't safe enough for protecting your work.
  • hal archives ouvertes - I tried searching about this one but there's no information regarding how trustworthy it is, etc.
  • github - this seems to be for computer science.
  • vixra - looked promising at first considering the "everything gets accepted" rule, but then the downside is that people have started viewing it as an arxiv for crackpots, so it doesn't seem like a good idea to publish there, but this being my first paper I'm not so sure.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this and any advice you can give.

Note: I'm not prepared to send my paper to any journals so that is out of the question at the moment.

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2 Answers 2

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First, if it is not submission-ready, then it is unlikely that it is arXiv-ready either.

If you put it in another place, you won't get much prestige or recognition, so I would aim at a place accessible to everyone (without login) - your homepage, GitHub or anything (it does not matter). It may be a good place if you want to start discussions.

Second, it is rather unlikely that it's something ground-breaking that everyone would like to steal from you. (But don't get discouraged - it is certainly possible that it is an interesting result!) You would benefit more from discussions than have to lose.

Third, some guidance is needed. Ideally, you can consult it with a friendly teacher, professor or PhD student. If not possible, one way to go is to try some research-level competitions for high school students (e.g. like First Step to Nobel Prize in Physics, European Union For Young Scientists or something in that line). Even if you don't win anything (those are very though competitions) you might get some feedback. Additionally, even in Poland there are a few local competitions for works in mathematics by high schools students (e.g. this and that). I am sure in UK there are also some. If you did something in a Math Olympiad, you can try asking organizers if they know such competitions (or someone suitable for mentoring you).

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    @user92570 You can ask on fora, but don't take for granted that people will have time read it (hint: make it as readable as possible). If I can ask, what is your country? Feb 26, 2015 at 17:47
  • @user92570 Even in Poland there are a few local competitions for works in mathematics by high schools students (e.g. this and that). I am sure in UK there are also some. Or if you did something in an Math Olympiad, you can try asking organizers if they know such competitions. Feb 26, 2015 at 17:56
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    @user92570 Considering how much writing in mathematics has changed since Euler's time, I'd consider modelling your paper after modern standards. See the OCW course I linked in the comments.
    – JNS
    Feb 26, 2015 at 18:19
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    @Piotr: "Even in Poland" is a strange thing to say when it comes to mathematics: Poland has a famously strong mathematical community. (One might as well say, "Even in Hungary we have our little problem-solving contests"...) Feb 26, 2015 at 18:51
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    @PeteL.Clark Good point (BTW: IPhO was started by Poland). But as of the present day, I believe that UK has stronger mathematical community (though, I am not aware if it implies more opportunities for high school students). Feb 26, 2015 at 19:10
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I am actually just a few steps ahead of your shoes, so I'll tell you what I'm doing, that I think might help you as well.

In high-school I also found something interesting in mathematics. I've been developing it for a year now, so now that I'm in college I tried taking it to professors. Surprisingly, none of them had much interest in primality testing. After doing a little research of my own and looking publications similar to what I am working on, I found a few journals that have published similar work to mine. Looking at the requirements of the journal submission, I found their TeX format and I am now currently working to format my work in TeX before I submit my work to a Journal.

So my advice, although I can't relate to success yet, would be if the work you are doing is relevant enough (that it might have a use for someone else), then:

  1. Turn it into TeX if you haven't yet
  2. Make sure your work has a good "story" (Explain the work and its relevance thoroughly)
  3. Make sure grammar and spelling are flawless
  4. Find a couple Journals you could possibly submit it to, and pick the top one (Look at other's work and papers, and remember, typically you can only submit to one journal simultaneously)
  5. Format and submit

I've found that the proof itself is less than half the work. And its taken me a couple months to were I'm at (near-finishing an semi-important generalization and a new algorithm in publication format). So just keep working on it, and give it effort. Best of Luck!

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  • Points 1-3 are great (especially LaTeX, not necessary TeX). For 4-5 it is a bit more complicated. As of now it is "4. 5. ??? PROFIT!". In reality, these are hard steps for publishing for the first time. Feb 27, 2015 at 12:15
  • I'm not sure about 4. I've found a couple Journals very easily. Like I said, just looking for similar publications I've found 3 or 4. Unless the work being done is extremely original, then there searching for publications in the area of interest should be no problem. The only thing I might not be able to relate to is the success of submitting to a Journal, which, I'll have to find out myself. Feb 27, 2015 at 23:27

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