Mathematics & Statistics: Using MathSciNet

Search MathSciNet

Available Search Types

• Author: any author in the Mathematical Reviews database
• Author/Related: an author, an editor of a book or journal issue, an individual associated by Mathematical Reviews with an item (the collected works of a particular mathematician, an obituary, items commenting on someone else's work, for example.)
• Title: any word or phrase in the title of a work
• Review Text: any word or phrase that could be found in the text of a review
• Journal: any word or words that could be part of a journal title or valid Mathematical Reviews abbreviation
• Institution Code: the code Mathematical Reviews uses to identify the institutional affliation of an author.
• Series: any words that could appear in the the title of a series
• MSC Primary/Secondary: All items in the Mathematical Reviews database receive a classification code using the Mathematical Subjects classification scheme. These are either 2 digit (ex: 65 for Numerical analysis), 3 digit (ex: 65D for Numerical approximation and computational geometry (primarily algorithms)) or 5 digit (ex: 65D05 for Interpolation). All items have a least one MSC number, the primary number; some have more than one, a secondary number.
• MR Numbers: numbers assigned to every item with a review. They are connected to the year and month of publication and to the MSC code. Example: MR2639867
• Reviews: the author of a review of an item
• Anywhere: allows searching of all other 11 search fields simultaneously

Limits

• Date Range
• Publication Type: All, Books, Journals, Proceedings
• Review Format: PDF or HTML

1. Search using the truncation symbol -- the asterisk * -- because an author can sometimes be listed under more than one name. The asterisk allows you to retrieve all versions of the author's name
2. You can also search using the author's Mathematical Reviews id. Example: searching MathSciNet for Silver, D* and viewing the author profile gives you an MR Author ID of 162170. Searching the database for this number will give you the articles written by this particular author only and will not include authors with similar names.
   

A journal search in MathSciNet is one of the simplest searches in this database. You can use the title, the abbreivation, as much of the name as you know or the ISSN. A list of journal abbreviation is can be found at http://www.ams.org/msnhtml/serials.pdf

Citation searching is a bit more complex. You can search in the following way:

1. Author citations: search author by last name, and then first initial and choose your author if a list is retrieved.
2. Journal Citations: search journals by full name, partial name, abbreviation or ISSN
3. Search by Subject: uses the Mathematics Subject Classification
4. Search by Year: returns a list of the the most highly cited items in a particular year
5. Top Ten Lists: choose how you want the items to display -- by format (books or journal articles) or by MCQ (Mathematical Citation Quotient)

For a more complete explanation of citation searching and how it works in MathSciNet, see http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/help/citation_database_help_full.html

It is possible to access MathSciNet on your mobile devices in two ways:

1. Go to the Marx Library website at http://library.southalabama.edu/, choose Articles, Indexes and Databases, choose MathSciNet and login if you are off-campus.
2. Pair your mobile device with the AMS web site and you will be able to access MathSciNet on your device without going through the library's website; just go to http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/

The original pairing of your device with AMS must be done while you are on campus accessing the University's network, and it only lasts 90 days; however, as long as you are an authorized student, faculty member or staff at USA, you can renew this pairing as often as you like. Instructions for pairing are below, but a more complete explanation can be found at AMS Mobile Access:

1. Access MathSciNet at http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/ and click on the Mobile Access icon
   
   
   
   
2. At the Welcome to Mobile Pairing screen, click the Yes, continue button.
3. Accept the pairing license
   
   
   
   
4. You will get a message that the pairing has been successful and you can now use your mobile device without being on the University's network. Remember this pairing only lasts 90 days and will need to be renewed. As long as you are an authorized student, staff or faculty member, you can renew this pairing as often as you like.