Submissions to journals

Journal-specific information:

• Submissions to Journal of the American Mathematical Society: Please use the online submission form; this will be faster and more direct than submitting the paper to me.  I will assume that the first author listed is the corresponding author, unless otherwise specified.  Some additional submission information can be found here.  Note that JAMS sets very high standards for its articles (comparable to Annals or Inventiones), and in fact rejects 80%-90% of its submissions, including many good and otherwise publishable research papers.  If you do not think it likely that your peer reviewers will rate your submission as within the top 10%-20% of papers in the field, then I would not recommend sending your submission to JAMS, in the interests of rapid publication of your paper (it generally takes at least six months for JAMS to reach a decision on a submission).   Note that longer papers (e.g. those over 50 pages in length) are likely to be held to particularly stringent standards, due to our existing backlog of articles. For submissions regarding major unsolved problems (Riemann hypothesis, Navier-Stokes, Goldbach, etc.) please read on to the bottom of this page. 
• Submissions to the American Journal of Mathematics: Submission by email (in DVI, PS, or PDF format) is greatly preferred and will be processed much faster than a print submission.  Please specify “AJM” in the subject header and cc: your submission to ajm@math.jhu.edu as they will handle all the technical details of the submission process.   AJM is a generalist journal; papers of an overly specialized and technical nature should be sent to a more focused journal (e.g. Analysis and PDE, or Dynamics of PDE).
  
• Submissions to Analysis & PDE: Please use the online submission form.  See also the submission guidelines.
  
• Submissions to Dynamics of Partial Differential Equations: Once again, submission by email (in DVI, PS, or PDF format) is greatly preferred.  Please specify “Dynamics of PDE” in the subject header and cc: your submission to an editor-in-chief such as Charles Li (cli@math.missouri.edu).
• Submissions to International Mathematical Research Surveys: IMRS articles are by invitation only; we do not accept unsolicited submissions. 

I have some general advice on writing and submitting papers.

As JAMS editor, I receive a large number of submissions regarding either famous open problems (e.g. Riemann hypothesis, Goldbach conjecture, Navier-Stokes regularity, twin prime conjecture, etc.), or famous theorems (Fermat’s last theorem, Four-color theorem, Cantor’s theorem, Goedel’s theorem, etc.).  Such papers are held to an exceptionally high standard, and doubly so for a premier journal such as JAMS; extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, especially in view of the very many failed attempts to prove these types of problems (or disprove these theorems).  In order to conserve limited refereeing resources, and to avoid possible embarrassment and damage to reputation for the submitter, I am thus imposing extremely strict quality standards on any such submission.  In order to even be sent to a referee, any such submission must

• Be fully proofread and checked to be free of errors of any sort (mathematical or otherwise);
• Be completely finalized in form;
• Adhere to all professional mathematical writing standards;
• Demonstrate full awareness of relevant recent literature.

Any submission which does not attempt to satisfy these requirements in good faith will be rejected without refereeing.  All such decisions will be final. I will not consider any further revisions or resubmissions beyond the first when it comes to these sorts of submissions; it has to be perfect the first time, or it will not be considered at all.

Due to many existing time constraints, I will be unable to assist any prospective submitters with help in improving their mathematical exposition.  If you are not a practicing research mathematician, my advice would be to first build up experience (and credibility) by working on less famous problems in the same area, in order to practice exposition skills, to learn basic techniques and literature, and to avoid common errors in the field.  You may also wish to seek out a professional mathematician in your local area to collaborate or discuss mathematics with.  See also my advice on writing papers, as well as my career advice page.