{\bf Information for {\bfit Notices} Authors}

The following provides general guidelines for writing {\it Notices}
articles and preparing them for submission.

{\bf {\bfit Notices} readership.}  The {\it Notices} goes to about 30,000
subscribers worldwide, of whom about 20,000 are in North America.
Approximately 8000 of the 20,000 in North America are graduate students who
have completed at least one year of graduate school.  All readers may be
assumed to be interested in mathematics research, but they are not all
active researchers.

{\bf {\it Notices} Feature Articles.} Feature Articles may address mathematics,
mathematical news and developments, mathematics history, issues affecting
the profession, mathematics education at any level, the AMS and its
activities, and other such topics of interest to {\it Notices} readers.
Each article is expected to have a large target audience of readers,
perhaps 5000 of the 30,000 subscribers. Authors must therefore write their
articles for nonexperts, rather than experts or would-be experts.  In
particular the mathematics articles in the {\it Notices} are expository.
The language of the {\it Notices} is English.

Most Feature Articles, including those on mathematics, are expected to be of
long-term value and should be written as such.  Ideally each article puts its
topic in a context, providing some history and other orientation for the reader
and, as necessary, relating the subject matter to things that readers are
likely to understand.  In most cases, articles should progress to dealing with
contemporary matters, not giving only historical material.  The articles that
are received the best by readers tend in part to relate different areas of
mathematics to each other.

By design the {\it Notices} is partly magazine and partly journal, and
authors' expository styles should take this into account.  For example,
many readers want to understand the mathematics articles without undue
effort and without consulting other sources.

Mathematics Feature Articles in the {\it Notices} are normally 6 to 9
pages, sometimes a little longer.  Shorter articles are more likely to be
read fully than are longer articles.  The first page is 400 or 500 words,
and subsequent pages are about 800 words.  From this one should subtract an
allowance for figures, photos, and other illustrations, and an appropriate
allowance for any displayed equations and any bibliography.

{\bf Form of articles.}  Except with very short articles, authors are
encouraged to use section headings and subsection headings to help orient
readers.  Normally there is no section heading at the beginning of an
article.  Despite the encouraged use of internal headings, the assigning of
numbers to sections and subsections is not permitted in any article.

The bibliography should be kept short.  In the case of mathematics
articles, bibliographies are normally limited to about 10 items and should
consist primarily of entries like books in which one may do further
reading.  To help readers who might want lists of recent literature, an
author might include a small number of recent publications with good
bibliographies.

{\bf Editing process.}  Most articles that are destined to be accepted
undergo an intensive editing process.  The purposes of this process are to
ensure that the target audience is as large as practicable, that the
content of the article is clear and unambiguous, and that the article is
relatively easy to read.  Usually it is the members of the editorial board
who are involved in this process.  Sometimes outside referees are consulted.

{\bf Preparation of articles for submission.} The preferred form for submitted
articles is as electronic files.  Authors who cannot send articles
electronically may send the articles by fax or by postal mail.

Articles with a significant number of mathematical symbols are best
prepared in TeX.  For TeX files, there is no special style file because the
TeX gets converted to something else during the production process.
AMS-TeX with the style file amsppt.sty works best with this production
process, and plain TeX is a close second.  LaTeX and AMS-LaTeX files are
acceptable but require extra processing.  In any case the use of
nonstandard supplementary files and complex sequences of TeX definitions is
discouraged.  Authors are advised to keep lines of mathematical displays
relatively short so that they will fit within {\it Notices} columns and not
have to be adjusted in the production process.  For the handling of figures
and other illustrations, please consult the editor.

Articles without a significant number of mathematical symbols may be
prepared as text files or in Microsoft Word.  In the case of files prepared
in Microsoft Word, it is advisable to send both the file and a fax of a
printout.