{"id":367,"date":"2015-09-14T18:02:41","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T23:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/?p=367"},"modified":"2015-09-29T20:12:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T01:12:00","slug":"who-wrote-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/2015\/09\/14\/who-wrote-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Who wrote that?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Much of mathematics is identified with people. \u00a0We don&#8217;t talk about\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet-getitem?mr=197234\">Algebra<\/a><\/em>, we talk about &#8220;Lang&#8221;. \u00a0We speak of &#8220;Feller&#8221;, not <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet-getitem?mr=88081\">An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications<\/a><\/em>. \u00a0But which Feller is actually this Feller? <!--more-->Here are some choices:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=1053274\">Feller, C.<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"menu0\" class=\"anylinkcss\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=1015589\">Feller, Christian<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=699077\">Feller, David<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=191311\">Feller, Edmund H.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=905391\">Feller, Federico<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=717731\">Feller, J.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=235939\">Feller, M. N.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=1052130\">Feller, Peter<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=217063\">Feller, William<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The answer is the last Feller in the list, William Feller. \u00a0Being able to tell one mathematician from another is important, especially if it is someone whose work you would like to follow. \u00a0Or if it is your own work. \u00a0From the very beginning of\u00a0<em>Mathematical Reviews<\/em> (in 1940), we have made a point of distinguishing authors, what is known as <em>author disambiguation<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>I have a few favorite examples of mathematical names that need some work to be distinguished. \u00a0The first is my\u00a0Steve Miller Problem. \u00a0I once needed to send a manuscript on number theory to Steve Miller. \u00a0 Shortly after the manuscript left my hands, I had an email message, &#8220;You have the wrong Steve Miller.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Aren&#8217;t you Steve Miller the number theorist?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Yes, but I&#8217;m not the one you want.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Didn&#8217;t you do your PhD with Peter Sarnak?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Yes, but I&#8217;m not the one you want. &#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;???&#8221;<br \/>\nChecking MathSciNet + the <a href=\"http:\/\/genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu\/index.php\">Mathematical Genealogy Project<\/a>\u00a0shows that there are indeed two Steve Millers meeting all those criteria. \u00a0We have\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=735278\">Steven J. Miller<\/a>, my\u00a0&#8220;wrong&#8221; Steve Miller, and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=651647\">Stephen D. Miller<\/a>, my\u00a0&#8220;right&#8221; Steve Miller. \u00a0Indeed, searching for &#8220;Miller, Ste*&#8221; results in eleven matches:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=1092020\">Miller, Stephanie A.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=651647\">Miller, Stephen D.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=267529\">Miller, Stephen M.<sup>1<\/sup><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=800647\">Miller, Stephen M.<sup>2<\/sup><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=1105257\">Miller, Stephen Matteo<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=770045\">Miller, Stephen P.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=857676\">Miller, Stephen Paul<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=630795\">Miller, Steven David<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"menu7\" class=\"anylinkcss\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=314395\">Miller, Steven I.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=735278\">Miller, Steven J.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=920743\">Miller, Steven P.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But it could be worse. \u00a0Suppose you were looking for Li Li. \u00a0There are 87\u00a0authors with that\u00a0name, 30 of which we have verified.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/authors.html?authorName=li%2C+li&amp;Submit=Search\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-419\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/files\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-Author-Li-Li-1.png\" alt=\"Screen Shot Author Li Li 1\" width=\"408\" height=\"328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/files\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-Author-Li-Li-1.png 408w, https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/files\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-Author-Li-Li-1-300x241.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 408px) 100vw, 408px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The names with the superscripts are those that we have verified. \u00a0If you want to zero in on a particular name, you get some help sorting through them by hovering your mouse over the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/files\/2015\/08\/page-icon.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-371\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/files\/2015\/08\/page-icon.png\" alt=\"Hover\" width=\"17\" height=\"20\" \/><\/a>\u00a0icon to see some information about a sample publication:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/files\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-Author-Li-Li-hover.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-421\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/files\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-Author-Li-Li-hover.png\" alt=\"Screen Shot Author Li Li hover\" width=\"336\" height=\"188\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/files\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-Author-Li-Li-hover.png 336w, https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/files\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-Author-Li-Li-hover-300x168.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>So how do we verify an author? \u00a0This is a job for our Cataloging Department! \u00a0 The idea is to match the name with an author already in the database. \u00a0If we have 80 instances of the same name (and this is not the record &#8211; there are\u00a0162 authors named Wei Wang, for instance) with 30 verified, how do\u00a0we do that? \u00a0Most articles arrive with extra information, such as an email address and the name of the institution (including department), both of which are very helpful in identifying the author. \u00a0 We also look for coauthor matches. \u00a0If we have a paper from Li Li that is coauthored with Fernando Paganini, this points us to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=766571\">Li Li<sup>9<\/sup><\/a>. Self references (i.e., if you cite yourself in the references) are very useful, too, as are keyword matches in the title.<\/p>\n<p>If none of these proves helpful, we will then go to the internet. If the author has provided an email address on the article, we can use that\u00a0to find a website. Otherwise, we will\u00a0search for\u00a0the author&#8217;s\u00a0name and institution, and hope to find a website. We then use the author&#8217;s website to try to find evidence of a match, such as the posting of a preprint of the article or the mention of research on the topic. \u00a0If <em>this<\/em> fails, we will send the author\u00a0an email message asking &#8220;Are you the same person who also wrote the paper &#8230;.&#8221; and give the title and bibliographic information of\u00a0another article we have in our database.<\/p>\n<p>If there is no email provided, we will make a note of it and hope that the next time they publish, they will use an email address. \u00a0In the good old days, we would send a letter, which took a long time and didn&#8217;t always work. \u00a0Now it works so infrequently that we no longer send letters.<\/p>\n<p>At the time of this writing,\u00a0we have indexed\u00a0767,027 authors. \u00a0So rare events happen. \u00a0For instance,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=339421\">Angelo Plastino<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=231488\">Angel Ricardo Plastino<\/a> often list <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unnoba.edu.ar\/posgrado\/carreras\/inscripcion-a-maestrias\/maestria-en-bioinformatica-y-biologia-de-sistemas\/\">the same institution (and department) <\/a>in their publications and write about similar\u00a0topics! And both have coauthored papers with Flavia Pennini. \u00a0Angel usually publishes with an initial, which is helpful, but Angelo usually just publishes with A. Plastino. Many emails have been\u00a0sent to confirm which papers belong with which, but luckily A. Plastino always responds with the answer! \u00a0Going the other way, the same person can be known by many names. \u00a0For instance,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ams.org\/mathscinet\/search\/author.html?mrauthid=192024\">Yuri\u012d Alekseevich\u00a0Mitropol<tt>\u02b9<\/tt>ski\u012d<\/a>\u00a0(\u042e\u0440\u0438\u0439 \u0410\u043b\u0435\u043a\u0441\u0435\u0435\u0432\u0438\u0447 \u041c\u0438\u0442\u0440\u043e\u043f\u043e\u043b\u044c\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439)\u00a0has over 40 variations on his name!<\/p>\n<p>One of my themes is that\u00a0<em>Mathematical Reviews<\/em>\u00a0makes a great effort to ensure\u00a0that the information in MathSciNet is right. (Look\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/2015\/07\/11\/references-and-citations\/\">here<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/2015\/04\/22\/people-at-mathematical-reviews\/\">here<\/a>.) \u00a0In this post, I have described one way that\u00a0the experts in our Cataloging Department put their hard work\u00a0and talents to use to achieve that. \u00a0Fortunately for users of MathSciNet, there are great people in every department.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you to Elizabeth Downie for her help with this post.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Much of mathematics is identified with people. \u00a0We don&#8217;t talk about\u00a0Algebra, we talk about &#8220;Lang&#8221;. \u00a0We speak of &#8220;Feller&#8221;, not An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications. \u00a0But which Feller is actually this Feller?<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" data-url=https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/2015\/09\/14\/who-wrote-that\/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11,12,13],"class_list":["post-367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-information","tag-author","tag-author-authority","tag-disambiguation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/files\/2015\/08\/Screen-Shot-Wei-Wang-1.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6C2KK-5V","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":462,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions\/462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}