# zbMATH Open Guide for Reviewers

Last updated: June 1, 2021

# Review Contents and Style Guide

## Contents of Reviews

A review of a mathematical work should give a brief and clear account of its contents, ideally presenting some background, the main results and the methods of proof. Reviews of papers in applied mathematics should concentrate on the mathematical aspects. Reading the review is not intended to be a substitute for reading the original paper; the primary purpose is to help the user to decide whether he or she needs to read the original. Therefore, the main results of the paper should be briefly described, preferably in a non-technical manner.

You as a reviewer have, in principle, no responsibility for checking the correctness or novelty of the original, but if you do discover that it contains a significant error or that it overlaps significantly with other work, you should mention that fact.

If you come to the conclusion that the authors' abstract or another part of the paper's text describes the contents in the best way, you may decide to take such a text as (part of) your review. In this case, please label extensive direct quotes in your review clearly.

## Style and Format

### Language

Reviews should preferably be written in English; reviews in French or German will also be accepted. They should be clear in style and consistent with the standards of usage in the language chosen. A reader with a moderate knowledge of the language in question should be able to understand the review. In the case of a translated title of the original, please check its correctness.

### Format

The review may vary in length from a few lines to a more elaborate text, depending particularly on your evaluation of the importance of the work you review.

Please prepare your review in standard LaTeX without using self-defined macros. We support the following packages: amsmath, amsfonts, amssymb, mathtools, stmaryrd, mathrsfs, tikz-cd, and gensymb. For the zbMATH Open Review Template on CTAN please see

Our PDFs are compiled using XeLaTeX, thus you may enter accented characters directly (e.g., Lévy instead of L\'evy). Please do not include tables, large diagrams, drawings or formulas of minor importance. Please use alternative fonts (bold, italics etc.) only if necessary, e.g. in formulas or for highlighting the authors of cited publications (see below).

### Citations

References to related work are always appreciated. When citing other documents, please try to be as specific and accurate as possible so that the citations can be identified unambiguously. To look up the Zbl number you may use the Document Search or the zbMATH Open Citation Matcher

The button “Cite” for the respective item gives the citation in the proper format.

Journal Articles (Zbl 0156.10701, Zbl 1291.65293)

        [\textit{L. Hörmander}, Acta Math. 119, 147--171 (1967; Zbl 0156.10701)]


        [\textit{Y. Guo} et al., Inverse Probl. 29, No. 9, Article ID 095016, 17 p.
(2013; Zbl 1291.65293)]


Books / Book Articles (Zbl 1151.55001, Zbl 1323.01005)

        [\textit{J. Barge} and \textit{J. Lannes}, Suites de Sturm, indice de Maslov
et périodicité de Bott. Basel: Birkhäuser (2008; Zbl 1151.55001)]


        [\textit{D. E. Knuth}, in: Combinatorics: ancient and modern. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. 3--37 (2013; Zbl 1323.01005)]


Unpublished arXiv Preprints (arXiv:1203.1960)

        [\textit{B. Weisfeiler}, “On the size and structure of finite linear groups”,
Preprint, \url{arXiv:1203.1960}]


Please note that we now deal with some 130,000 items a year and we cannot send proofs. It is thus extremely important that the content of your manuscript is as accurate as possible.

## Subject Classification

The publications you receive for reviewing are usually classified by the authors or our editors according to the Mathematics Subject Classification (MSC2020).

The provided MSC codes may not be suitable or complete; therefore, we kindly ask you to check the suggested classification.

## Keywords

Please describe the publication's content with a set of keywords that give a quick outline of the subjects covered. If there are preassigned keywords, you may also use (some of) them if you consider them suitable.

# Organizational Aspects of the Reviewing Task

## Contact with the Editorial Office

In particular, please inform us as early and precisely as possible about any changes of your address, email address or fields of interest so that we can keep your reviewer profile up to date.

When assigning reviews to you, we always try to meet your fields of interest. But if you do not want to review a particular paper, please return it to us as soon as possible with a short comment and perhaps a recommendation for another reviewer.

Please also contact us if you wish to receive less or more articles or books, or if you wish a hiatus for a certain period.

## Delivery of Items to be Reviewed

Books to be reviewed will be sent to you via normal mail, articles in the majority of cases in PDF format. Please understand that the latter will not always be possible, due to lack of availability or copyright restrictions of the respective publishers.

## Time for Reviewing

Prompt publication of reviews enhances their usefulness. If possible, please provide us with your review within eight weeks. In case you need more time for your review, just let us know.

## Review Submission

Alternatively, you may send your review by email to review-submission@zbmath.org or via mail to our postal address.

## International Editorial Units

Since the late 1990s, zbMATH has expanded its editorial basis with the installation of a number of cooperating external editorial units in different countries. Hence it may happen that from time to time you will receive material for reviewing from one of these external editorial units. In this case you need to send your review back to the respective cooperating unit. In all other respects, including the benefits and privileges described below, there is no difference to the usual reviewing process.

# Legal Matters

The reviewing task for zbMATH Open is based on the following legal agreement.

The reviewer agrees that the delivered reviews will be published online on zbMATH Open under CC-BY-SA licence after final editing. This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator.

## Personal Data

The reviewer's personal data (email address and fields of interest; postal adress or bank contact details only if needed) are electronically stored and processed exclusively for the purposes of performing this agreement, for compensation of the expense allowance, for generating statistics (reviewing history and preferences), and for reviewer liaison and support.

In addition, the editorial office may pass your address on to EMS Publishing House for the purposes of book orders as described in the next section.

## Use Restrictions for Electronic Documents

E-books and articles that we make available to you electronically may only be used for reviewing purposes; in particular, legal regulations prohibit the circulation of these documents.

Depending on the publishers' terms and conditions, the review copy may have to be deleted after submitting the review. For detailed information please see the cover page of the respective article.

To inform our reviewers of ongoing developments of zbMATH Open you will get our Reviewer Newsletter approximately twice a year.

# Benefits and Privileges for Reviewers

## Review Material and Financial Compensation

Hardcopies of books and articles that you have reviewed remain your property.

In compensation for your out-of-pocket expenses, you will be credited with a flat rate of 3.00 euros per review (excluding book reviews and authors' abstracts).

You will find an overview of your credit within your Reviewer Account. We recommend to use the credit for book orders, taking advantage of the discount offered by EMS Publishing House (see below), but the credit can also be donated or paid out.

## Discount on Books of EMS Publishing House

EMS Publishing House grants reviewers of zbMATH Open a discount of 20% on books ordered with the reviewer's credit.