Editorial policy

How we source, attribute, and correct what we publish.

The Academy holds itself to the editorial standards of the archives it takes as reference points. This page names those standards, the archives, and the process by which errors are corrected once they've been reported.

The sourcing standard

Every factual claim on this site is traceable to a published source. This standard covers dates, places, treatise titles, and attributed mathematical results. Each Historical Profile carries a citation block with the sources used to build it.

For historical claims about medieval mathematics, the primary reference is the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive at the University of St Andrews. Secondary verification follows a consistent process. It draws on Encyclopædia Britannica, peer reviewed critical editions, and specialist biographical dictionaries. Roshdi Rashed's 2021 De Gruyter edition of Al-Samaw'al's Al-Bāhir is one current example. For contested claims, the site presents the named scholarly positions and preserves their qualifications.

The reference archives

These institutions provide editorial models for MOTA's public scholarship. Their published work shapes our approach to sourcing, attribution, access, and presentation. The Academy's partnerships are identified separately.

  • MacTutor History of Mathematics, University of St Andrews, for named authorship of every biographical entry, for the careful preservation of modern scholars' hedges (Hogendijk, Woepcke, Rashed, Berggren) when their attributions are cited, and for the openness of its citation practice.
  • Qatar Digital Library models bilingual publishing through independently commissioned English and Arabic essays. Its manuscript viewer follows the IIIF standard.
  • IMO Official, for publishing problem sets, results, and country participation history as public record.
  • Clay Mathematics Institute, for the calm editorial voice a mathematical institution can carry when it lets the work do the talking.
  • Art of Problem Solving, for detailed contributor attribution across subject material.
  • Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques and ICTP Trieste for a calm, research focused institutional presence.
  • Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation and its manuscript catalogues, as a model for cataloguing and citation practice on Arabic mathematical manuscripts specifically.
  • MIMS (Mediterranean Institute for the Mathematical Sciences), the regional federation model that informs MIMS's academic partnership with SITE.

Corrections

If you find an error, please write to dz41@nyu.edu with the page URL, the specific claim, and a supporting source. Substantive corrections receive a dated note that acknowledges the change and credits the reporter with permission. Typographical corrections are applied directly.

Editorial safeguards

  • We describe scholars through their working place, period, and language. This approach preserves the complexity of a tradition spanning many centuries, religions, and languages.
  • Modern translations, manuscript images, and problem archives appear only with verified permission or reuse terms.
  • Claims of primacy identify the modern historian who made the claim and preserve every scholarly qualification attached to it.