AMS Web Sign In
Item Identification if not Signed In
Completing the Web Form
Review Text
References in review text
Remarks
TeX Comments
Review Submission
Making Changes
Reference lists in MathSciNet
Automated confirmation of receipt of review
Updating your reviewer information

AMS Web Sign In
Although it is not required to Sign In, you will have the most satisfactory interaction with the Web submission process if you do so. In order to do AMS Web Sign In you need to have an AMS Web Account with your reviewer number in the Profile. If you have not previously set up your AMS Web Account, go to www.ams.org/ams-web-account. If you have previously set up an AMS Web Account, but did not add your reviewer number to your Profile, you may click the link above, sign in and add your reviewer number.

Once you have set up an AMS Web Account with your reviewer number in the Profile, your reviewer information will always be available when you Sign In on the Web Submission page (link at the upper left).

After Sign In, click Interactive Web form to access your reviewer information and submit your review.

You will get a list of all the review items that are presently out to you. Click on the Review button next to the item for which you want to submit a review and you will be taken to a page for completing the review information. All your personal reviewer information will already be filled in: name, e-mail, postal address.

Normally, the item you are reviewing will be on the list. If it is not, simply fill in the MR Number in the box with the text Enter an MR Number. If the item is not on the list, it is helpful if you put a comment in the Remarks portion of the page. For example, the item might have been passed to you by a colleague, to whom it was assigned for review.

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Item Identification if not Signed In (MR Number)
If you choose not to Sign In, click the Interactive Web form link to begin. On the next screen, enter the identifying number known as the MR Number of the item to be reviewed. The MR Number is a seven digit number found in the upper left corner of the review sheet that accompanied the item that you were sent. It is also found on the first page of the item being reviewed. When you are presented with the bibliographic data for the MR Number you entered, study it carefully to make sure you are looking at the correct item.

On this first screen, you are also prompted for your reviewer number. Your reviewer number contains six digits and appears below your name at the upper left of the review sheet that accompanied the item you were sent. This is not a required field. However, it is helpful to our review processing if it is entered.

Click the Continue button once this information has been entered. You will now be at the main data entry screen.

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Completing the Web Form
Following is a list of the fields on the interactive web form. Each field is described in detail within this help file. Required fields are indicated with an asterisk (*).

TeX Type*
Reviewer Name*
Email*
Postal Mail
MSC 2000 Primary
MSC 2000 Secondary(s)
Review Text*
Remarks

TeX Type
At the top of the Web form you are asked to select the type of TeX to be used in processing your review. The four choices are: TeX, AMS-TeX, LaTeX, and AMS-LaTeX. Choose the type that you feel most comfortable using. If your review only contains roman text—no math symbols or other alphabets—none of the formatting features of TeX are needed. In this case it doesn't matter which type you choose. Following is some information on each type:

TeX
This type is sometimes called plain TeX. If you normally use plain TeX and need to use the AMS math or symbol fonts, select AMS-TeX. (For example, \Bbb uses the AMS Font package.)

AMS-TeX
This type of TeX is the closest to what is used internally at Mathematical Reviews and externally on MathSciNet for presentation of reviews. The AMS Font package (which includes blackboard bold) is loaded when this type is selected.

LaTeX
The text that you enter into the Review Text input box should not include \documentclass (or the older \documentstyle), \begin{document}, or \end{document}, all of which are automatically inserted by the Web form processor. If you insert them, you may not get a proper PDF preview. If you normally use LaTeX and need to use the AMS math or symbol fonts, select AMS-LaTeX. (For example, \mathbb uses the AMS Font package.)

AMS-LaTeX
Your insertion into the Review Text input box should not include \documentstyle, \begin{document}, or \end{document}, all of which are automatically inserted by the Web form processor. If you insert them, you may not get a proper PDF preview. The AMS Font package (which includes blackboard bold) is loaded when this type is selected.

Scientific Word/Workplace
SW/SWP can be viewed as a special form of LaTeX. Prepare your review text in SW/SWP, select all of it, do a Edit-Copy As Internal Format (not the normal Edit-Copy), then paste into the Review Text box on the Web form. There may be "funny" material in the PDF preview, but our production staff can remove it.

All types of TeX
Note that "#" and "&" have special meanings in TeX. If you need to use those characters in the text of your review, remember to use "\#" and "\&" instead.

Reviewer Name
Reviewer name is a required field. If you Signed In, it is already filled in. This information is particularly important if you are a new reviewer or if the originally designated reviewer has passed the item to you. Reviewer name should be submitted in the format: last name, first name, middle initial.

Email
Email address is a required field. If you Signed In, it is already filled in. Your email address will be used for sending an automated confirmation of your review submission, as well as for updating our reviewer information database. The automated confirmations are sent out once per day, so there can be a delay of up to 24 hours before you receive it.

Postal Mail
If you Signed In, your current postal mail address is already filled in. It is very important in maintaining timeliness that we have your most recent postal mail address when we send your next review item. Although the postal mail address is not required, please keep us informed of any changes to your address.

Mathematics Subject Classification (MSC)
The review sheet you receive asks for suggestions for the 5-digit classifications of the item being reviewed. The MSC 2000 primary and secondary fields are not required but we encourage you to recommend a unique primary classification and, if desired, one or more secondary classifications. Classifications must be entered without internal spaces, e.g., "11D45", not "11 D 45". Multiple secondary classifications should be separated by a space in the input box. If you agree with the suggested classifications, you do not need to fill in these boxes. [Browse the 2000 MSC]

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References in review text
If you choose to include references with your review, provide as much information as possible, including full author name, year of publication, journal name (or book or video title), title of the cited item, volume and paging. Include the MR Number if possible. References in the right format, including the MR Number, can often be found by using MRef, which is a free service of the AMS.

Remarks
Use the Remarks box to add any comments about the review item that you are submitting that will be helpful to the editors at Mathematical Reviews. This box can also be used if there is an error in the bibliographic information or title translation. Do not use this box for comments about other reviews or for regular correspondence. Regular correspondence should be sent by email to mathrev@ams.org.

TeX comments
The percent (%) character has a special meaning in TeX, signaling a comment which is not viewed as part of the text. Comments are not a good method to indicate optional review text to the editors. Place optional material in the Remarks box with an explanation. If a percent character is actually needed in review text, use \%.

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Review Submission
Once you have entered all of the required information on the Web form, click the "Submit" button. You will receive a confirmation screen that your review has been submitted to Mathematical Reviews. Also at this time the TeX processor is applied to your review text. There will be a link to view a PDF preview of your review if the TeX processor runs without errors. Following are some suggestions to ensure that TeX runs without errors:

If you have access to a TeX processor on your local system, it is recommended that you first process your review on your local system, to make sure that it is free of errors.

If you need AMS fonts (for example, the Euler fonts and bold math fonts), be sure to select either AMS-TeX or AMS-LaTeX.

Inclusion of external macro packages (\input or \usepackage, for example) not in standard TeX/LaTeX distributions will prevent the creation of a PDF preview. All macros invoked from such packages will have to be removed during the editing process, so please avoid using external packages. All user-defined macros also must be removed during the editing process.

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Making Changes
You are free to make changes after you push the "Submit" button. Once you get the confirming "Thank you" screen,  you may select hte "Edit Review" button to go back to the review text box. Make any desired changes and push "Submit" again. You may do this as many times as needed.   If the preview of the PDF file is not as you expected, please make a note in  the Remarks box to indicate your intentions. 

If you submit an amended review in the same day (U.S. Eastern time), the new review simply writes over the old review and only the amended review will be processed. If you submit an amendment on a later day, place a note in the Remarks box that your amended review is intended to replace the original submission.

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Reference lists in MathSciNet
Selected journals covered in MathSciNet have the reference lists from the individual papers included with the MathSciNet Full Item information. These reference lists are keyed and processed independently of review text. No action on your part is needed to include these reference lists. These reference lists do not replace the valuable references that you may add in your review text; they supplement that information.

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Automated confirmation of receipt of review
The receipt of your review is confirmed by an automated e-mail system. These automated confirmations are sent out once per day.

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Updating your reviewer information
The View My Reviewer Information link takes you to a page with your reviewer information. Please check your list of classes and interests from time to time. These lists will determine the items that editors send you for review. At the top of the page you will find a link to change this information. While you will not see a change instantly take effect, your request will be sent to Mathematical Reviews for database updating. You may also use this page to send us updates to your name, e-mail, or postal address.

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