The Mathematics Subject Classification (MSC) is an alphanumerical classification scheme collaboratively produced by staff of, and based on the coverage of, the two major mathematical reviewing databases, Mathematical Reviews and Zentralblatt MATH. It is used by many mathematics journals, which ask authors of research papers and expository articles to list subject codes from the Mathematics Subject Classification in their papers. The current version is MSC2010.
Contents
- Structure
- First level
- Second level
- Third level
- Using the scheme
- History
- Relation to other classification schemes
- First level areas
- Generalfoundations Study of foundations of mathematics and logic
- Discrete mathematicsalgebra Study of structure of mathematical abstractions
- Analysis Study of change and quantity
- Geometry and topology Study of space
- Applied mathematics other Study of applications of mathematical abstractions
- References
Structure
The MSC is a hierarchical scheme, with three levels of structure. A classification can be two, three or five digits long, depending on how many levels of the classification scheme are used.
The first level is represented by a two digit number, the second by a letter, and the third by another two digit number. For example:
First level
At the top level 64 mathematical disciplines are labeled with a unique 2 digit number. As well as the typical areas of mathematical research, there are top level categories for "History and Biography", "Mathematics Education", and for the overlap with different sciences. Physics (i.e. mathematical physics) is particularly well represented in the classification scheme with a number of different categories including:
All valid MSC classification codes must have at least the first level identifier.
Second level
The second level codes are a single letter from the Latin alphabet. These represent specific areas covered by the first level discipline. The second level codes vary from discipline to discipline.
For example, for differential geometry, the top-level code is 53, and the second-level codes are:
In addition the special second level code "-" is used for specific kinds of materials. These codes are of the form:
The second and third level of these codes are always the same - only the first level changes. For example, it is not valid to use 53- as a classification. Either 53 on its own or, better yet, a more specific code should be used.
Third level
Third level codes are the most specific, usually corresponding to a specific kind of mathematical object or a well-known problem or research area.
The third-level code 99 exists in every category and means none of the above, but in this section
Using the scheme
The AMS recommends that papers submitted to its journals for publication have one primary classification and one or more optional secondary classifications. A typical MSC subject class line on a research paper looks like
MSC Primary 03C90; Secondary 03-02;
History
According to the American Mathematical Society (AMS) help page about MSC, the MSC has been revised a number of times since 1940. Based on a scheme to organize AMS's Mathematical Offprint Service (MOS scheme), the AMS Classification was established for the classification of reviews in Mathematical Reviews in the 1960s. It saw various ad-hoc changes. Despite its shortcomings Zentralblatt für Mathematik started to use it as well in the 1970s. In the late 1980s a jointly revised scheme with more formal rules was agreed upon by Mathematical Reviews and Zentralblatt für Mathematik under the new name Mathematics Subject Classification. It saw various revisions as MSC1990, MSC2000 and MSC2010. In July 2016, Mathematical Reviews and zbMATH started collecting input from the mathematical community on the next revision of MSC, which is due to be released in 2020. The original classification of older items has not been reclassified. This can sometimes make it difficult to search for older works dealing with particular topics. Changes at the first level involved the subjects with (present) codes 03, 08, 12-20, 28, 37, 51, 58, 74, 90, 91, 92.
Relation to other classification schemes
For physics papers the Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme (PACS) is often used. Due to the large overlap between mathematics and physics research it is quite common to see both PACS and MSC codes on research papers, particularly for multidisciplinary journals and repositories such as the arXiv.
The ACM Computing Classification System (CCS) is a similar hierarchical classification scheme for computer science. There is some overlap between the AMS and ACM classification schemes, in subjects related to both mathematics and computer science, however the two schemes differ in the details of their organization of those topics.
The classification scheme used on the arXiv is chosen to reflect the papers submitted. As arXiv is multidisciplinary its classification scheme does not fit entirely with the MSC, ACM or PACS classification schemes. It is common to see codes from one or more of these schemes on individual papers.
First-level areas
The top level subjects under the MSC are, grouped here by common area names that are not part of the MSC: