On Wed, Oct 30, 2013 at 9:16 AM, Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com> wrote:
Rich made the following comment re Science.
From: rcs@xmission.com d) Confirming studies are not normally publishable.
Q: How does Mathematics treat papers which are new proofs of old results?
We all know about Euler & Gauss & multiple proofs, but how are modern mathematicians treated in the published literature when they attempt to publish new proofs of old results?
Has anyone counted the percentage of published math papers of new proofs/old results?
I think that wouldn't be easy to do. However, a quick search of MathSciNet putting "new proof*" in the title search box, one gets 1263 hits from Halava, Vesa; Harju, Tero; New proof for the undecidability of the circular PCP. *Acta Inform.* 50 (2013), no. 5-6, 331–341. to Bolza, Oskar New proof of a theorem of Osgood's in the calculus of variations. *Trans. Amer. Math. Soc.* 2 (1901), no. 4, 422–427.