User's Guide Project: Looking Back and Looking Forward

TL;DR

The paper reviews the User's Guide Project, an initiative where mathematicians create accessible guides alongside research papers to enhance understanding and community engagement, discussing its history, impact, and future potential.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of the project's role, impact, and value in the mathematics community, advocating for its expansion to other subfields.

Findings

The project has improved accessibility of research papers.

It has fostered community engagement among mathematicians.

The project has potential for broader adoption in mathematics.

Abstract

In 2014 Luke Wolcott created the User's Guide Project in which a group of algebraic topologists came together to write user's guides to coincide with their research papers in hopes of making their research more accessible. We examine the role of this innovative project within the greater mathematics community. We discuss the structure and history of the project, its impact on the community, and its value to the participants of the project. We end by encouraging the math community to recognize the value of the project and expand the User's Guide Project to other subfields.