Algebraic Geometry

Algebraic geometry seems to have acquired the reputation of being esoteric, exclusive, and very abstract, with adherents who are secretly plotting to take over all the rest of mathematics. In one respect this last point is accurate. David Mumford

Sources for preprints and other electronic texts

• Preprints at arXiv.org The canonical place to get and post the latest research in math and physics.
• JSTOR The scholarly journal archive A large collection of important sources, but limited access without subscription.
• EMANI Electronic Mathematical Archiving Network Initiative Excellent free electronic source.
• Numdam Digitized versions of many older French journals and other sources.
• Göttingener DigitalisierungsZentrum Digitized versions of many older German journals and monographs, including classics like Gauss' Disquisitiones arithmeticae
• SPIRES HEP database High Energy Physics literature database.
• Grothendieck Circle The most complete source for material by and about Alexandre Grothendieck.
• Franz Lemmermeyer's list of online texts

Lecture notes and videos

• MSRI lectures High quality streaming video of many lectures on a wide range of mathematical topics. PDF slides and notes also available.
• KITP Lectures Many lectures on video, audio, and podcast.
• ICTP Lecture note archive.

Conferences in Algebraic Geometry and Related Areas

• Ravi Vakil's List
• UTK's list of Geometry Conferences
• The AMS List (Not just geometry)

Algebraic Curves

• Projections of complex plane curves to real three-space.
• A Visual Dictionary of Special Plane Curves
• Overview of Algebraic Plane Curves (Geometry Center)
• Famous Curves Index (University of St. Andrews)

Algebraic Surfaces

• Stephan Endrass' Surf Program (for Visualization of Real Algebraic Geometry)

Journals

I have been thinking lately a little about scholarly journals and how scholarship is disseminated.

Many publishers are using the free professional services of academics to write, referee, and edit scholarly journals, and then they turn around and charge those same scholars and their libraries enormous sums for access to the journals.

According to data from a survey by the American Math Society, the most expensive publishers of academic mathematics are

Publisher	Average cost per page
Wiley	$2.43
de Gruyter	$1.93
Taylor and Francis	$1.69
Springer Verlag	$1.35
Elsevier	$1.23

On the other hand, many of the very best journals are published at very low cost. Some of the main publishers in this elite class are

Publisher	Average Cost per page
Princeton U Press	$0.09
AMS	$0.19
SIAM	$0.26

Many excellent journals are also free online, including the outstanding Geometry and Topology.

One of the most important things scholars should do is post their preprints online at major preprint servers, like arXiv.org, and on your own website. Of course, it is also important not to sign copyright agreements with publishers that interfere with ability to freely disseminate your work. You can either choose to submit papers only to journals that have good copyright agreements, or you can renegotiate the agreement before signing it.

For more about this topic, you might try The Cost of Knowledge and Nature's take on this.