Research Papers readable by undergraduates

See the following link: MAA awards

You will find a long list of awarded expository articles published by MAA journals (like the College Mathematics Journal, the Mathematics Magazine, and the American Mathematical Monthly). Among these awards I recommend the Paul R. Halmos - Lester R. Ford Awards and the Carl B. Allendoerfer Awards.

For most of them, pdfs are available for FREE.


From my experience :

  1. I hear Mathematical Intelligencer is good but I have never read it.

  2. I have heard that reading things that you don't completely understand is good for mathematicians so I also recommend the Notices of the AMS.

  3. Plus is a math themed magazine. I feel doubtful it would prepare you for graduate school in any way.

  4. College Mathematics Journal

  5. Mathematics Magazine

  6. American Mathematical Monthly.
    Also the Pi Mu Epsilon Journal would make a very good read. I would also recommend reading Mathematical Spectrum.


It's quite likely that the function $f:[1707, 2016] \cap \mathbb{N} \to [0,1] \cap \mathbb{Q}$ given by

$$f(t) = \frac{\text{# of published research papers written in year} \ t \ \text{readable by current undergraduate students}}{\text{# of published research papers written in year} \ t}$$

is decreasing. Therefore, it would perhaps be in your interest to look for older research papers. Moreover, reading older papers helps provide some historical context as to how mathematics got to where it is today. I feel that this is indispensable for an undergraduate to know.

(Fun fact: Euler was born in $1707$)