Research Papers readable by undergraduates

From here and there, I sometimes encounter mathematical papers that are readable by me, an undergraduate student in Mathematics, which don't go into much specializations in specific fields, which I usually find quite interesting. Some examples are: D.I.E paper, DwD paper and this one. I would be glad if someone could provide me with a list of such papers to read or point to a source which does.


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 $1707$)


I would suggest

Manjul Bhargava, The factorial function and generalizations. Amer. Math. Monthly 107 (2000), no. 9, 783--799

This article is an exciting paper based on elementary ideas, and an invitation to read more, written by a (future at that time) Fields medalist.


If you're interested in applied mathematics, the SIAM Review publishes annual articles on current and significant research, which are often written by preeminent scholars in the field (and accompanied by a great number of references). Although it is not free, most institutions have subscriptions to it. In addition, if you are an undergraduate, you may be able to get a free student membership to SIAM, which grants access to the Review.

Although some articles are not written at an undergraduate level, I find that the Survey and Review papers often are. Here are some recent, well-written reviews and surveys likely to be of interest:

  • Computationally Tractable Counterparts of Distributionally Robust Constraints on Risk Measures
  • Computational Methods for Linear Matrix Equations
  • Pairwise Compatibility Graphs: A Survey
  • Border-Collision Bifurcations in $\mathbb{R}^N$