Editing Encyclopedia:WikiProject Mathematics (section)

==Project background and scope==
This [[Wikipedia:WikiProject|WikiProject]] began in 2002 to assist the creation, improvement and organization of articles in the area of [[mathematics]]. The initial goals of the project were to provide:
* a standard "bare bones" format for mathematical articles
* useful links for article writers
* a location to discuss issues relating to this section of Wikipedia
* standards for mathematical notation using wikified HTML and [[TeX]].

In its broadest terms, ''mathematics'' includes its overlaps with [[physics]], [[computer science]], [[operations research]], and other areas. However, there are now separate WikiProjects in many of these areas, and so the focus of WikiProject Mathematics has shifted towards articles which are primarily mathematical (although it still includes many aspects of [[theoretical physics]], for example).

Much progress has been made. The overall organisation of the project is now pretty much in place, and a "house style" for mathematical articles is reasonably well established. The [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Mathematics/List of mathematics articles (0–9)|indices of mathematics articles]] now has [[WP:WikiProject Mathematics/Count|over 30000 entries]], and this list is automatically updated by a [[User:Mathbot|bot]] using the [[list of mathematics categories]] to identify relevant articles. There are also [[Lists of mathematics topics|lists of articles by topic]] which organize articles by subdiscipline and other criteria.

When contributing new articles which are (even only remotely) related to mathematics (including biographies of mathematicians, and so on), please add at least an approximate mathematical [[Help:Category|category]]. This enables us to identify, and hence review and add to (or mercilessly savage!), each other's contributions.

The main issues for the project are now probably the following ones:
* ''Bringing stubs up to a reasonable standard.'' There are always plenty of pages that are definition-only. We need to add motivation and examples.
* ''Developing important articles into good expositions.'' As anyone who teaches the subject knows, the gap between stating some true facts, and really putting over a topic, is quite large. Here we can consider also the need to add history and proper attributions.
* ''Expanding coverage to bring the subject up-to-date.'' This is a huge task, so the main requirements are patience and determination. In particular, a lot of work is still needed to bring the more advanced material up-to-date, so expert contributions are to be encouraged.
* ''Keeping track of all relevant articles, by listing, categorising, and assessing them''. As mentioned above, it is important to add even an approximate category to each mathematical article. There is also a [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Mathematics/Wikipedia 1.0|subproject]] whose aim is to assess the broad field, and the importance and quality of our articles. Anyone can contribute to this task by adding or updating {{tl|maths rating}} templates on article talk pages.
* ''Identifying pseudo-mathematics, hoaxing, and other unattributable material.'' Most Wikipedians, naturally enough, don't feel qualified to pronounce on articles purporting to be mathematical, so it is up to us to identify crankery, hoaxes, and material with dubious or unverifiable sources. Anything suspect should be reported on the talk page of this page.