Mathematics Subject Classification

The Mathematics Subject Classification (MSC) is an alphanumerical classification scheme collaboratively produced by staff of, and based on the coverage of, the two major mathematical reviewing databases, Mathematical Reviews and Zentralblatt MATH. It is used by many mathematics journals, which ask authors of research papers and expository articles to list subject codes from the Mathematics Subject Classification in their papers. The current version is MSC2010.

Mathematics has become a vastly diverse subject over history, and there is a corresponding need to categorize the different areas of mathematics (and the Langlands program has found unexpected connections between areas previously thought unconnected, at least Galois groups, Riemann surfaces and number theory). A number of different classification schemes have arisen, and though they share some similarities, there are differences due in part to the different purposes they serve. In addition, as mathematics continues to be developed, these classification schemes must change as well to account for newly created areas or newly discovered links between different areas. Classification is made more difficult by some subjects, often the most active, which straddle the boundary between different areas.