# Where is the most appropriate place to ask about the contribution of published papers?

I am trying to come to terms with a variety of new fields as I start doing mathematics research. Often I come across a paper and am lost as to what it's contribution (or perhaps significance is). I do not mean that I think it is unimportant, but rather I don't understand the 'lay of the land' in that field.

What I would like to know is where would be the most appropriate place to get some feedback on particular papers? The department I am in is small and I don't have a lot of direct contact with other Mathematicians, so online somewhere seems like the best bet.

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Mathscinet has reviews of certain papers. – Eugene Jun 27 '12 at 6:32
A lot of papers don't have much significance. The better writers will write an introduction to place the results in context. If the author hasn't done that, you can always try writing the author with your questions. – Gerry Myerson Jun 27 '12 at 6:34
maybe mathoverflow? after all it's a q&a forum for research level mathematics, which seems to be what you need... please correct me, if i'm wrong. – begeistzwerst Jun 27 '12 at 8:22
Many of us (yours truly included) will only be truly honest about our evaluations when speaking in person (so no paper trail :-)) to someone we know well. For important papers that is not such a big deal. But I for one would never tell 'thebigdog' on 'teh internetz' that a certain paper is horse manure. You should also keep that in mind when you read review articles. Few people are willing to be as direct as Truesdell. – Willie Wong Jun 27 '12 at 8:36