Use when judging whether a pure-mathematics result clears the Annals of Mathematics importance and originality bar and falls within scope, before investing in framing or submission. Assesses fit and significance; does not evaluate whether the proof is correct (that is the proof's job).
NewMaintained
Automatic
◆Research pack
Last verified 8/15/2026
What it changes
Passed 16 of 22 test cases with the skill, and 18 of 22 without it.
Without skill82%
With skill73%
0 fixed16 passed either way4 still failing2 broke
Pass-rate lift
-9 pp
Tokens
-5%
Agent turns
0%
Response time
-51%
Model gemini-3.6-flashMeasured 8/15/2026v116 of 22 cases passed with skill
Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.
What's inside
The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.
SKILL.md78 linessingle file
Scope and Significance Fit (anmath-scope-fit)
When to trigger
You have a finished or near-finished result and are choosing a journal
You suspect the result may be "good but not Annals-level"
A coauthor argues for Annals and you want an honest internal screen first
You are unsure whether the area or style of result fits the journal
The Annals bar (durable norms — verify specifics officially)
Annals of Mathematics publishes major, deep results of lasting importance across all
of pure mathematics. It is published by the Department of Mathematics at Princeton
University and the Institute for Advanced Study and is among the most selective journals
in the field. The screen is not "is this correct and new?" but "is this important
enough to belong in Annals?"
Significance test — answer honestly
Resolves or substantially advances a recognized problem. Does it settle a known
conjecture, remove a long-standing hypothesis, or break a barrier experts cared about?
Lasting interest beyond a narrow subfield. Would researchers in adjacent areas
want to know this result exists?
Depth, not just novelty. A correct, new, but incremental result is off-fit; Annals
favors results whose proof or consequences are deep.
New method with reach. A genuinely new technique that others will reuse can justify
publication even when the headline theorem is modest.
If you cannot make a strong case on at least one of (1), (2), or (4), the honest call is
usually a strong specialist journal rather than Annals.
Scope decision table
Situation
Verdict
Settles a well-known open problem in a core area
In scope — strong candidate
Major new technique with cross-area consequences
In scope
Sharp improvement that experts have sought for years
Plausible — frame significance hard
Solid, correct, new, but incremental within one subfield