Where to Publish a Paper on the Mafia Game? – Journals and Markov Chains

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I wrote a research paper "A mathematical model of the Mafia game" (arXiv:1009.1031 [math.PR]). However, I do not know where to publish it. As an undergraduate studying majorly physics, I have little knowledge of mathematical journals. Moreover, its not easy for me to classify its subject.

The paper itself is generally "using applied mathematics (and physicist's approach) to model a party game (psychology)". Just to give some of its features:

  • Uses pure death process and gives its closed-form solution
  • Is elementary and didactic (a tricky use of generating functions, Wallis formula, …)
  • Somehow "cool" topic

I thought about The American Mathematical Monthly. Besides the obvious advantages I see two drawbacks:

  • In AMM there are usually an old results in a nice/didactic/cool form or short findings
  • It won't reach to psychologists who might investigate the Mafia game experimentally

Can you recommend me any proper journal? (popular mathematics, mathematics and psychology, …?)
Any other advice are appreciated as well.

Best Answer

I have only glanced at your paper, but one possibility is to submit it to The Mathematical Intelligencer, in particular to Michael Kleber, who edits the "Mathematical Entertainments" column. This is a great place for serious mathematical analysis of problems with a recreational flavor. The Intelligencer has a wide readership, which is what you want for your article.

By the way, contrary to some other commentators, I don't see any reason why you necessarily need to find a mentor just because you're an undergraduate. Your paper seems to be well-written enough. Of course it doesn't hurt to find a mentor but what matters is the quality of your writing and not your employment status.

Also, regarding KConrad's comment that only existing players of the game will find it interesting, I don't believe that this is true. First of all, as you note, Mafia is in fact a pretty well-known game. Secondly, the subtlety of the game means that there is a lot of interesting mathematics buried in it. If your article can draw more mathematicians into studying it, that would be a very good thing.