mathbio

Top reasons why it sucks to write mathematical biology papers:

1. Biology journals don't accept Latex, so equations have to be written in Word.

2. There is an inverse relationship between readability for biologists and mathematicians.  For biologists, fewer equations + less rigor = more readable.  For a mathematician, more equations + more rigor = more readable.  Biologists in general don't like equations, which are relegated to the appendix and abbreviated to the point of unreadability, so a lot of the finer points get cut during the final editing of papers.

3. Derivations and proofs are not generally published, so in order to reconstruct one's own work, it is necessary to find random old notes or drafts of papers before the mathematics was cut out.  In other words, I can't read my own papers, and when reading them, it's not obvious that the derivations are correct based on what was published because the proofs are not complete enough to tell.

4. It's hard to find people who understand both your specialized field(s) of biology and specialized field(s) of math to critique or collaborate.

5. ....or care....

6. ...speaking of which, only three people in the world actually care about what you've done.  One of them loves your work but isn't quite sure what you did. Of the other two, only one of them is actually using the model, and the second one (me) has forgotten how.

To be clear, I love mathematical biology.  I love interdisciplinary work.  But the reasons why I'm drawn to obscure fields to find even more obscure connections between disciplines are the exact same reasons why it can be annoying sometimes to be interdisciplinary.

But honestly, the only real peeve I have is (1).   If this were a list of complaints, having to use Word would rank 1-99, and the others would be minor quibbles.  Microsoft Word and equations are a terrible, terrible mix.  At least the newer versions don't crash when you exceed some arbitrary number of equations (in the vicinity of 30).   The other stuff is way less annoying and sometimes kind of nice.