A Mathematical Citation Index was started in March 1965 under the auspices of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Computing Facility. Before the compilation of citations for this index could begin, however, it was necessary to produce an index to abbreviations of serial titles in the field of mathematics. T-HE RESULT OF THIS EFFORT WAS THE FIRST VOLUME OF A PROJECTED series of Minimum Abbreviations of Serial Titles (MAST) indexes, which are permuted indexes to serial title abbreviations. Twenty-five journals of significance in mathematical research were then chosen for further processing by asking mathematicians to list those journals in which significant research appears. The citations from these journals were keypunched and then edited using an on-line cathode ray tube display terminal system. Seven hundred citations to books were also checked to determine why each had been cited. Until authors differentiate between pedagogic and research citations to books and are specific as to pages or chapters, there seems little to be gained by their inclusion in a citation index. Appendices include examples of the MAST index, a list of core journals in mathematics (as determined by this and other research), a list of the mathematics books most frequently cited, and keypunching instructions for the Mathematical Citation Index. (CM)