Einstein Versus the Physical Review

[Sven]

http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-58/iss-9/p43.html

Some interesting facts about the history of peer review and the hubris of great minds.

We (Mr. Rosen and I) had sent you our manuscript for publication and had not authorized you to show it to specialists before it is printed. I see no reason to address the—in any case erroneous—comments of your anonymous expert. On the basis of this incident I prefer to publish the paper elsewhere.


Priceless from todays viewpoint. :rolling:

[Santas little helper]

Amusing but also disconcerting.

The irony, of course, is that Einstein could have found that escape route months earlier, simply by reading the referee's report that he had dismissed so hastily. The referee had also observed that casting the Einstein–Rosen metric (as we now call this solution of the Einstein equations) in cylindrical coordinates removes the apparent difficulty.

Regardless of how peeved Einstein was when he received the report he ought to have
calmed himself down and actually read the comments.