Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Rejecting and resisting Nobel class discoveries: accounts by Nobel Laureates

  • Published:
Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Lack of progress in science is never so much due to any scarcity of factual information as it is to the fixed mindsets of scientists themselves.

[Schram, 1992, P. 357]

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

[Planck, 1949, PP. 33–34]

Abstract

I review and discuss instances in which 19 future Nobel Laureates encountered resistance on the part of the scientific community towards their discoveries, and instances in which 24 future Nobel Laureates encountered resistance on the part of scientific journal editors or referees to manuscripts that dealt with discoveries that later would earn them the Nobel Prize.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anonymous (1948), Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius — Biography, http://www.nobelprize.org (The Nobel Foundation).

  • Anonymous (1986), Press Release: The 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, http://www.nobelprize.org (The Nobel Foundation).

  • Anonymous (1988), Untitled, Nature, 335: 753.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ayala, F. J. (1994), On the scientific methods, its practice and pitfalls, History and Philosophy of Life Sciences, 16: 205–240.

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Barber, B. (1961), Resistance by scientists to scientific discovery, Science, 134: 596–602.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beadle, G. W. (1974), Recollections, Annual Review of Biochemistry, 43: 1–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benacerraff, B. (1991), When all is said and done, Annual Review of Immunology, 9: 1–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Binnig, G., Rohrer, H. (1986), Scanning Tunneling Microscopy — From Birth to Adolescence (Nobel Lecture), http://www.nobelprize.org (The Nobel Foundation).

  • Blumberg, B. B. (1977), Australia antigen and the biology of Hepatitis B, Science, 197: 17–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyer, P. D. (1997), Energy, Life and ATP (Nobel Lecture), http://www.nobelprize.org (The Nobel Foundation).

  • Buchanan, M. (1996), Physics award acclaims superfluid helium, Nature, 383: 562.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burnet, M. (1968), Changing Patterns. An Atypical Autobiography, William Heinemann, Melbourne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campanario, J. M. (1993), Consolation for the scientist: Sometimes it is hard to publish papers that are later highly cited, Social Studies of Science, 23: 342–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campanario, J. M. (1995), Commentary on influential books and journal articles initially rejected because of negative referees evaluations, Science Communication, 16: 304–325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campanario, J. M. (1996), Have referees rejected some of the most-cited papers of all times?, Journal of the American Society for Information Sciences, 47: 302–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campanario, J. M. (2002), The parallelism between scientists and students resistance to new scientific ideas, International Journal of Science Education, 24: 1095–1110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campanario, J. M., Acedo, E. (2007), Rejecting highly cited papers: The views of scientists who encounter resistance to their discoveries from other scientists, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58: 734–743.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Capecchi, M. R. (2001), Generating mice with targeted mutations, Nature Medicine, 7: 1086–1090.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cech, T. R. (1989), Self-splicing and Enzymatic Activity of an Intervening Sequence RNA from Tetrahymena (Nobel Lecture), http://www.nobelprize.org (The Nobel Foundation).

  • Colman, A. M. (1982), Manuscript evaluation by journal referees and editors: Randomness or bias?, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 5: 205–206.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cormack, A. M. (1979), Early Two-dimensional Deconstruction and Recent Topics Stemming from it (Nobel Lecture), http://www.nobelprize.org (The Nobel Foundation).

  • Doherty, P. C. (1983), Citation Classics commentary on Transplant. Rev. 29: 89–124, 1976 (available in http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics.html).

    Google Scholar 

  • Doherty, P. C. (1996), Autobiography, http://www.nobelprize.org(The Nobel Foundation).

  • Ernst, R. R. (1983), Citation Classics commentary on Rev. Sci.Instr., 37: 93–102, 1966 (available in http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics.html).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ernst, R. R. (1991), Autobiography, http://www.nobelprize.org(The Nobel Foundation).

  • Fenner, F., Cory, S. (1997), The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, http://www.nobelprize.org/medicine/articles/wehi (The Nobel Foundation).

  • Fleming, A. (1945), Penicillin (Nobel Lecture), http://www.nobelprize.org(The Nobel Foundation).

  • Furchgott, R. F. (1993), The discovery of endothelium dependent relaxation, Circulation (Supplement V), 85: V3–V8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gabor, D. (1971), Holography 1948–1971 (Nobel Lecture), http://www.nobelprize.org (The Nobel Foundation).

  • Garfield, E. (1980), Are the 1979 prizewinners of Nobel class? Current Contents Number 38: 5–13 (Available in http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu).

    Google Scholar 

  • Garfield, E. (1989a), Delayed recognition in scientific discovery: Citation frequency analyses aids the search for case histories, Current Contents 23: 3–9 (Available in: http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu).

    Google Scholar 

  • Garfield, E. (1989b), More delayed recognition. Part 1. Examples from the genetics of color blindness, the entropy of short-term memory, phosphoinositides, and polymer rheology. Current Contents, 38: 3–8 (Available in http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu).

    Google Scholar 

  • Garfield, E. (1989c), The 1988 Nobel Prize in chemistry goes to J. Deisenhofer, R. Huber, H. Michel for elucidating photosynthetic processes. Current Contents, 22: 3–8 (Available in: http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu).

    Google Scholar 

  • Garfield, E. (1990), More delayed recognition. Part 2. From inhibin to scanning electron microscopy, Current Contents,9: 3–9 (Available in: http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu).

    Google Scholar 

  • Garfield, E. (1992), The 1991 Nobel Prize winners — From patch clamps (Neher and Sakmann) to spaghetti theory (de Gennes), social costs (Coase) and NMR (Ernst) — Were all citation superstars, Current Contents, 5: 3–9 (Available in: http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu).

    Google Scholar 

  • Gell-Mann, M. (1982), Strangeness, Journal de Physique-Colloque C8-Supl. au #12, 43: c8-395-c8-408.

  • Glashow, S. L. (1979), Autobiography, http://www.nobelprize.org (The Nobel Foundation).

  • Heymans, C. (1963), A look at an old but still current problem, Annual Review of Physiology, 25: 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ifill, G. (1999), Interview to Dr. Günter Blobel, Online News Hour (http://www.pbs.org/newshour /nobel_1999/blobel.html).

  • Karle, J. (1985), Autobiography, http://www.nobelprize.org (The Nobel Foundation).

  • Koelsch, C. F. (1957), Syntheses with triarylvinylmagnesium bromides, α,γ-Bisdiphenylene-β-phenylallyl, a stable free radical, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 79: 4439–4441.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krebs, H. (1981), Reminiscences and Reflections, Clarendon Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kroemer, H. (2000), Autobiography, http://www.nobelprize.org (The Nobel Foundation).

  • Laidler, K. J., King, M. C. (1983), The development of transition-state theory, Journal of Physical Chemistry, 87: 2657–2664.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lamb, W. E., Schleich, W. P., Scully, M. O., Townes, C. H. (1999), Laser Physics: Quantum controversy in action, Reviews of Modern Physics, 71: S263–S273.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laughlin, R. B. (1998), Autobiography, http://www.nobelprize.org (The Nobel Foundation).

  • Lauterbur, P. C. (2003), All Science is Interdisciplinary — From Magnetic Moments to Molecules to Men (Nobel Lecture), http://www.nobelprize.org (The Nobel Foundation).

  • Lee, D. M. (1997), The extraordinary phases of liquid 3He, Reviews of Modern Physics, 69: 645–665.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lock, S. (1985), Letter to P. B. S. Fowler, British Medical Journal, 290: 1560

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levi-Montalcini, R. (1986), The Nerve Growth Factor: Thirty-five Years Later (Nobel Lecture), http://www.nobelprize.org (The Nobel Foundation).

  • Marshall, B. J. (2005), Autobiography, http://www.nobelprize.org (The Nobel Foundation).

  • Mullis, K. (1998), Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, Vintage Books, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munro, M. (2006), So obscure he won the Nobel Prize. National Post Online (http://www.bcgsc.ca/about/news/national_post_feature).

  • Nissani, M. (1995), The plight of the obscure innovator in science: A few reflections on Campanario’s note, Social Studies of Science, 25: 165–183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olney, W. (2000), Nobel men, UCLA-Magazine, http://www.magazine.ucla.edu/year2000/spring00_02_2.html

  • Planck, M. (1949), Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prusiner, S. B. (1997), Autobiography, http://www.nobelprize.org (The Nobel Foundation).

  • Redner, H. (1987), Pathologies of science, Social Epistemology, 1: 215–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, A. L. (1986), Electron microscope inventors share Nobel Physics prize, Science, 234: 821–822.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruska, E. (1986), The development of the electron microscope and of electron microscopy (Nobel Lecture), http://www.nobelprize.org (The Nobel Foundation).

  • Schram, F. R. (1992), Anatomy of a controversy (book review), American Zoologist, 32: 357–358.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shepherd, G. B. (1995), Rejected: Leading Economists Ponder the Publication Process, Thomas Horton and Daughters, Sun Lakes, Arizona.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shockley, W. (1972), How we invented the transistor, New Scientist, 56: 689–691.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sommer, T. J. (2001), Suppression of scientific research: Bahramdipity and nulltiple scientific discoveries, Science and Engineering Ethics, 7: 77–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steinberger, J. (1997), Early particles, Annual Review of Nuclear Particles Science, 47: 12–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stent, G. S. (1972), Prematurity and uniqueness in scientific discovery, Scientific American, 227: 84–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stent, G. S. (2002), Prematurity in scientific discovery. In: E. B. Hook (Ed.) Prematurity in Scientific Discovery. On Resistance and Neglect, University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strom, E. T. (1989), Referees I have known?, New Journal of Chemistry, 13: 1–3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Temin, H. M. (1977), Citation Classics commentary on Nature, 226: 1211–1213, 1970 (Available in: http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics.html).

    Google Scholar 

  • Tiselius, A. (1968), Reflections from both sides of the counter, Annual Review of Biochemistry, 37: 1–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weller, A. (2001), Editorial Peer Review: Its Strengths and Weaknesses (Information Today, Inc, ASIST Monograph Series, Medford, NJ).

    Google Scholar 

  • Wigner, E. P. (1979), Citation Classics commentary on Ann. Math. 40: 149–204, 1939 (Available in: http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics.html).

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Willstätter, R. M. (1965), From my Life, W.A. BENJAMIN, Inc, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yalow, R. S. (1978), Radioimmunoassay: A probe for the fine structure of biologic systems, Science, 200: 1236–1245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zernike, F. (1953), How I discovered phase contrast (Nobel Lecture), http://www.nobelprize.org (The Nobel Foundation).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Física, Universidad de Alcalá, 28871, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain

    Juan Miguel Campanario

Authors
  1. Juan Miguel Campanario
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juan Miguel Campanario.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Campanario, J.M. Rejecting and resisting Nobel class discoveries: accounts by Nobel Laureates. Scientometrics 81, 549–565 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-008-2141-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-008-2141-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation