Even Nobel laureates face journal rejection!

Of course, I’ve had my manuscripts rejected!

It’s very rare, almost unheard of, to get a letter from the editor saying, “We love your paper! We’ll publish it without any changes.”

The most amusing letter I received from a journal was about the work that eventually got me the Nobel Prize. The editor said something to the effect that the journal would publish my paper, but “in nothing like its present form.”

I had to rewrite it completely and without any new data: the editor found the first version to be way over the top and euphoric.

To tell the truth, I knew that I’d made an important discovery, but I failed to explain it effectively. One of my weaknesses is that I’ve never been very good at writing essays or reviews.

This story is an extract from an interview with Nobel Laureate Sir Tim Hunt. In the interview we asked him about his journal rejection experience and this is an edited version of the response he shared. The full interview is available here.