Sir Robert Robinson—Minor Prophet, a most senior referee, a story of darkness and light

Abstract

The story of the Tetrahedron Letters affair in 1973–1974 is described and lessons for Editors, Referees, and Authors are drawn from the TL affair and related correspondence of Sir Robert Robinson (Sir RR) (Nobel Laureate), a Minor Prophet. The TL affair centered at two related papers authored by Israel Agranat, et al. on reversible Friedel-Crafts acylations and acyl rearrangements. The first paper (A) was published in J. C. S. Chem. Comm. (1973); it was followed by the second paper (B), which contained a reference to A “in the press.” It was originally accepted for publication in TL, following a favorable review. However, a month later, it was rejected in view of the reviewer’s subsequent allegation of lack of novelty due to A. The TL Editor Professor Alan Roy Katritzky relied also on the opinion of one of the journal’s most senior referees, Sir Robert Robinson, the founder of Tetrahedron and Tetrahedron Letters and the Chairman of their Honorary Advisory Boards, who in 1973 was blind. The TL affair led to correspondences of Sir RR with Professor Ernst David Bergmann and with the Author. Paper B was published (after modifications) in 1974 in Synthetic Communications.