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I recently obtained (or so I thought) a good result, and after a month of reading and rereading what I'd written, submitted my paper to a very good journal. I'm early in my career (got my Ph.D. a few years ago) and have published 2 papers in good journals; so I figured I'd aim for a top journal this time.

Unfortunately, I just got an email from the journal indicating that the anonymous referee had found a serious, probably unfixable error in my paper, and that (obviously) they don't recommend it for publication. After looking at it, I realize that I really should have caught this error: although it is a relatively subtle error buried inside of a technical lemma, it still is an obvious error once you notice it. I'm frustrated that I missed this mistake and I'm embarrassed to have wasted the time of the referee, who probably spent a lot of time combing through my paper before they found the error.

So here are my questions.

1) Has this happened to anyone else? Is this a relatively common occurrence, or am I just sloppy?

2) The anonymous referee is probably someone distinguished in my field. Do they now have a bad impression of me? (This probably is not a question that can easily be answered . . . .)

3) If I manage to patch up this paper, is it reasonable to resubmit it to this journal, or have I burned my bridges there?

I'm going to make this community wiki, since I don't know if there's a "right" answer.

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    This isn't about actual mathematics, so it's on dubious grounds for inclusion in this site as far as I'm concerned. In addition, I don't see that this question can be answered at all apart from vague anecdotes. Voting to close as "off topic". – Andrew Stacey Nov 16 '10 at 16:30
  • @ question 2): I was under the impression that the identity of the authors and their affiliations were not disclosed to the reviewers. At least, that's the impression I have gotten from the manner in which I have received comments from reviewers on my papers. – Timothy Wagner Nov 16 '10 at 16:30
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    @Andrew: I definitely understand your reasoning, although I would make an argument that this is about mathematics in the sense that mathematics has its own publication culture that may be different from other fields. – Bas Lag Nov 16 '10 at 16:33
  • @Timothy: I have reviewed a paper in which the identity of the author was disclosed to me. I've talked to other people and they often know the identities of the authors as well. – Bas Lag Nov 16 '10 at 16:34
  • @Timothy: if only! I've now reviewed for about half a dozen journals, and I've always been able to see the authors' identities and affiliations. – Ian Morris Nov 16 '10 at 16:34
  • @Timothy Happens differently in different venues. I've experienced both ways; though mainly where identities were disclosed. – Mikael Vejdemo-Johansson Nov 16 '10 at 16:38
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  • Happens all the time. That's why it's a good idea to show your paper or discuss its contents with as many knowledgeable trusted colleagues as possible before submitting it to a journal.

  • Don't worry about your reputation. Just keep at it. As long as your successes outnumber your embarrassing moments, you'll be fine. People do develop bad impressions of each other, but these impressions are usually easily changed when new evidence arises.

  • – Deane Yang Nov 16 '10 at 16:42
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    @Timothy: All the papers I have reviewed have had the author's name(s) on them. Even if they didn't, it would usually still be easy to tell by looking at who was cited the most in the references :) However, reviewers often write in a style that uses the third person and avoids mentioning the author by name, saying "the author says this, the author does that". I think this is partly to preserve the fiction that the report is advice from the reviewer to the editor, not directly to the author. That could be the source of your confusion. – Nate Eldredge Nov 16 '10 at 17:05
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    Honestly, the referee might view you as slightly "sloppy", but one mistake probably won't fix this impression. I wouldn't worry over that too much. Many top mathematicians have made mistakes, including serious ones, and some of these have indeed been published in top journals. It's better that this happens this way, rather than it being accepted, and then pointed out to have an error later (possibly after other people have used your "result"). In my mind you are lucky that the referee was so diligent. It's a not-talked-about-fact that a large % of papers published have serious errors. – Karl Schwede Nov 16 '10 at 17:15
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    Seems to me like a bad title. It wasn't the submission that was accidental, it was the badness. – Kevin O'Bryant Nov 16 '10 at 17:44
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    If you haven't already done so, it might be a good idea to write to the editor who handled your paper and ask him or her to convey your thanks to the referee for catching your error. – Andreas Blass Nov 16 '10 at 19:45
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    @Andreas: I just did that -- indeed, I am extremely thankful to the reviewer for carefully reading the paper! – Bas Lag Nov 16 '10 at 20:04
  • Thanks to everyone for their answers, and sorry for asking a question that was not appropriate for MO. – Bas Lag Nov 16 '10 at 20:04
  • @Kevin: the title does make it sound like someone pressed "Send" by accident, or attached the wrong file. – Thierry Zell Nov 16 '10 at 23:37
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    @Bas: considering the number of comments your question did generate, it is not entirely obvious that your question was inappropriate. A slight addition to Deane's comment: people may get a bad impression about some in their field, but most of the time it's the result of sustained missteps: a single mistake is unlikely to land you on a referee's blacklist, especially if they're aware that you're early in your career. – Thierry Zell Nov 16 '10 at 23:41
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    I've changed the title to remove the "accidental submission" connotation and voted to reopen. – Victor Protsak Nov 17 '10 at 01:21
  • I agree with Andreas. This is a much happier result than the referee not catching the error. Just move on. If you can't fix it within a reasonable time, go on to something else. Or maybe add some hypotheses and prove it in a more special case, skirting the problem. Maybe that will lead somewhere with this result. – roy smith Feb 02 '11 at 01:42