Hi Dave,
Yes, it was more that the group’s positions were presented so strongly that, if taken as accomplished facts, could perhaps stifle seeing some problems and perhaps stifle interest in questioning more possibilities from what is available.
But, that was a fascinating question and I really enjoyed learning more about it. I may bore, and this is off topic, so I’m very fine with this being deleted, but wanted to share at least for now what I found. I hope the info is ok, see what you think. I guess you mean Einstein’s special relativity. It looks like special relativity was published by people rather suited to evaluating it, but I don’t know about the process back then. He seems to have had a problem with a journal sending his work to be reviewed anonymously, “Moreover, the story raises the possibility that Einstein’s gravity-wave paper with Rosen may have been his only genuine encounter with anonymous peer review” (
http://www.geology.cwu.edu/facstaff/lee ... review.pdf ), and perhaps he was more used to having his work seen by people he was more able to evaluate for their suitability to evaluate his work. It may be that his work had been subject to peer review, but not subject to a system of anonymous peer review?
General relativity was published while Einstein was working as a patent clerk in 1905 in “Annalen der Physik”, which wiki refers to as the most respected journal of the time, “Annalen der Physik (English: Annals of Physics) is one of the oldest scientific journals on physics and has been published since 1799. The journal publishes original, peer-reviewed papers in the areas of experimental, theoretical, applied, and mathematical physics and related areas.” (wiki).
Before special relativity was published in 1905, Einstein had already had papers published in that journal from 1909 or 1901. Einstein was also asked to contribute reviews himself to the journal, according to this-
https://www.jstor.org/stable/230013?seq ... b_contents .
In 1905 he gained his PhD and as well it was his miracle year- “The Annus mirabilis papers (from Latin annus mīrābilis, "extraordinary year") are the papers of Albert Einstein published in the Annalen der Physik scientific journal in 1905. These four articles contributed substantially to the foundation of modern physics and changed views on space, time, mass, and energy“(
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annus_Mirabilis_papers )- which included publication of special relativity.
The editor of the journal from 1901-1905 was Drude, “In 1894 Drude became an extraordinarius professor at the University of Leipzig;” … “In 1900, he became the editor for the scientific journal Annalen der Physik, the most respected physics journal at that time. From 1901-1905, he was ordinarius professor of physics at Giessen University. In 1905 he became the director of the physics institute of the University of Berlin. In 1906, at the height of his career, he became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences... ” (wiki).
One of Einstein’s earlier papers may have even contradicted some of Drude’s work, but was published. I’ve read Drude went on to cite Einstein’s special relativity paper a couple of times in his own papers prior to death, the year following publication.
Drude was assisted by Planck, the leading figure of German physics at the time, who consulted on theoretical physics for the journal, whose work Einstein’s papers extended on, and with expertise relevant to special relativity, etc. Planck went on to build on Einstein’s work and at least by 1908 was writing to Einstein asking about their interests.
“It took a few years” … “for Einstein's achievements to be fully acknowledged by the physics community. But the process started almost immediately in 1905” (Stachel). By 1908, Einstein was considered a leading physicist and appointed lecturer at the University of Bern. In 1909 Einstein was called to a chair of theoretical physics created for him at the University of Zurich, and invited lecturer at the German science annual meeting.
http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i6272.html“Despite the greater fame achieved by his other works, such as that on special relativity, it was his work on the photoelectric effect that won him his Nobel Prize in 1921: "For services to theoretical physics and especially for the discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect." The Nobel committee had waited patiently for experimental confirmation of special relativity; however, none was forthcoming until the time dilation experiments of Ives and Stilwell (1938),[6] (1941)[7] and Rossi and Hall (1941).[8][dubious – discuss] “(wiki, the page already linked about his miracle year.)