For a scholar, having one's manuscript being rejected was nothing unusual.
Regardless of the scholar's reputation or past achievements, if the paper didn't meet the requirements of publication, it would be rejected at any stage of the review process.
However, it was uncommon for a published paper to be withdrawn.
For papers that had already been published, withdrawing that paper was a huge blow to the credibility of the journal. Because that implied that there was a major publication error.
Therefore, generally speaking, journals were extremely cautious about withdrawing published papers, unless there was serious academic fraud that occurred.
