How did the delay in publishing affect Isaac Newton’s dispute with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz?

Isaac Newton’s reluctance to publish his work was a significant factor in the priority dispute regarding the invention of calculus between him and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.12

Although Newton developed his method of fluxions as early as 1671, he did not publish it until 1704, when he appended two papers to his Opticks. In contrast, Leibniz published his own independent discovery of the calculus in 1684. Because Newton’s work remained largely private, Leibniz’s 1684 article became the first public record of the calculus.123

This delay meant that when the controversy emerged, Leibniz had already established a public presence and a community of followers on the Continent who promulgated his methods. The resulting dispute over priority and the relative merits of their respective systems became bitter, escalating into accusations of plagiarism from both sides. Newton’s personal reticence and failure to publish early contributed to his isolation within European mathematics, while the ensuing fracas dominated the final 25 years of his life.123