Issue #98
by Michael Seadle (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
On 1 January 2025, Ryan Hill, and Carolyn Stein published a research article in Kellogg Insight called “Scientists Don’t Want to Get Scooped—and It’s Hurting Science “¹, which a staff writer put together:
“Being the first to publish a finding is a major way for scientists to establish this recognition. Still, little is known about the effects that these ‘priority races’ have on scientists’ careers—and on the quality of the science itself.”¹
The fact is well known, as is the cultural competition obsession among American scholars at elite schools. Few scholars ask what damage competition does, since generations have grown up with the mantra that competition is invariably good. This is in part a sign of Milton Friedmann’s effect. The interesting question is what consequences competition has among academics.
The article goes on to explain that
“Hill and Stein found that failing to be first does have a measurable cost: second-place projects are nearly 20 percent less likely to be published in a top journal,.... Furthermore, Hill and Stein found that the more competitive a particular structure-solving race was, the more the researchers rushed their work—resulting in lower-quality findings.”¹
So there is an apparent tradeoff. The authors found that “... investing more time into research would ensure higher-quality results but would also increase the risk of getting scooped … .”¹
Some of the fear of competition is exaggerated:
“... Hill and Stein surveyed 877 structural biologists and found that they significantly overestimated both the likelihood and costs of getting scooped. Respondents guessed that they had a 27 percent chance of getting scooped by a competitor, when the actual probability was only 3 percent. They also estimated that a scooped research project would get 59 percent fewer citations, when, in reality, the penalty was nearly three times smaller.”¹
“... Hill says that it’s a good time to reconsider the institutional incentives driving these discoveries.”¹ Perhaps it is time to reconsider the culture of competition with the academic world and perhaps with society itself. Every country is different. At top European universities, professors are often civil servants with stable and comfortable salaries. How much more money and recognition matters is a personal choice.
1: Hill, Ryan, and Carolyn Stein. Summarized by John Pavlus,. “Scientists Don’t Want to Get Scooped—and It’s Hurting Science.” Kellogg Insight. January 1, 2025. https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/scientists-dont-want-to-get-scooped-and-its-hurting-science.
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