Ever been scooped...twice????

[mdphd2b]

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So yeah…It’s already happened once before. I defended my 15page research proposal ~2yr ago, and about 3 mos later, a paper came out from Japan which scooped my project completely! I mean, not only did their title EXACTLY match my own, but they pretty much did every expt I had described in detail. There was no way for me, just starting out on my PhD research, to have beaten them, since I was just optimizing the techniques myself (they are all novel to my lab), while “they” have like 10 different authors working on MY project! 😡

So, everyone was understanding about that and my advisor had me switch gears, except that once again, a group from Germany published something last week that was uncomfortably close to what I am doing. I was planning to wrap up this manuscript by Dec, but now I’m not sure where to go with it! Should I just send things out as it is? Do I need to add some sort of “twist” to my expts? If so, how much more time should I invest in that, at the risk of getting scooped again? AAARGH!

 

[Vader]

So yeah…It’s already happened once before. I defended my 15page research proposal ~2yr ago, and about 3 mos later, a paper came out from Japan which scooped my project completely! I mean, not only did their title EXACTLY match my own, but they pretty much did every expt I had described in detail. There was no way for me, just starting out on my PhD research, to have beaten them, since I was just optimizing the techniques myself (they are all novel to my lab), while “they” have like 10 different authors working on MY project! 😡

So, everyone was understanding about that and my advisor had me switch gears, except that once again, a group from Germany published something last week that was uncomfortably close to what I am doing. I was planning to wrap up this manuscript by Dec, but now I’m not sure where to go with it! Should I just send things out as it is? Do I need to add some sort of “twist” to my expts? If so, how much more time should I invest in that, at the risk of getting scooped again? AAARGH!

It is very frustrating to get scooped. However, this is not untypical in a competitive field. Another journal will probably publish your work, and will be more easily facilitated if you can add some more experimental detail that goes beyond and provides a "twist".

You should discuss this with your research advisor. There are pros and cons to both publishing now and publishing later. Obviously if you wait too long, you risk getting scooped again. On the other hand, you do want to be sure that your paper is solid and interesting enough to get accepted.

On the bright side, the work will go into your thesis either way. Plus, that another group is interested in the same types of questions should indicate to both you and editors that it is likely a hot topic.

Good luck!