Scooped! Estimating Rewards for Priority in Science (Hill & Stein, 2024)

Welcome to Revise and Resubmit, where we dive into the hidden stories and pressing questions that fuel academic research. Today, we explore a fascinating—and perhaps frustrating—aspect of scientific life: getting scooped. Our episode covers "Scooped! Estimating Rewards for Priority in Science," a recent study by Ryan Hill and Carolyn Stein, published in the prestigious Journal of Political Economy—a proud member of the FT50 list of the world’s top business journals. Ryan Hill, an assistant professor of strategy at Northwestern Kellogg, investigates the competition that drives science forward. His co-author, Carolyn Stein, is a faculty member at both the Haas School of Business and the Department of Economics at UC Berkeley. Together, they dig into the question: What happens when a scientist makes a discovery, only to find that someone else published it first? Hill’s expertise in scientific incentives and Stein’s background in innovation economics bring depth to this inquiry. Using data from structural biology and the Protein Data Bank, they uncover how losing the race to publish impacts a team’s career—fewer top journal placements, fewer citations, and, sometimes, a dent in academic reputation. The study also uncovers intriguing behavioral patterns: when researchers get scooped, they don’t just give up. Many delay their own publications, expand their research scope, and try to differentiate their work—a race that’s both competitive and creative, shaping the future of knowledge itself. So here’s the big question: Is the scientific race to publish a necessary evil—or could it be holding back groundbreaking discoveries? A special thanks to the authors and The University of Chicago Press for making this research open access. Let's dive in and explore what it really means to win—or lose—in the race for scientific glory! Reference Hill, R., & Stein, C. (2024). Scooped! Estimating Rewards for Priority in Science. Journal of Political Economy. https://doi.org/10.1086/733398