Why I Don't Discuss My Current Research

I need to explain why I don't discuss my current PhD research with people outside of my lab, especially online.

This will be a familiar subject to researchers in universities and companies, but the average layperson probably doesn't know. So I'll lay it out here.

Imagine that researcher A is working on a novel solution to a problem. Somewhere else in the world, researcher B is working on the exact same solution. He arrived at this independently, without any inkling of what researcher A is doing. This does happen, especially in "hot" areas where many people are working on the same problem.

So what happens if researcher B figures the solution out and publishes first?

Researcher A gets screwed. Journals will not accept a work that appears to be a duplicate of someone else's work, even if it's in another journal. The months and years he put into his work will be for naught.

This is called "getting scooped".

This term comes from journalism, where a reporter who publishes a news story before a rival is said to have scooped him. Except that in academia, there's no points for second place.  

Some may use this term to mean that researcher B stole A's ideas. That's plagiarism, not scooping, though it'll be difficult to prove. Which is why secrecy before publication is crucial.

And it's not scooping if one came up with a different solution or method for the same problem.

So what happens if researchers A and B submit their manuscripts/abstracts to a journal or conference at about the same time?

There will be a lengthy investigation to determine whether they really came up with their ideas independently of each other. Even a few months between their publications can make a difference. If it were shown that researcher B moved from solution to publication faster than A, the latter could lose out.

Doctoral candidates are researchers, too. More accurately, research apprentices. They are required to publish a few papers on their own in peer-reviewed journals before they can be awarded their PhDs. Getting scooped can be devastating for those still early in their research careers. A more seasoned researcher with a significant body of work can shrug it off more easily, especially if he has his own lab with multiple projects running at once. A doctoral candidate will have invested years on a single solution or method, probably without competent advising on possible alternatives. If he is prevented from publishing because he got scooped, he could lose motivation or direction and be forced to drop out.

Let me emphasize. People have failed their PhDs because of this.

For the sake of my innovative success, don't even ask.

Thank you.