Scooped! Estimating Rewards for Priority in Science

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hill, Ryan; Stein, Carolyn
• 署名单位: Northwestern University; University of California System; University of California Berkeley
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/733398
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 793-845
• 关键词: MARKET-STRUCTURE; protein; COMPETITION; INNOVATION; ECONOMICS; RACE; crystallography; persistence; selection

摘要

The scientific community assigns credit or priority to individuals who publish an important discovery first. We examine the impact of losing a priority race (colloquially known as getting scooped) on publication and career outcomes. To do so, we analyze data from structural biology where the nature of the scientific process together with the Protein Data Bank enables us to identify priority races and their outcomes. We find that scooped teams are less likely to publish in top journals and receive 21 percent fewer citations. We further study the implications of priority racing on research strategy, academic inequality, and scientist beliefs.