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A lot of scientist that I've talked to are worried about sharing their ideas with too many people. They get very protective of those ideas. Here are some reasons why:

  1. Ideas are harder to define on your own
  2. Ideas are hard to validate
  3. There is no good way of getting constructive feedback outside of my network
  4. Ideas get stolen with no reference or credit to the source
  5. Afraid of stupid idea

As a scientist, do you agree or disagree with these observations?

Smokey
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    I am not sure this question is based on a true premise. I find many scientists won't shut up about their ideas – Calchas Jan 20 '16 at 14:53
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    I totally agree with @Calchas. Most of them are just talking about their different ideas. Even when they have a very good idea, the majority of them prefer to quickly publish rather than patenting it. – Mojtaba Jan 20 '16 at 14:58
  • Your question sounds as if "scientists don't share their research ideas" is a fact or an observation. Can you be more specific about the circumstances you observed? – Captain Emacs Jan 20 '16 at 15:00
  • It's an observation and based on project we were doing - purpose of this project was to build a collaborative idea platform, where you can share your research ideas and get constructive feedback (Like a forum). The main feedback was that they are not interested to share their ideas, based on those 5 points. – Smokey Jan 20 '16 at 15:05
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    So, they don't want to share their ideas by putting in time and effort (and dealing with trolls) on your proposed 'IdeaBook' platform. That doesn't mean they don't share ideas with their colleagues, just not in the way that you want them to. They have their own ways. – Jon Custer Jan 20 '16 at 15:14
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    Sounds like a student project to me. Questionnaires based on such projects are to be treated with great care, or you get catch-all statements such as yours. The actual issue is much more complicated. What ideas do and don't you share, and with whom and under which circumstances? Mueller and Bednorz discovered high-temperature superconductivity and submitted their discovery to New York Times and a domestic German journal first because it was clear that this was absolutely groundbreaking and easy to reproduce by an unethical reviewer. Most cases are not as clear-cut. – Captain Emacs Jan 20 '16 at 15:15
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    At least a lot of the cranks are afraid their ideas will be stolen. Not sure about actual scientists, though. – GEdgar Jan 20 '16 at 15:17
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    Scientists do share their research ideas. What do you think journal papers are?? – JeffE Jan 20 '16 at 15:26
  • I'm not sure why this question is closed: I think it may be because people disagree with the asker's premise, rather than because it is actually opinion-based. As such, I have voted to reopen. – jakebeal Jan 21 '16 at 12:53

2 Answers2

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I disagree with the basic premise, that scientists do not share their research ideas. I, like most scientists that I know, share most research ideas quite freely, for the following reasons:

  • I always have more research ideas than I have time to pursue them.
  • Ideas are easy, implementation is hard.
  • Sharing ideas is a good way to build collaborations.
  • The more people who are interested in the ideas I'm interested in, the better it is for us all.

The only type of "ideas" that I do not typically share are the details of proposals that I am currently writing. The general ideas are probably shared with others, but the particular pitch to a particular call for proposals is obviously competition-sensitive information.

Now, there are some scientists who I know who are much more cagey about their ideas, often because they are insecure about their ability to have ideas and undervalue implementation and execution, and I tend to find that these people are less successful than those who share more freely.

jakebeal
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I was a bit brusque in my comment there so perhaps I owe a more detailed answer. There are a few folks I know who like to keep their cards close to their chests when members of "competing groups" are around. I have to say I have only really seen this behaviour from the big American labs, but that might be a bias I have somehow.

It tends to be as the idea is moving towards publication, they don't want to be scooped by another group obtaining the idea, doing the experiment, and publishing the result first. It is more paranoia than anything else, although there are one or two examples where this has really happened and it caused a big stink at the time, even the editors of the journal had to get involved to sort it out.

But really this behaviour is quite rare. If you go to any scientific conference, they will talk just as much about new ideas as they talk about past work.

Calchas
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