Sharing of ideas and data could remove the barriers to scientific discovery.

Guest contributor Lorraine Clark

I’m currently working as a postdoctoral research associate in the field of chemical biology at Scripps Florida and over my past eight years in academia, I have come to some conclusions based on personal experiences and conversations with colleagues: Teamwork and collaboration are considered the most valuable qualities in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. However, in an academic setting, people often still commonly believe the only way to advance their careers is by independently achieving as many accomplishments as possible. This point of view is perpetuated by the tendency of some investigators to pit their students and postdoctoral researchers against each other. This may involve, for example, having two people work on the same project and only giving recognition to the person who completes it first. This process can breed a hostile, overtly competitive atmosphere leading to mistrust and an unwillingness to share data, particularly if the data represent negative results, because of the negative connotations it has. Rather than quickly leading to scientific achievements, this practice might actually decelerate the speed of discovery.

Much more progress could be made if academic researchers were willing to collaborate more by sharing not only their ideas but also their data, especially considering the time and resources often spent on dead end avenues of a research project. Continue reading →