Scoop protection and co-publication norms to reduce academic secrecy
Scientists hide results for fear of being beaten to publication. If journals and funders guaranteed that a preprinted finding cannot be scooped, and encouraged rival groups to publish side by side, sharing would become safe.
Journals in the cancer field adopt explicit scoop-protection policies (a preprint or registered report establishes priority and a competing paper appearing during review does not affect acceptance, as PLOS and eLife have done) and funders count preprints as outputs. Add a co-publication mechanism in which groups working on the same question are matched and encouraged to publish back-to-back with cross-replication, which the field treats as a strength. Secrecy delays diffusion and, by preventing early cross-checking, contributes to irreproducible claims reaching translation.
- Secrecy and intellectual property block collaboration · Companies with complementary drugs rarely test them together, and data that could answer questions stays locked up.
- Preclinical results do not reproduce · Fewer than half of landmark cancer biology findings reproduce when someone else tries.
- Knowledge reaches practice too slowly · Knowledge diffusion is slow: it takes years for a proven result to change what most patients receive, and no one can keep up with the literature.