Scooping

Last updated on Feb 18, 2026
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Definition: The act of reporting or publishing a novel finding prior to another researcher/team. Survey-based research indicates that fear of being scooped is an important fear-related barrier for data sharing in psychology, and agent-based models suggest that competition for priority harms scientific reliability (Tiokhin et al. 2021).

Related terms: Novelty, Open data, Preregistration

References:

  • Houtkoop, B. L., Chambers, C., Macleod, M., Bishop, D. V. M., Nichols, T. E., & Wagenmekers, E.-J. (2018). Data sharing in psychology: A survey on barriers and preconditions. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 1(1), 70.85. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515245917751886
  • Laine, H. (2017). Afraid of scooping – Case study on researcher strategies against fear of scooping in the context of open science. In Data Science Journal (Vol. 16, pp. 1–14). https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2017-029
  • Tiokhin, L., Yan, M., & Horgan, T. J. H. (2021). Competition for priority harms the reliability of science, but reforms can help. Nature Human Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-01040-1

Originally drafted by: William Ngiam

Reviewed by: Ashley Blake, Thomas Rhys Evans, Connor Keating, Graham Reid, Timo Roettger, Robert M. Ross, FlĂĄvio Azevedo