Sounds familiar

(Tell me 'bout it man... happening all over the place...)

Science 27 January 2006:Vol. 311. no. 5760, p. 448DOI: 10.1126/science.311.5760.448b

News of the Week
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE:Scientists Keep Some Data to ThemselvesConstance Holden
Scientists frequently refuse to give colleagues details of their research, according to two new surveys, of life scientists and of scientists-in-training.

In the February issue of Academic Medicine, David Blumenthal and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital's Institute for Health Policy (IHP) in Boston report from a survey of 1849 life scientists that 44% of geneticists and 32% of other life scientists have engaged in some form of "withholding behavior." The behavior includes failing to mention pertinent information in a paper or a presentation. Geneticists and males are more likely to withhold information.
A related study suggests that such behaviors may stifle the growth of young scientists. A group led by IHP physician Eric Campbell surveyed 1077 graduate students and postdocs in the life sciences, computer science, and chemical engineering. About one-quarter reported that they had been denied information at some point, particularly those in "high competition" research groups or with links to industry. About half the affected respondents said the rebuff delayed their research.
"We need to inform scientists, professional associations, and universities about the impact that data withholding can have on the next generation of scientists," says Campbell. "Sometimes it's necessary. The question is whether it's being done more [often] than it should be."
Drummond Rennie, a deputy editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, notes that some data requests can be "extremely costly and very time-consuming" to fulfill. And scientists who present findings at meetings are sometimes rightfully paranoid, says sociologist Brian Martinson of Health Partners Research Foundation in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Competitors from other labs have been known to come with cameras to shoot their posters, he says.