Scooped?!

I had a scare recently: I thought I was scooped. No, not hit by a shovel but it almost felt like it. I thought someone had already published my research. Let me explain. It might seem sometimes that academics spend a lot of time researching stuff topics that are obvious to the rest of us (e.g. "wearing a helmet while skiing or snowboarding reduces the risk of head injuries" - um, ok.) Or some research just seems plain silly (e.g. "pressures produced when penguins poop"- eww.) Good research however is intended to expand our understanding of the world (and its people). It is intended to be original unless it clarifies or confirms earlier research (how about no repeats on the penguin study, please.) Researchers take great care to determine what about their subject area has been researched and to build upon the previous work. No point reinventing a perfectly good wheel. And good researchers give credit where credit is due.

I took great care to review all the literature in my area and was certain that I had done a more than reasonable job of ferreting out anything relevant. So I was submitting and abstract for an upcoming conference and decided to check out last year's abstracts to use as a model. I noted an abstract submitted by an acquaintance of mine, Don Wicks. It wasn't on my topic but it was of interest. As I read the full paper, I discovered that the coauthor, Daniel Roland, like Don had written in the area of pastors' information seeking behaviour. It was his PhD dissertation in 2007. Uh-uh...how did I miss that one. As I read through the abstract I found that he also approached his topic from the same theoretical perspective as I. My heart skips a beat. Did he already do my research?!!

(OK, you are thinking get a grip Michels...research something else then. But this has been a long three years. Back tracking here would not be good.)

I located a copy of the thesis and found that though there were similarities, it was not what I was doing. I did help me in my reading though so in the end I'm glad to have found it. So back to work. Time to pick up the pace on data collecting and writing or maybe next time I really will get scooped!