Typically, scientists share research data, seek advice from others who have similar expertise when they hit roadblocks and ask them to review their papers before they submit them for publication. It's all part of pure science's informal quality-control system. He says he's not happy with the reality of fellow researchers competing with one another. He says he had no idea that Schatten was splitting monkey embryos until the Science paper was published, despite the fact that he's a well-regarded researcher in the small universe of primate embryologists. He's doing commendable work, but it's not revolutionary.
Publication breeds dollars.
For OHSU, the more its 550 principal investigators, as laboratory leaders such as Schatten are known, get their work in high-quality journals, the easier it is for the institution to compete for research money and swipe researchers from other universities. Everyone in science looks to the grand pecking order of where people publish their work and where they stand on the NIH's list. OHSU's Hallick isn't shy about saying that the institution wants to be No. 20, and having its researchers broadly covered in the popular media works into its plans. It was in 1974 that recombinant DNA was discovered, after all. Ever since, biologists have displaced physicists as the rock stars of the scientific world.