[From the article, “In Science, There Should Be a Prize for Second Place” published by Ed Yong in The Atlantic]

“This Monday, the editors of PLOS Biology—the flagship journal of Public Library of Science, a nonprofit publisher—published an editorial saying that they are now willing to publish papers that were scooped less than six months ago. And in a clever bit of rebranding, they’re abandoning the word “scooped” altogether in favor of calling these “complementary” papers.”

“The PLOS Biology editors argue that scooped—sorry, complementary—work is a kind of “organic replication.” After all, one team has effectively checked the work of another, albeit unintentionally. That should be a source of pride rather than shame. Both parties get independent confirmation that they were right. They should bump fists, rather than gnash teeth. “What’s perceived as a negative by the scientific community should be perceived as valuable research,” says Emma Ganley, the chief editor of PLOS Biology.”

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