What constitutes as stealing of an idea? [closed]

Question

I have recently been accused by someone of stealing their idea and doing the work required. In fact they had come to me to do, let's say, a literature review because they didn't have the expertise to do one themselves. They gave me an umbrella topic and told me to figure the rest out. I ran with it and narrowed down the topic to a specific research question. Step by step I made sure to keep the person looped in and updated on my progress, as well as answered their questions (such as: what is the research question? What does this mean? What is the point of doing this review?). When it came time to move it forward, the person bailed and said they were too busy to continue.

A year later, I nudged them again as I wanted to finish it off and said I have other resources now (ask a student to do some data validation) to help complete the next step so we could start writing. The person agreed and we finally started to talk about authorship. They asked what I wanted, I said first as I had done a major part of the work. They also needed a first so I counter suggested we do first co authors as it had requires/requires both of our efforts. They were extremely reluctant, saying that I had stolen their idea and that it was wrong for me to do the work when they didn't have the time, and suddenly say that I deserved first because I had done the work but they also needed me to teach them step by step on how to do the lit review.

I feel that I have not been deceitful by hiding information or falsely claiming authorship away from this person. I believe it was a joint effort although I'm not sure what the norm is. What does actually constitute as idea stealing? Did I overstep by asking to be recognised as an equal contributor?

Answer 1

This answer assumed that OP was in some way senior to their counterpart, either in position or experience. Since this assumption is not true (OP is a masters student, the other person is a PhD student), it seems there is some fault for both parties in how they communicated expectations at the beginning of the project.

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It's going to be difficult if not impossible for anyone here to judge this because none of us are in the situation and have the daily exposure required to do so.

However, with the limited information you give here, it sounds to me like someone came to you with an idea, and rather than help them with their idea you judged yourself more capable to do the work and took off with it.

It's like instead of helping a student understand their confusion on part of their homework, you've done most of the assignment for them, while keeping them informed of your progress. In doing so, yes you've helped them complete their homework, but you've stolen from them the opportunity to learn while doing it. Or imagine a 5 year old assembling a train set. They've run into a problem and can't get a loop connected because they've installed too tight of a bend, and ask for help. Do you provide some suggestions on how they might fix the problem? do you rearrange a piece or two to help demonstrate this? Or do you wait for them to go to sleep and show them when they wake up how you've completed it all for them and solved all their problems? Clearly you get the credit for completing the train set, but was it fair?

It sounds a bit like you've stolen an idea to me. The conversation about the project and authorship should have occurred at the beginning before you decided to "run with it", or at least in one of the intervening times when this person indicated they didn't have the time right now, not when you'd like to finish off the project and already did all the work. Arguably the other person should have brought this up on their own then and not now, but there are various reasons (such as social hierarchies, cultural norms, and their own personality) that may have prevented them from doing so, and if you are the more experienced person in the situation the onus is on you.

You very much may deserve the majority of credit on the final work. The infraction is not in deceit about what you were working on, but on taking on so much of the project that it became yours without getting permission or an understanding up front. Especially if all you were asked was if you would help with a literature review.

Answer 2

Some researchers have a habit of casually run their vague ideas by others in their team, particularly those on whom they have some kind of power or influence. If you refuse to work with them, you may be labelled "not a team player", which no-one wants. People are generally excited to collaborate, and happy to put down some work to start what they think is a promising collaborative project. Several months later, when almost all the work is done, the person who "generated" an idea would come back and claim the first authorship (leaving it to you to do experiments and write the paper). If you try to negotiate, they will gaslite you claiming you stole their brilliant idea. And if nothing comes out of the idea, you wasted your time and the person will simply move on, probably telling others how useless you are.

Ideas en masse are cheap. Excellent ideas are rare and worth much. But telling which is which requires hard work, which is actually the main resource required. Having an idea is like having a mollusk on a seabed. It may have a pearl inside, or it may be empty. It takes time and effort to get the mollusk out of the sea and open it.

Some people have a skill of analysing their many ideas and discarding the least promising ones without bothering others with them. They often end up leading large and successful research groups, because their ideas are typically specific, well-elaborated and have a better than average success rate. These leaders do not chase others to work with them, quite the contrary, people will queue up to work in their lab. If you happen to work with such people, you can quickly tell that they know their stuff and can explain the proposal really well, as well as which role they ask you to take and how this collaboration can benefit you.

It seems that on this occasion you have met a person with a different skill set. It is unfortunate, and it may be better to accept that there may be no good solutions. You already did most of the work, and the choices you have are to either complete it and publish together (which is exactly what this person wanted), or walk away from an unfair deal and risk to be badmouthed by them.

If you have someone willing to listen (your supervisor, head of lab/department), you may try to involve them, but chances are they will not want to investigate deeply, and will stick to a usual "collaboration is good" matra. Well, unfortunately, it takes two to tango, and in a good collaboration everyone has to pull their weight, which is not always exactly what happens in academia. This is not your fault or failure, just a sad manifestation of a very competitive and sometimes toxic landscape of a field of academic collaborations. Hopefully your next collaborator will be much better than the first one. Good luck.

Answer 3

I will first try to answer the specific question: What constitutes as stealing of an idea? (Not specific to the OP situation)

In theory: Ideas are not subject to property, and therefore they cannot be stolen (nor protected by copyright or patents, although I am not a lawyer). This is commonly expressed as: "Ideas are free as the air". In other words, ideas are free and do not have an owner. You cannot steal something that is free and does not have an owner. Also, ideas are cheap, and people frequently have ideas that are not followed through. If you decide to share your ideas, you should be proud if someone follows them through.

In practice (as experienced by the OP): People feel they do own their ideas, and these sentiments can be strong. Usually, people feel their ideas have been stolen when they communicate them to others, and these others follow them through. If an agreement was made to develop an idea jointly (or even to give away an idea), these sentiments would not be expected, but they could still arise (people forget, change their minds, make untold assumptions, etc.). The best way to avoid these situations is to have clear, written agreements before starting to do the actual work, including authorship of possible publications, as explained by Bryan Krause.

As for the situation described in the question, I would say: Getting a reputation for "stealing" ideas can hurt your chances of collaborating with others in the future. Try to avoid leaving your colleague with that impression. I would try to negotiate with them, always being polite and sustaining your position with facts. Decide beforehand what would be an acceptable outcome for you, so you know what are your limits. Maybe they can be "corresponding author" if that applies in your field, and you could be first author. Maybe a joint first coauthorship with their name first could be acceptable to both of you. Who "needs a first authorship" should be irrelevant in these negotiations. Take into account the authorship policy of the journal that you plan to submit if they have one. Never mention your impression that they did not have the knowledge to do the work themselves. That would only hurt their ego, and you cannot be sure your impression is correct, let alone prove it. From their point of view, they were probably guiding you to do the work, even if you feel differently. I would ignore any accusations of "stealing" the idea, as dwelling into that is not productive. Just continue to seek common ground if they insist on that. Consider having someone else present while you talk to them, although this is delicate, and they might refuse. If you reach an agreement, you could send them an e-mail afterward with the conclusion reached.