Someone else working on same topic

[boomah]

Hi everyone,

What happens when you discover that someone else is working on the topic you were originally thinking of researching?

There was a fairly specific topic I was considering proposing for my PhD (the effect of X on Y in Z setting), but then I came across a professor in the same general subfield whose webpage says that she's working on exactly that as her next book project. 

What now? Should I let it go and work on something else? Anything still salvageable?

Thanks!

[mvlchicago]

dw about it. Are you guys the same person? I don't think there's much chance you guys will produce the exact same thing 

[mvlchicago]

plus like I've seen professors "working" on a book for some two decades do you really want to wait for that book to come out? Obviously this is more dependent on the topic of the book/professor involved but I think you should let your POIs evaluate this for you since they know the field and people better. 

[Klonoa]

Actually, the both of you could work together on your respective research going over sources or what not. I knew two women who had the same topic in a  graduate program and came together for research. They both came to different conclusions. The women said working together made the research process fun, as they had each other to go around collecting data and discussing a topic that other people seemed not to be interested in.

[winterstat]

50 minutes ago, Klonoa said:

Actually, the both of you could work together on your respective research going over sources or what not. I knew two women who had the same topic in a  graduate program and came together for research. They both came to different conclusions. The women said working together made the research process fun, as they had each other to go around collecting data and discussing a topic that other people seemed not to be interested in.

 

My old supervisor did the same thing when he was working on his PhD. He found out a woman in the US (we're in the Netherlands) basically did the exact same study and submitted it to the same journal he was planning on submitting to. He decided to contact her, and they've published more than 10 articles together since.

[Neist]

I echo everything mentioned. Also, haven't you ever read more than one book on pretty much exactly the same subject? It happens pretty often. Besides, it's only going to improve scholarship if more than one person investigates it.

My two cents.

[dr. t]

The people saying don't worry - what happens if they come to the same conclusions, and the professor publishes the book first? If OP wants a TT job, they now have to start all over on the book project. Or worse, if the professor publishes the book before the diss, and its no longer original research? 

I would talk it over with your adviser, who may know the professor in question better, and if the opportunity is there, perhaps even reach out to them. But I think that just putting your head down and hoping is a great way to end up royally screwed.

[AfricanusCrowther]

I knew a grad student in history when I was in undergrad who was in her fifth or sixth year. She was close to completing her dissertation, but she had a great deal of trouble getting anything published because an associate professor had started a similar project and had already published a couple articles on the subject. So I would think that you would want to mention your concern to your advisor and give it serious thought...

[fuzzylogician]

Definitely talk to your advisor, and I would consider talking to this professor too (but consult with your advisor and tread lightly, politics are important here!). It may be that there is enough out there for two people to work on, and, better still, you may have found a potential collaborator that could make your life much better down the line. It's always nice to be able to engage with others and have a conversation. On the other hand, it may be very dangerous, depending on the topic, the field, and the people involved, especially given the power differential between you and the professor, and depending on your post-PhD ambitions. 

In my field it does happen that more than one person comes up with basically the same idea at roughly the same time. I can think of more than one case where even though technically one paper/dissertation came out before the other (up to a year or two earlier), since the two discoveries were made independently, we end up citing both, and everyone goes on to be successful and have their papers recognized. But we are not a book-based field, and a lot depends on norms in your field. There is an obvious danger of ending up with nothing (technically) original, and if you are in a field where no one will cite or publish your work if there is a predecessor, that could end very badly. Talk to your elders and listen carefully. 

[Sigaba]

11 hours ago, telkanuru said:

I would talk it over with your adviser, who may know the professor in question better, and if the opportunity is there, perhaps even reach out to them. But I think that just putting your head down and hoping is a great way to end up royally screwed.

 

1 hour ago, AfricanusCrowther said:

So I would think that you would want to mention your concern to your advisor and give it serious thought...

 

47 minutes ago, fuzzylogician said:

Definitely talk to your advisor, and I would consider talking to this professor too (but consult with your advisor and tread lightly, politics are important here!).

[....]

There is an obvious danger of ending up with nothing (technically) original, and if you are in a field where no one will cite or publish your work if there is a predecessor, that could end very badly. Talk to your elders and listen carefully. 

I recommend that you do some research before talking to your advisor. Get your hands on everything written by the established professor. See if you can develop a sense of how she may approach the topic. Look at her dissertation and the works of her dissertation supervisor. Does she define X differently than you? Is the difference distinctive enough to merit a competing work? 

Delve deeply into the historiography of the topic; focus especially upon masters theses and doctoral dissertations over the last decade, as well as ones that are in preparation. See if you can figure out how fertile the terrain is for new trees, even ones that look a lot alike. Take a broader look at how specialists in your field are handling the intermediate and big debates by checking short reviews in relevant journals. If you come across phrases like "the shelves groan under the weight of books [on this topic]," or "yet another book on [this topic]," you might have additional reasons to find a new topic.

Give some thought to preparing a brief memo that summarizes your findings and giving a copy to your advisor well before the meeting.

[kotov]

This happened to me, to some extent (the book had been published while I was still in high school, and I just overlooked it initially). I ended up actually going through and reading the book and identifying something that got overlooked (or was at least outside the author's main focus in the book) that was still an important topic and about which a large body of documentary evidence existed, so it ended up becoming a pretty good research project.

[ExponentialDecay]

publish early, and publish often, or risk getting scooped, and that's not fun at all.

[AP]

On 6/18/2016 at 7:15 AM, boomah said:

Hi everyone,

What happens when you discover that someone else is working on the topic you were originally thinking of researching?

There was a fairly specific topic I was considering proposing for my PhD (the effect of X on Y in Z setting), but then I came across a professor in the same general subfield whose webpage says that she's working on exactly that as her next book project. 

What now? Should I let it go and work on something else? Anything still salvageable?

Thanks!

Well, my response is a little different. Only a little. 

You say you want to study the effect of X on Y in Z setting. However, as historians we are seldom equally drawn by X, Y, and Z. What's most interesting to you? The context? The effects? The object of effects? This may pose a difference between your research. If you don't know yet, that's ok. As @fuzzylogician suggested, talk to your advisor after you know what you want (or work with him/her to determine that). Then, you'll be in a good position to understand where you stand in relation to the other professor. 

Also, as a reminder, we historians use an array of sources with different methodologies. As part of the research that @Sigaba proposed, pay attention to these. The fact that professors do stuff does not mean that they are overarching. The purpose of our discipline is to build on each other's work. At one point you will have to contact this other professor. As far as I can tell right now, it is highly probable that he/she becomes a member in your committee. 

 AP

[Concordia]

Of course, you could prove her wrong. .  I just did that in a master's thesis, although my advisor did also suggest emphasizing the ambiguity of the issue, that others had come to a whole range of conclusions, etc.

Edited June 27, 2016 by Concordia