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A young scientist puts in long hours at a lab for two years, working diligently, producing a large body of valuable data. When his supervisor publishes a paper based on the work in a high-profile journal, the young scientist's name is nowhere to be found.
A PhD student learns she will be joining a "dream" project in a subject area related to her research interests. She is shouted down at meetings, belittled in front of peers, excluded from publications and ignored during coffee breaks.
These are but two of many stories, most expressed anonymously, on a website devoted to bullying in research and academia. Though bullying is typically associated with schoolyards and high-pressure corporate settings, it is also a problem in institutes of higher learning, particularly those that invest heavily in research.
"Institutions that are the most research-intensive are likely to have more competitive cultures," says Jaime Lester, associate professor of higher education at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. "In competitive cultures, you are more likely to see bullying incidences."
Researchers in some disciplines, including science and medicine, face...