Based on my few years in science research, I can now divide other researchers in the following categories:
The Elites: They have novel ideas, they do (or hire people to do) high quality work to test these ideas, take their time to make it a powerful story and only when they are thoroughly convinced, they send these papers for publication. They usually prefer to publish only in high impact journals. Being at their position (they are usually reputed and established in their field by now), also aids in getting accepted in these high impact journals. They are idols for newbies like me (except when they are being little snobbish).
Quality lovers: They do good science (may not always be the cutting edge ones), they do it honestly and thoroughly, also take their time to make a convincing case. Their goal is to get these papers accepted in high impact journals. Some times they succeed, some times they have to be satisfied with medium level, but still respected journals.
Rapid communicators: They want to publish after every new experiment they do. They are usually not concerned much about the quality, but their research is honest. They do not mind settling for low impact journals. Some times they consciously search for low impact journals so that their paper gets accepted rapidly.
Free riders: They want all the good things, but they don't like paying any price for it. They want to publish sensational papers (that maybe way out of their area of expertise) in high impact journals and they want to publish fast. They want others to do all the hard work and sometimes they take all the credit without acknowledging anyone who actually did the grind work. Some of their practices are borderline unethical. They are not ashamed of their ways. On the contrary they are very bossy with everyone around them.
I believe I fall in the second group.
I dream of becoming a member of the first group some day.
I am fine to co-exist with the third group.
I detest the fourth group, but I am stuck with one of them as an important collaborator for my project!!!!!! Luckily, my boss man is an almost-Elite and has been backing me up throughout. I am highly frustrated, seriously angry and want to hit someone real bad. Instead, I blog :)
