Priority is a big deal for academic researchers, the people who write journal articles and books. When I worked in development, organization was formal and col

Priority is a big deal for academic researchers, the people who write journal articles and books. When I worked in development, organization was formal and collaborations were informal. People shared ideas and exactly who thought up what wasn't too important. Overall performance mattered more. Documents that were published were only circulated internally. Patents were sometimes applied for, but inventorship was settled informally. After I transferred to research I was struck by how important priority of ideas became. Organization was informal but collaborations became formal. Who was principle investigator was very important. Publications were external and who's name appeared in what order was very important. Patents were fought over. Even in an industrial research lab it got pretty weird. I can only imagine how it is at a place like CDC. Being first author on a paper describing a new disease probably makes your career.