My current UROPS project is on post-Markovian open quantum systems, extending an idea from one paper published some three years ago. The idea basically uses some tricks to bypass some difficulties in non-Markovian systems. While the idea has yet to gain widespread acceptance, I constantly see new papers published which cited the original article.
Whenever I come across such an article, especially one that resembles very much my project, there is a pang of fear of being scooped. Naturally, with the scale of my project, it won't be as disastrous as actual research projects where being scooped can very well mean a severe loss in one's academic/research record, but nonetheless there would be a deflated feeling that results from the news. It's as if I am reproducing someone else's results (although independently) instead of coming up with it.
Fortunately, none of these papers are anything close to my project. One did come close though, even citing the paper I'm basing my project on, but they used another model instead. On the flip side, it isn't so bad for my UROPS if I get scooped, since I can use that paper to verify my results.
Unless my results are wrong, of course...
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