Does honesty has a price to pay?

"... even if it does, the returns will come its way in the future.... "

It's strange sometimes when a similar idea was mentioned by two different co-authors, and when you are involved in the research with both these co-authors, you should really worry about conflict of interest issues. Following the acceptance of our paper, JL started to develop a new idea and was thinking about combining  DEA with SFA based on the improvised DEA model we developed. Actually BB also thought about that, and had been talking about this with me after his presentation two months ago. I was in a dilemma. Surely, I cannot write two identical papers separately with two coauthors! It does not benefit anyone.

Well, what to do then. I thought the best policy was to inform both parties and tell them about it, and I did that. I told both of them, I would rather lose a research idea than to lose a friend. One possibility is that one party might have to sacrifice the idea and do something else, so I might end up losing out on a collabrative work project. However, if I don't mention now and in due course if it happen there is a huge overlap, it will affect the margin of contribution and the possibility of getting the work published.  It will not be fair to both parties for the effort they invest in.  However, I am thankful to my wonderful colleagues who so generously include me in their area of research work. I learnt a lot from these brainy people. BB is a pure statistician and JL is a mathematician. BB who is also my current colleague, who even go to the extent to co-supervise PhD student with me, allowing me to learn about the trade on the job.

BB and JL both help support the approach I took in developing my interest in researching hedge funds performance. Therefore, I cannot expect and enforce on them the way I want things to happen on my term. That was why I was saying I rather lose a research idea than a good friend because they really mean a lot to me, so I really don't mind if I have to be honest, I will still be honest. Not sure if there is a price, but one thing for sure, the returns will come its way in the future, making the collaborative work relationship more fulfilling and fruitful