Chris;

Yes but you are not proposing anything new.

I had in mind one who comes up with a new theory of potentially great value.

Such a person would want to keep it under wraps until it was published, to establish ownership. This is generally true of the commercially oriented and the pseudo-scientists.

Consider Petra and her secret "gravity meter".

Or consider the USGS scientist responsible for the hazard map. He wouldn't share his data with anyone.

Roger