Citing contemporaneous work and your own arXiv preprint

[lintool]

What to do when there's contemporaneous work?

tl;dr - you're screwed either way...

Reference them:

• get criticized for not being novel
• get criticized if your results are weaker (even if you're earlier)

Ignore them:

• get criticized if reviewers find their work

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What to do when you have an earlier arXiv preprint?

tl;dr - you're screwed either way...

Reference your own arXiv preprint:

• get criticized because it's already "published" (even though arXiv is non-archival)

Ignore your own arXiv preprint:

• get criticized if reviewers find your work (yup, they cite your own work as evidence that your work isn't novel)