I know a coworker of mine that was goin to do her phd dissertation and the week she was presenting it, she found out someone had just published the exact same dissertation. Since dissertations need to be unique, she had to choose a new topic and start all over again. She did it tho...after a lot of hard work. She's pretty proud if herself. Idk if this story helps but I just wanted to let u know it does happen. It does stink :/