> But scooping is a time-honored tradition between researchers.

Provided that it's properly accredited. And definitely not for others' unpublished work -- that's despised upon if not an academic integrity issue.

People even point out that you should add a reference to certain papers during the peer review process.

Scientific papers many times have citations of the kind "private communication." APA has a style guideline so certainly not looked down on: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/...