Then if you are a dolphin, don't swim alone in the shark tank when wounded.
Maybe there were solid reasons for doing things the way they did. WE DON'T KNOW. But they purportedly knew that shorts were going to attack the stock, and they claim to have attempted to get trading halted (not that it would have really mattered I suspect). But they went ahead and put the data out there knowing they would get hammered and knowing they could not defend themselves. And not just 'not defend themselves' for a couple of days, it has been over two months with no journal and no defense. People are now saying that they probably did not even submit the article for publication until around the time of NYAS so they certainly did not plan months in advance releasing the two at the same time.