Ultimately, Samurott was Lisia's Pokémon. Although she had little understanding of their achievement, Lisia had chosen to trust Shen Qi at the last moment. Otherwise, there would have been no Hisuian Form now.
So, by any reasonable measure, Lisia also had a say in what to do with the research findings.
"I... I, um..."
Lisia's decision to trust Shen Qi earlier had come purely from her feelings. Now that she actually saw a one-of-a-kind Samurott form, she could not quite wrap her head around it.
Samurott felt terribly hurt, mistakenly believing that his unusual condition had made him unwanted. He rubbed against his Trainer and turned in circles, hoping he would not be abandoned.
"Why would I ever abandon you?" Lisia crouched and hugged Samurott. "I never knew you were this amazing."
Lii-
Samurott's cry was much more forceful than before, but its pronunciation had not changed much from his previous "li."
After collecting herself, Lisia stood up. "Shen Qi, I'll leave it to you. If you hadn't made the right decision, Dewott would have left Lake Acuity at the crucial moment of his evolution. Who knows what might have gone wrong?"
"Is that so? Then I'll still choose to have the Pewter Science Museum publish it."
Each matter had to be considered on its own merits.
Without Li Ke's efforts, Shen Qi would have struggled to begin his Sinnoh Region research expedition;
without Li Ke's persistence after their setback at Lake Valor, Shen Qi would never have come to Lake Acuity.
Without the Pewter Science Museum applying for approval for the research expedition, Shen Qi and Zinnia would both have been trespassing illegally. There would have been no way to bring Lisia over at exactly the right moment, no chance to see Hisuian Samurott, and an even slimmer chance