It's not a problem to publish novel observations without being able to plug it into a theory right away. Sometimes, novel observations are important enough on

It's not a problem to publish novel observations without being able to plug it into a theory right away. Sometimes, novel observations are important enough on their own without being able to generate conclusions right off the bat. Penicillin, in particular, was published based on the observation of inhibition of bacterial growth in a petri dish which had some fungus in it. It took later scientists to isolate the chemical agent which caused this antibiotic effect and form a theory about it. In fact, a paper on an observation is probably more important by itself than an observation plus some mediocre theory. The theory paper can come later.