In my experience in academia, albeit not in the sciences, dishonesty far from the main problem. There is a big difference between fundamental research of wide a

In my experience in academia, albeit not in the sciences, dishonesty far from the main problem. There is a big difference between fundamental research of wide and lasting interest, and research that ticks enough boxes to be published. Because the second is a lot easier to do than the first, and is what an academic's performance is judged on, everyone ends up spewing out mediocre papers that, intellectually, take us nowhere. Research becomes degraded as a means to the end of a career.