You're framing this as if they're mutually exclusive options, which they're not. My impression is that it's "all of the above": the incentive structure in acade

You're framing this as if they're mutually exclusive options, which they're not. My impression is that it's "all of the above": the incentive structure in academics is completely broken, and this incentivizes both unethical practices, as well as being sloppy "to get things done". I can think of numerous examples of both from my career, from working with various colleagues and in stories I've heard. All of this is the tip of the iceberg I think: what you hear about usually are cases of blatant fraud, with high-profile or high-importance research. The bulk of greyer malpractice, with softer squishier levels of ethical dubiousness, and more indirect, cumulative impacts on peoples' careers and literature trajectories, are more hidden. It's gotten to the point where I no longer put much stock in the reputation of individual researchers. Too many times I know in the best case there's an institution, or department, or subcommunity, or doctoral students or postdocs behind it, with who knows what sort of manipulation or luck. In the worst case there's years of fraud or other forms of corruption. Call me inappropriately cynical but I didn't start out this way.