I absolutely agree with everything in this post.  When I was a post doctoral fellow, my principal investigator would publish at least one paper a month. She was celebrated in the department.<p>(a) The papers were published in journals like - Journal of Green Donkey Testicles, Journal of differentiation of dying mouse ... Journals that I had never heard of, had no impact and every tiny bit of an experiment that was conducted in the lab, would get published, without a full picture.<p>(b) Much of the data was turned into data by turning everything into being &#x27;statistically significant&#x27; .  I would do experiments and I would see no freaking difference between control and experimental, yet, through the magic of statistics, she would find the difference. It was lame and depressing.<p>(c) Above is an isolated example. There are countless smart, diligent and hard working professors who continue to push the boundaries of science (ex. my amazing PhD prof, whom I dearly love and admire). Unfortunately, their time is plagued by writing grants after grants, fighting inter-departmental politics, dealing with Chair of the department on regular basis ... basically stuff that distracts them from having the time to relax, think and innovate.<p>(d) Commercialization of innovations in schools and universities are butchered by the IP policies, where by the University would take 1&#x2F;3, the commercialization office would take 1&#x2F;3 and the poor researcher is left with the rest.  This kills innovation + tech commercialization and the desire of a researcher to be an entrepreneur.