>Also, what are your thoughts of academic misconduct and its prevalence?
It's rife, and it probably isn't going away any time soon. We have too many academics publishing too many papers in too many journals. There's too much pressure on researchers to come up with positive results, and not enough money for long-term, speculative research. Peer review is at breaking point, both due to a lack of money and due to corruption of varying degrees.
Contrary to popular opinion, I think we have far too many science graduates. There aren't enough jobs in either industry or academia to provide good opportunities for enough students. We either need to hugely increase investment, or start redirecting prospective science students into engineering.
What does the future hold for these unfortunate sorts? It seems that as a scientist you have to choose between whether you want to conduct your research with honesty or integrity or whether you want to be successful in a career sense.
