Comment A More Positive View (Score 1) 279
I'm in the UK, not the US. I'm a post-doc in CS.
As many others have pointed out, fraud is rare. It probably makes for good headlines, but I have never personally seen or heard of an instance of fraud.
The negative side of academia (for me) is the growing trend of heavy focus on metrics, e.g. the number of papers published (sometimes weighted by impact factor), or the number of citations a paper receives. This is generally a result of top-down meddling by the government and distracts scientists from doing good work. I disagree with it and try to avoid thinking about this game.
I have not chased publications, but my career is going just fine.
Some people claim that you have to work 60+ hour weeks etc. to be a successful academic. In my experience, this isn't true. Some people do work those hours, but most of them have poor time management skills and are not very productive. I don't see anyone working significantly more hours than myself achieving more over an extended period. They tend to get tired, burn out a bit, and spend a lot of time procrastinating. You can be a successful academic by working reasonable office hours, plus the extra hour here or there, maybe a weekend day occasionally, and then a little extra around deadlines. You just need to be organised and disciplined.
So, don't believe all the negativity you read. I love my career, and I love the flexibility that academia gives me. I work with tons of creative people in a relaxed environment where I set my own hours, have a large say in what I do, and get to work with intelligent students who keep me on my toes!
Oh, the money sucks
Hope that's of use.
RS