[thelittlelisper]

I wholeheartedly agree with this. I work at one of the top cancer research labs in the world, and you'd be surprised how dysfunctional our organization has become. It's perfectly described by what edw519 has outlined.

Seeing millions of dollars poured in projects that go nowhere since they are executed by incompetent workers lead by machiavellian managers is horribly depressing.

I feel that a startup setting would be incredibly more efficient to do what we do. But of course it'd be difficult to fund it, unless it's operated as a charity or it's backed up by the gov't.

In the meanwhile I'm acting as a stoic and enjoying some tiny victories.

[wnight]

Leak details. If nothing else, more light on the area would make it harder to screw around.

[thelittlelisper]

Thanks. Care to elaborate on this?

It's difficult to leak details and make an impact. Academia is really screwed up. 90% of what gets published is a blatant lie, but nobody seems to care. Most researchers live in a distorted reality.

[wnight]

Well, I dunno what the best details would be... Whatever would make it easier for other teams to get funding instead of this organization, and thus is a proper incentive to behave.

Maybe bring up valid issues in email and once they go nowhere, make the emails public. You could potentially redact names, which would make it harder for them to attack you later...

Considering the goal is just to shape them up, perhaps you could fake or anonymously threaten a leak. Or for instance spread a rumor that you're being audited for this stuff. And if you see anyone shred anything, collect the pieces.

Or find a donor and don't "leak" anything specifically but get them calling for an audit.

With more specifics and an idea of how bad things are, we might be able to find something that would work.

I realize leaking is dangerous and burdensome for those who have to do it.