I’m no academic. In fact, I’ve spent seventeen happy years in the corporate sausage-machine (they may buy your brain but they never own your mind). But if I were an academic, I hope I would pursue research topics that interested me (of course) and played to my particular strengths. The test would be: Am I the best person to do this research? And to be very clear, the question is not: could anyone do it better than me, but will anyone…? Others may (just possibly) be better equipped, but they are probably too busy on (we hope) more important research.

What you do with the fruits of your research is, to this idealist, of secondary importance. You may be able to publish a series of lesser papers in lesser journals, building up your academic reputation until you can publish your most important results in a more important journal. Or you may prefer to share with a growing group of like-minded individuals who publish in a journal whose importance, as a result, is growing. Or you may focus on packaging your insights for the mass market, make megabucks and then publish more detailed academic research in all the best journals!