Academic publishing has already reached a point where too much material of too little substance is being published, and this trend is continuing. The ostensible reason for academic publishing is to communicate useful information to academic peers. But of all papers published in the "top" scientific journals, only 40.6 percent were cited at least once in the five years following publication. In this article, the authors describe how too much material of too little substance is being pumped into print, and how deceptive, poorly evaluated, and little read it is. They offer viable suggestions toward creating a more honest and responsible scholarly practice. (Contains 1 figure and 24 footnotes.)