The Prague institute has put considerable institutional effort into the enhancement of empirical research, the status of translation studies and its academic standing. These advances could not have been made without the restructuring of both the Institute and the MA course that integrates a substantial TS module. Although the quality of empirical research has improved, there is the syndrome of ‘one-time’ researchers because of lack of motivation among graduates to opt for an academic career. Methodologically, some researchers see a big problem in a lack of scientific rigour or rigorous research rather than in a lack of methodological knowledge. However, it is at least equally important to see to it that truly linguistic or literary empirical research does not pretend to be true (interdisciplinary) translatological research, which often happens to linguists both within and outside the translation studies field.