Maintaining academic research quality in higher education institutions (HEIs) has become increasingly important due to the need for knowledge advancement, public accountability, institutional credibility, and adaptability in the changing academic environment. This study investigated the practices of maintaining academic research quality at three HEIs in Ethiopia, using qualitative and quantitative approaches that combined a questionnaire and interview questions to collect data. The results revealed that the major practices across the three universities included: prioritizing the quantity of research outputs (e.g., reports, publications), focusing on quality during the research process, ensuring theoretical/conceptual grounding, and upholding methodological rigor aligned with a study's purpose. The practices, however, did not lead to consistent quality enhancement, to usability of the findings, and to epistemic reflexivity to improve future research. Pragmatic soundness, relevance to policies and practices, usability, fitness of purpose and fitness for purpose, actionability, and applicability of the research results in real-world settings were rarely achieved. It has, therefore, been recommended that the HEIs should go beyond number games, dubious practices, and positivist ventures by considering pragmatic and transformative utility, adding value for public money and pacing along with the changing academic environment.