I think it's going to be very lab specific there, but you could be right for systems research (I've not read any myself)!. FWIW, she's in medical engineering.

Edit: All it takes is one tenured professor who strongly filters submissions for good papers to keep standards high for a department to look much better, but then you'd be stopping your lab from playing the citations/publications game which is necessary for future postdocs. I may be cynical.